Think in terms of m-learning in 2010. Potential vs. what is actually happening. What is happening RIGHT NOW as in, “I’m doing it” and not just “planning on doing it” or “hoping I’ll be able to do it.”

If you selected 100 employees randomly and asked them to find the answers to two or three job-related questions on their mobile device, how many could find relevant information in a reasonable (before someone says ‘never mind’) amount of time?

This comic reminded me of a talk E-Learning is what? (jump to slide 5) by Allison Rossett I heard early in the year in Australia. She talked about what IS actually happening in e-learning vs. what MIGHT happen with e-learning in the future. (Her study has limitations – which she outlines – but still..)

Do we have ten employees who have already looked up the answers and are using The Idiot Test app on their iPhone while the other 90 are looking for their glasses/browser/mobile device/favorite geek/exit? Take “just a sec” and let me know how big the skill gap is from your vantage point.

I was tweaking my LinkedIn profile and saw this…

Richard Nantel wrote about Gever Tulley’s Tinkering School. Tulley outlines 6 dangerous things you should let your kids do (and why).

I have let my own kids do most of these things (no spear throwing in the house please!) and some other things that some would consider ‘dangerous’ like walking to school alone, sleeping outside without a tent, sticking an M&M up their nose (what will happen? I don’t know, why don’t you find out.), and swimming across a lake. (WTF is happening to us as a society?)

Sometimes, I don’t think we do the dangerous things that help us become more creative, daring, and resilient.

So, here’s 6 dangerous things you can do:

• Blog. Naked….not literally of course. That would just be wrong. But write. Like you’re naked. Nothing like putting yourself out there to develop professionally in your chosen field.
• Take your own courses. Yup, you know the ones.
• Sit in your learners cube for a day. Observe. Take notes. Go home. Drink wine. Return to work and make the experience productive. (I always thought of this as not being part of the problem.)
• Make a list of everything you wish you could try (or want to try) at work and post it so you have to look at it every day.
• Do something from your list and explain it later.
• Network because your next job comes from here.

I’ve been reading The Sign of Three: Dupin, Holmes, Peirce (Advances in Semiotics), edited by Umberto Eco and Thomas Sebeok as part of an inquiry class I’m taking. A tidbit on the title from the preface:

“There is the obvious referral (renvoi) to Doyle’s novel-length chronicle, “The Sign of the Four,” or “The Sign of Four,” which first appeared in Lippincott’s magazine, later in book form, in 1819. Then there was our driving compulsion to send our readers back to the funhouse of rampant triplicities, such as are discussed in Sebeok’s introductory three-card monte.”

“Funhouse of rampant trilicities.” It practically screams nerd doesn’t it? (The footnotes are nearly as long as the chapters). However, it is instructional in the context of the study of inquiry and I appreciate the passion with which it is written . And, reading about Sherlock Holmes and others in the context of the study of inquiry has been an interesting exercise. This class, I think, is getting me closer to understanding what I really “do” for a living although I still struggle to explain it to others.

For example, I was sitting at an indoor soccer facility waiting for my daughter’s practice to end and I was reading the book when another mother said, “hey, what are you reading?” Rather than trying to explain the subject of the book (because, let’s face it, I couldn’t do it justice) I took the easy way out and just told her I was doing homework. The “good for you!” conversation followed. When she asked what I was studying at school, I said instructional design. So that’s like architecture? Hmmm…no. Go ahead. Laugh. But now take it one step further…I research that stuff by observing, reading, following trends, asking questions, and reading- books, blogs, and research papers. Which means what exactly? I inquire. Maybe I should just say that – I seek understanding through inquiry. Doesn’t that sound all mysterious and nerdy? Might as well paint an “L” on my forehead.

Another example. I was helping my third grader do his math homework. We were discussing a particular word problem and he said…

“you don’t know. You just know Brandon Hall Research and reading and stuff. Dad’s an engineer. I’ll wait until he get’s home.”

