From its simple origins in PowerPoint to the more sophisticated Adobe and Articulate authoring tools, e-learning has come a long way in the last decade, but the pace of change is about to go nuclear as e-learning fissures from the emerging domain of mobile learning (or mLearning) to become an indomitable force in its own right. Tim Koschmann proposed that paradigmatic shifts occur in the learning cycle every 10 years. If Tim is right, then the time has arrived for the new paradigm of mLearning.
This paradigmatic shift will not be a complete break from the past. The greatest features of e-learning will be maintained. Animation, point-and-click navigation, and hyperlinks to more nuanced information will provide interactivity, but video capability and synchronicity with microblogs and professional and social networks will supplement the learning experience and really put the mobility into mLearning.
What to Expect from mLearning
By definition, mLearning will have browser-friendly functionality, peer and social interactivity, and algorithmically generated content, delivered at high speeds and low cost.
The next stage of the mLearning evolution means much more than just converting legacy e-learning to HTML5 and will involve a heightened level of student interaction. If “student-centerd” learning was the mantra of the e-learning era, then “student-managed” content will be the mantra of the mLearning era. Forty years after the instructional design theory of Constructivism promised training would become more of a discursive conversation than a classroom lecture, students finally will be able to collate content themselves and then share it collaboratively in the virtual classroom.
In the future, algorithms will glean information from various streams and write content for students who will microblog their subject matter expert (SME) to confirm learning outcomes, and, in turn, will upload and share these outcomes on YouTube. These will have been recorded and enhanced with the augmented reality of Google glasses, though, on the downside, the end node problem of security cannot be discounted and will require pre-emptive vigilance.
The new generation of mLearning students will be content managers, modifying information to suit their local needs and then sharing the results globally and all at low cost on the cloud.
Birth of a New Device
It is a paradigmatic game changer, although the promises of mobility, connectivity, and sociability have thrown up an unexpected complication.
Which device will best fit our bring-your-own-device (BYOD) world?
It is a hotly debated question and will remain unsettled for a couple of years until the parrying of cyclical error and correction determine which device is the best fit for mLearning.
At the moment, the frontrunners are the usual suspects: the tablet, the laptop, and the iPhone. It is hard to know which device to bet on, but before the dust settles, there will be a bout of frenzied cherry picking until a converged crossbreed of all current devices comes to market. This device also will have to interface seamlessly with the desktop.
The inventors of this device, “the black box solution,” will win the convergence war raging on at the moment. This war is the mad scramble to merge the tablet and laptop into a single device with a common interface, which will deliver the convenience of an iPad with the functionality of a laptop. Microsoft’s Surface is the best attempt to date.
Imagine a “PDA-black box-all-in-one-solution” that has four shareable screens and multiple audio streams, can be collapsed into the size of a mini-iPad and be plugged straight into your desktop like a flash drive. In the mLearning era, the desktop will be reduced to just one of many screens in a multiscreen world.
The next generation of Y-not learners will demand rich visual learning experiences in this multiscreen world. This is the generation that is embracing the seemingly endless possibilities of technology with religious fervor. Hungry for information, nothing will get between them and their screens, even as they walk, head down, transfixed, on crowded city streets.
We are not totally clueless as to the features of this new black box device, which will be decided largely by user experience as cloud resource sharing makes cost less of an issue. The device must provide an optimal viewing experience in which content is easy to be read and navigate with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling.
The smaller screen of the iPhone is least suited to providing this experience and for that reason probably will not be the winner, though its dual cameras, Bluetooth connectivity, and audio features will be used in the new black box device. Mobility will be the key as will be seamless access to social media. It is worth noting that Twitter has been on the top of the list of e-learning trends for the last two years.
Mobility and sociability are at the heart of mLearning. While e-learning on tablets is not really what is meant by mLearning, it serves as a transition. Most businesses are at or near this m-enabled stage, although not quite ready for mLearning.
Yet this lack of business readiness does not really matter until our new device is invented by Apple or Microsoft, or by a new company with a delicious name such as CherryApplePie Inc.
Perhaps not quite the right name, but we will know in a couple of years. Chances are, when the right device is launched, it will be embraced like the iconic iPhone, the fastest-selling product ever. The people who invent this device probably will amass the fastest fortune ever and be crowned the iconic billionaires of the mLearning era. Just as the newly minted billionaires at Twitter should be crowned the ones who caused—even if it was only by incidental chance—the virtual end of e-learning.
Barry Leckenby is an e-learning consultant and designer at Edmore Training in Sydney, Australia. He develops and manages online content in several industries. Leckenby can be contacted at barry.leckenby@icloud.com.
