Having worked in a couple of organisations which operated a shift roster I know how important it is for shift workers to be able to accurately record and verify the shift pattern that they are operating on.
If this is applicable to your organisation then you’ve got a wonderful opportunity to ‘get your foot in the door‘ and prove the worth of performance support via mobile devices.
Why not take a look at these apps and consider whether you might want to direct your shift workers towards them.
Inevitably there will be some people who do not have a mobile device and will bemoan the fact that you are offering their colleagues who do have a mobile device something that they themselves are unable to benefit from, or they will complain over the fact that the apps cost money – don’t let this put you off.
Simply tell them to carry on using whatever tool or process they have always used – simples!!!
And you know what? Even if people don’t opt for these apps, you may have just sewn the seeds for them to look for an alternative….
Whenever I meet people who are still in the tentative stages of considering utilising mobile technologies I always suggest that rather than initially invest in a bespoke mobile app or a mobile authoring tool, that they instead consider promoting existing apps to their workforce from within the various app stores.
I believe that this has several benefits
a ) almost zero cost to the organisation (the only cost I can see is the time to search for, identify and promote the apps to the workforce)
b) almost zero risk. The developer has taken the risk with the development of the app itself and as long as you have identified and then tested the suitability of any app, then the risks are reduced even further. The reason I said ‘almost‘ no risk, is that there is always the potential for the app to develop bugs or for the content to go out of date, which obviously has the potential to sour the experience for the learner and in turn for your plans to develop things further.
In order to help you with identifying suitable apps, I’m planning to start a ‘foot in the door’ section of this blog which will highlight some of the apps that I have identified as having the potential to add value to many workplace learner’s workflows and allow you to get your ‘foot in the door‘ with little or no risk/cost.
Some of them will be apps that my employer has produced; some will not.
Some will be free, others will have a cost attached.
Some of them I will have demonstrable experience of using personally and/or of others using, others will rest upon a gut feeling.
I will always try and add context behind my reason for choosing that app with some of them being apps that I have actually recommended to ‘real’ clients – as I’m sure you’ll appreciate I’ll be unable to reveal who the client is, but I will indicate that is was a ‘genuine’ recommendation.
“Yes” in so far as it is about introducing the concept of mobility into your L&D approach…
…. and “No” in so far as it’s not about a lengthy, decision riddled, strategic approach, it’s about simple, pragmatic approaches that you can adopt (and indeed may already be doing) that can help you get your foot in the door, prior to moving onto other things.
Most of the slides used in the screencast below were inspired by the JISC Mobile infokit by Doug Belshaw – so thanks to Doug and JISC for providing the inspiration for this.
A couple of days ago I received a tweet from Di Dawson asking if I had screenshots or video files from any virtual classroom sessions that I had previously facilitated for a programme that she was putting together.
My unfortunate answer was “no” as I have admittedly been shortsighted in my use of them in the past and had never anticipated needing to ‘capture’ the session itself as a resource in its own right. (of course I captured sessions using the Blackboard Collaborate tool that I had access to whilst working at URENCO, but I no longer have access to those). Not wanting to let Di down, I did a bit of thinking and thought about how I could kill 2 birds with one stone.
How could I help Di out and also do something that I often get asked about, which is how do I go about recording my podcast audio.
So I came up with the idea of producing a screencast outlining the tools and process that I use to record my podcast audio and then actually call Di up ‘live’ within the screencast and show the recording in progress.
Here’s what we came up with….
If you want a word of advice, I’d only watch the first 5 mins 15 secs of this screencast and the last 90 seconds. They are the parts of the screencast that are visual, the rest of it is purely audio and it’s quite a long time to just stare at a boring Skype screen just to hear the conversation between myself and Di, but don’t fret, my next podcast will be that very conversation.
Craig is joined by Zak Mensah for an impromptu chat about meeting people on Twitter, the similarities and differences between the education sector and corporates, the pros and cons of prefixing ‘learning’ with a range of letters, weelearning, ‘mobile’ and just about anything else that comes to mind!
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It’s that time of the year again folks when Jane Hart is reminding us all to submit our ‘Top 10 Learning Tools 2011/of the year’.
This is something that I contributed to for the first time last year and it was interesting to see where my preferred tools came in the ‘Top 100′ ranking structure that Jane works out from all of our submissions, it is also a great place to catch wind of any new tools that are out there.