So, I try to explain again what I do. He is not interested. “I read and stuff.” I do “Brandon Hall Research stuff.” For the love of…inquiry.

What do you do? Could you explain it to an eight year old? As for me, I read and stuff.

Pink. I hate it. I hate pink. I don’t even know anyone who buys pink stuff. Who is this marketed to? What is it with pink? Would you ever create pink e-learning? Give out pink pencils in the classroom? Use Pinkboards? Pink chalk? Use only pink Mr. Sketch markers on the pink flipchart paper? Ben Goldacre exposes some bad science about pink. Don’t get me wrong. I love a guy in a pink shirt but not because I like pink. Check these little  gems out…I mean really a pink taser?

I guess one of the reasons I dislike pink is that it is associated with cultural expectations. I’m supposed to like pink. Pink is feminine. Ben pointed out the Bem Sex Role Inventory. I took it to see if my personality was masculine, feminine, androgynous, or undifferentiated. The BSRI is based on gender stereotypes, so what it’s actually measuring is how well you fit into your traditional sex role. No wonder I don’t like pink. I’m barely feminine by society’s standards.
Regardless of where you might be on the BSRI, I hope you’ll like Chip Chick. While they do feature a lot of pink stuff (gag) their blog focuses on technology for women.

This makes me think about the time I took information from a text book and tried to make it into an online course. Or the time I stayed late to make binders instead of hyperlinks. Or the time I used HTML instead of the visual editor. Or that Christmas I tried to get a Wii. Hope you got everything you wished for!

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

This was me, last Wednesday…well, almost. The student needs to be a 40-something woman running up 44 stairs (yes, I count them, got a problem with that?) with a book bag after wolfing down a Wendy’s chicken sandwich in the car. Talk about a heart attack waiting to happen. Good God, what’s happening here? If I sit in class one more time and think…’why aren’t we doing this online?’ I am going to scream. Or, die of a heart attack.

This article Facebook for the Enterprise got me thinking about why Facebook is a long way from working within many traditional corporate environments.

• how many people can’t access their outside email accounts from their work PC?
• how many people have cell phone restrictions at work?
• how many people can’t use their Internet access at work  to do school work?
• how many people can’t IM at work?
• how many people can’t access streaming video/audio or similar bandwidth hogs?
• how many people can’t download anything without IT intervention?
• how many people are blocked from accessing web sites they need? (this means the company is running some sort of software where you get a “STOP or I’ll report your ass” message followed by your explanation of why you really need to go there followed by a glance around the cubes that surround you where [gasp] you suddenly discover that you are surrounded by ZOMBIES!).
• how many people have their phone records, Internet usage, email, IM reviewed by a department set up for that specific reason?
• how many people aren’t allowed to install software on their own PC?
• how many people can’t use their own (owned) computing equipment at work? (laptop, peripheral, etc.)
• how many people can’t publicly publish anything about their company without approval of a corporate communication or legal department?

In the article, Dennis Howlett said,

I am convinced now more than ever that the MySpace and Facebook generation are going to obliterate a lot of what we understand about business today. Much of what my generation of business people understand about business is based on applying command and control hierarchies that folk like my friend Sig Rinde abhor.

Anyone can understand command and control hierarchies if they have experienced it. I don’t think it’s about age but experience. The fact that you’re older doesn’t mean squat. Change is about people not age- 15, 20, 30, 40, 80 whatever.

A comment from Wendy Wickham to a prior post here about budgets (totally different topic but the comment is on point) illustrates what it takes to obliterate what we know and (better yet) do:

I tend to get around budgets by doing stuff cheap and under the radar to start with. Helps to be of the “do it now, apologize later” school of thought.

Hey – here’s what I can do for cheap. Imagine what I can do with some money.

The tactic has worked beautifully so far. I went from a budget of zero 3 years ago to having a budget of hey – whatever you want to spend. Now if they would only include TIME in that budget.