I am once again contributing to this years list, however I have decided to take a different tack. Whereas my list last year probably (I say probably because I can’t specifically remember) contained things like:
Twitter
YouTube
Google Reader
Slideshare
etc
I have decided to approach things from a different angle this year and have decided not to concentrate on the actual platform, but to think more carefully about how I get access to that platform. After all, it’s no good being a member of some of these wonderful online platforms if you can’t get to them. There are also a few in there just to remind us all that sometimes the answer doesn’t need to be a ‘click‘ away at all! I think it’s also worth mentioning that I have only very recently started working in a new organisation, Epic. What better time to consider what tools have been effective for my personal learning, within a real-time learning moment.
So here’s my Top 10 list of learning tools, in no particular order.
1. My phone (this allows me to phone people up and ask them a question, at which point I find Tool No 6 to be particularly useful)
2. My iPad (this allows me to review online information and communications in order to bring me up to speed on a given subject, of course without Tool No 4 I am somewhat limited in what I can do)
3. My laptop (not only can I do everything on this that I can do on Tool No 2, but I can also far more easily create content, which of course allows me to reflect upon what I am creating thus adding to my own personal learning experience)
4. Internet signal – WiFi/3G/4G/Ethernet (come on admit it, how many of you who submitted an entry into Janes Top 100 tools, overlooked the fact that *most* if not all of the tools you suggested rely upon being able to gain and maintain access to the t’internet?)
5. Falling over – not literally of course, I mean making mistakes. What more powerful tool can there be for learning than those amazing synapses in our brains firing adrenaline, emotions such as guilt, worry, embarrassment, shock etc after we have realised we have made a mistake. Sometimes bruised egos, flushed cheeks and yes – scraped knees serve us very well indeed.
6. My ears – let’s be honest, they’re in ‘receive mode’ far more than our Internet signal. Next time you’re amongst your team colleagues just allow yourself to listen to what’s being said….
7. The Epic intranet – a purpose-built repository of the specific ‘must/should/and could knows’ of my organisation. This has been of immense use to me over the last couple of weeks and no doubt will continue to be so in the future.
8. The guy who sits opposite me – His name is Andy Costello and he has been a godsend to me during my first few weeks working at Epic. Not only providing support when I have asked for it, but also providing it when he anticipates I am approaching a ‘just in time’ moment. Truly contextualised, semantic performance support.
9. Books/magazine etc (not fussy about the format)
10. My Son and Daughter – watching them grow up, evolve, learn, make mistakes etc provides me with some wonderful ‘lightbulb’ moments. Seeing how they navigate the challenges and problems that you and I take for granted, like carrying a plate without spilling its contents reminds me that all the learning challenges that you and I face are surmountable, I mean look at everything else that we have achieved in our lives!
Craig chats with Lisa Johnson on the subject of her teams’ recent *award winning* work with the use of internal wikis and ‘just-in-time’ performance support videos.
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Regular readers will know that my previous Organisation made the transition from outsourcing it’s self-paced elearning modules to bringing them ‘in house’ almost 2 years ago.
Once we had sourced the software my Head of Department insisted that we launch the system with a fanfare etc and advertise it’s existence. Now I must admit that at this stage I was a little reluctant to follow this course of action because self-paced elearning was nothing new to my Organisation, it was just that we had decided to bring the development in-house; I even quoted the old “YouTube was never launched line“, but he was having none of it….. so it was off the the PR & Comms department (which is ironically where I ended up working) to ask for some advice.
Rather than waffle on about the advice that they provided, I thought it would be far more interesting to show you….
They advised that I should ‘brand’ the elearning. Not from a screen layout, fonts etc perspective but from a ‘logo type’ angle; this is what we came up with
It plays upon the ubiquitous ‘e’ that many people associate with online activities as well as the ‘swirls’ which were a part of that organisations branding.
We then discussed how we could use the info-screens that are situated around site to enhance our campaign and settled upon what my colleague called a ‘sting campaign‘. If you are unsure as to what this is, then think about the run-up to Big Brother every year. Channel 4 ran a ‘sting’ campaign consisting of 1-2 second pieces of footage showing the Big Brother eye, usually with a few beats of the Big Brother music.
I decided that I also wanted to take this ‘teaser’ approach too, but more importantly wanted to get people talking about the campaign whilst still maintaining an air of mystery….. very much like the British Gas “tell Sid…..” campaign from yesteryear.
This is what we came up with, as you can see we have used the elearning logo to maintain the ‘branding’ of the campaign…
and I don’t actually mention what the hell it is that is coming. This was something of a gamble, however it really got people talking about the ads and what it was and when it was coming.
Our campaign was working.
Towards the end of the campaign we started to reveal a little more about what it was via a poster & flyer campaign.
The posters were placed in all the usual places
stairwells
notice boards
Kitchen areas
Back of toilet doors
…………. Above the urinals
I was shameless!
I also took a leaf out of McDonalds book and placed the posters on the trays in our on-site, self-serve restaurant to…. well… ram it down people’s throats even more (pun intended)
Once we had launched the system we then followed it up with an interview to fill in the gaps that the marketing campaign had been unable to do (this was one of our first recorded interviews and we were still learning the ropes (as you’ll be able to see), but it got the message across)
So folks, that was how we launched the in-house elearning system in my previous organisation.
Would I have chosen to do it that way?
No.
Am I glad that I did it that way?
Yes.
Why?
Because it taught me a great deal about thinking about the bigger picture around a single initiative. Although this was a piece of software and subsequently multiple self-paced elearning modules I would still choose to take this ‘campaign’ approach to the implementation of almost anything.
Granted, the effort involved may vary, but certainly from the perspective of a learning resource I’ll always try to ensure that it is only ‘part’ of a much bigger picture.
So that’s what I did, but what about you?
Have you ever mounted a campaign as part of a learning initiative?
Did it work?
What did you do?
Have you tried this but found it to be a waste of time?
Why not let us all know via the comments box below……
Craig chats with Laura Layton James on the subject of her recent blog post and discuss whether it is possible to create engaging compliance elearning.
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I recent attended the eLearning Network event ’10 things every learning designer should know’ and whilst the event gave me a few ideas to mull over, what really had an impact on me was a chance conversation that I had during the mid-morning break, which if I’m being honest, shocked me a little and distracted me for the rest of the day.
Allow me to explain…
During the first session of the day Bryan Hopkins from UNHCR made a general reference to the fact that “people can’t possibly be learning effectively if they are tapping away on mobile devices“(paraphrased). This led to a few giggles on my table, as at that very moment I was tapping away on my iPad.
During the mid-morning break I made reference back to that incident and drew a parallel to a meeting I was in during the early Summer where everybody was taking notes, however I was the only one taking them on an iPad, whereas everybody else was taking them with pen and paper. The meeting organiser actually stopped after 10 mins and asked what I was doing; when I told (and showed) them what I was doing, they still admitted that the fact I was on a mobile device made them feel uncomfortable.
Now I had expected the people I was regaling this tale to over a cuppa to be sympathetic to my situation however I was wrong!
Instead 3 of the 4 people indicated that it would also put them off and make them question whether or not I was truly paying attention during the meeting and whether I was genuinely taking notes. We threw this around for a couple of minutes with me even pulling the old “who’s to say I’m paying attention/taking genuine notes, just because I’m using a pen and paper” but even this didn’t sway them.
I quickly popped smoke and withdrew back to the safety of the main area and discussed this back at my groups table, where, you may be surprised (or maybe not) to discover that the majority of those people also expressed doubt/concern/worry/frustration etc over people using mobile devices to take notes during learning events, meetings etc.
Had I been in any other environment than the one I was in yesterday I probably wouldn’t have been overly surprised….
… But this was an eLearning Network event!!!!
Surely eLN members would ‘get’ the advantages of using technology to aid productivity even if it wasn’t in an overtly ‘learning’ context, wouldn’t they?
And that’s what led me to this particular blog title, because it appears I was wrong.
Or was I?
Is it reasonable to expect us and our learners to use technology to aid our/their productivity in areas and in situations that have traditionally used pen and paper?
Should we maintain traditional practices for meetings but attempt to push forward with new practices when the output has an overt ‘learning’ tag attached to it?
Do you use technology to aid your personal productivity or not?
Are you encouraging/discouraging of others to do so?
Oh and for those of you who are wondering exactly what I was tapping away on my iPad for, I was producing this mindmap of the days sessions, which I am now sharing with others.
For those of you I was annoying, why not share your handwritten notes with us all?
Image sources: Click one each image to be taken to the individuals Flickr profile page.
I'm a Learning Technologist who has worked within a Training/L&D field for approx 20 years. I've only recently had my eyes opened to the possibilities of Web 2.0 applications for learning activities and hope to share my journey of learning with you all via this Blog…