I don’t know how old Wendy is. It doesn’t matter. She hasn’t said here that she’s gone all defiant, rule-breaking crazy at work. I bet it works for Wendy because she’s good at what she does. I suspect she earned the right to make change happen within her organization and it had nothing to do with the generation she was from.

If change is what we strive for, shouldn’t we  just earn the right to make change happen? How do you do that?

Perhaps you know of a small group that works together but communicates primarily via email. You know they don’t particularly like this. This is a good group to offer up (not impose) something better on a small-scale. You may even find that people are willing to work outside the restraints of the firewall at home. What if that something better was a Facebook group? Don’t small successes have a way of duplicating themselves in other departments? All you need is a foot in the door.

How have you created change in your organization?

Imagine being able to forecast what technology you’ll need 12-18 months from now. Impossible I say. Select. Price. Justify. ‘Janet, go ahead and order the blah blah you need.’ (Gee, I don’t need it anymore) What to do?

How freakin’ inflexible! It defeats the use of tools for improving how people learn. We can talk about how things should be…open, flexible, etc. but hey, face it, the budget is what it is.

Here are some ideas for working around an inflexible environment. I welcome other ideas -especially something that’s worked for you.

• Learn to spot emerging technologies. Don’t focus just on the now.
• Keep an eye on the early adopter organizations and their results with the tools and technologies you’re interested in incorporating.
• Present broad categories for tools and technologies: “collaboration platform,” “multimedia production tools,” “instructional design services,” “knowledge management platform,” etc. AND link them to a strategy.
• Get senior management excited about your plans and keep them in the loop. Small bits of information are best.
• Get learners excited about your plans and keep them in the loop too. How often have you felt that your department is the best kept secret in the organization? Newsletter? e-zine?
• Know what other departments are working on. I can recall looking at something and saying WTF is this?… we’re working on that same thing as they are. Argh.
• Stay close to what the ‘front line’ is doing. I remember walking down a hall with someone I used to work with in another department and they said…’so, are you still doing that training thing?’ Argh again. This is when I realized I needed to stop having lunch at my desk and spend some time on the ‘front line.’ You’ll learn more there than at 20 meetings.
• Plan for across-the-board cutbacks. 10%-25% more should not jeopardize what you need to deliver.

A ginormous amount of time is wasted on the budget process. How many meetings, justifications, and emails are on you’re calendar and inbox that are budget-driven?
The list below from Gunn Partners illustrates some of the frustrations that I faced when dealing with the corporate learning budget. Perhaps you can relate. How do you work around the confines of an old command & control budget process?

<this isn’t learning related…just need to vent>

Isn’t it ironic that my US passport renewal, which was supposed to arrive 16-18 weeks ago, arrived “priority mail” yesterday? How appropriate that the Passport Backlog Reduction Act was also signed yesterday which facilitates the hiring of Foreign Service retirees to assist in the processing of passport and visa applications. Yesterday. Just in time! That fine piece of government efficiency is my number 10 reason for considering a move to Canada.

#9>> Canadians are more about making peace then war.

#8>> Canadians have a better education system. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation and standardized testing in the USA is a step backwards.

#7>> I am accustomed to four consecutive months of summer followed by eight consecutive months of “not summer.” (I’m a short 3-4 hour drive from the border depending on what vehicle I’m driving)

#6>> My children already know how to play hockey and lacrosse.

#5>> As I was recently reminded (I don’t like to think about it) by the movie Sicko, that I pay more for my health insurance than I do for the mortgage on my four-bedroom home. And *bonus* I might not get the coverage I need when sick. The Canadian health care system is much better than the privatized health care system in the US. And, the price is right.

#4>> There are a lot of cool people in Canada illustrated by my blogroll (don’t make me name names!).

#3>> National Hockey League (NHL) teams are not named after Disney characters. Quack. Quack.

#2>> The beer is better.

#1>> I know the first two words to the Canadian National Anthem (as illustrated in the title to this post).

I do love the US. I love my country, but hey…gimme a break already.
<end of rant>