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ARE YOU MOBILE?

Mobile learning, or "m-learning," has the potential to increase your workforce's output, says David Metcalf, Ph.D. and researcher at the Institute for Simulation and Training at the University of Central Florida in Orlando—and he knows from first-hand experience.

Metcalf uses a high-tech tape recorder with 40 gigs of memory to dictate his lectures during his commute to work. When he doesn't have the recorder with him, he calls a 1-800 number associated with Garageband.com. Its tool, G-cast Studio, allows him to dictate over the phone. His oral notes are then published on the Web as a Podcast; G-cast also automatically updates out to course management systems such as his learning content management system, so it's published there at no charge.

Metcalf estimates that he saves "about an hour of productivity each day" by using a variety of mobile devices. He determined this by looking at the amount of additional activity he accomplished with the technology that he otherwise would have had to wait to do in the office. Besides transcribing and dictating into a tape recorder, mobility allows Metcalf to review e-mail while waiting for meetings, and during other daily lulls.

"In any given day, there's just a lot of time that would have been wasted otherwise," he says, "except for having these short bursts of filler."

OH, THE LIMITLESS POSSIBILITIES

When it comes to learning, companies are still mostly using a PDA such as a Blackberry as well as the onmipresent Apple iPod, or some similar MP3 player. Anything that can be sent via e-mail or as a short Web address is fodder for these devices. Most organizations still aren't using mobility to produce work as Metcalf does, and it is through the use of mobile devices to create, rather than to absorb material, where real value of mobility lies, he stresses. "As you factor out productivity, and the actions that people take, and you can enable that in new ways, you gain back all that productive time," Metcalf says.

Smartphones, or any device that has a combination of voice, e-mail and Web access, including pocket personal computers that operate on the Microsoft Windows Mobile 5 platform or Palm's Palm OS platform also open the door to m-learning.

You can also use this technology to access Microsoft Word documents and PowerPoint presentations, or listen to media such as recorded lectures. The Motorola Q is a similar device to the Blackberry, but also has media functions such as a video camera and a mechanism that allows audio and video playback.

Metcalf says recorded training videos and lectures can be sent or plugged into a tool such as the Q for on-the-road review.

THE AUDIENCE

The typical audience for these devices includes anyone who is part of a mobile workforce, including sales executives, or anyone else whose responsibilities dictate their mobility, Metcalf says.

The mobile sales force might use the technology for on-demand learning as they look up customers' product questions, while the mobile service force could use the device to get information on the service records of potential clients, as well as look up any useful tips they might pass along. Other mobile employees could use the technology for something as simple as listening to audio-based learning content, books-on-tape style.

There's a good chance AlliedBarton Security Services, a security officer services company in King of Prussia, Pa., will implement some form of m-learning, such as cell phone text-messaging, some time over the next
few years, says vice president, learning and organizational effectiveness Jim Gillece. Text messages could be used to update security officers about new procedures or to deliver quick quizzes to them about existing practices.

For example, an m-learning-delivered question might describe an emergency such as a break-in with an injured party present, and ask the worker to select a response from multiple-choice options.

Or, as the prevalence of cell phones with capacity to receive streaming video increases, short instructional films on best practices in emergency first aid could be sent to learners on the job.

After watching the video, employees could then answer questions through the phone?s keypad.

"We've got 40,000 guards at remote locations, and we need to bring them some learning," Gillece says. "Currently, what we're doing is really just exploring how things might be used."

For other AlliedBarton employees, mobile devices could be used to keep open the lines of communication
with the executive suite. The short bursts of information ideal for the m-learning format could ensure that everyone is on the same page company wide. "It could be a mobile town hall," Gillece says.

However you put mobile technology to work for your company, it's important to tailor your training material to the given medium.

THE MEDIUM AND THE MESSAGE

For learning transmitted through the iPod, that means creating "edu-tainment," says Anders Gronstedt, president of Boulder, Colo.-based learning consultancy The Gronstedt Group. "The iPod is primarily an entertainment tool, and needs to be treated as such," says Gronstedt, who gives talks to trainers on the use of mobile technology for learning. "It has to be fast paced, and the information has to be presented in short sound bytes, and in an engaging format."

Gronstedt points out that trainers are not only competing with the music and other entertainment available through the iPod but also the distractions in the learner's environment—anything from the treadmill they may be running on or the traffic jam they're stuck sitting in.

One format that seems to work well for iPod based instruction is what Gronstedt calls "Talk Radio." The in-house program is presented like a live radio show, with a host, guests, a studio audience and callers. The host could be an instructor from the training department asking questions to an executive about the company's new product. The callers could even be real employees whose questions you?ve recorded. Spoof commercials and music can also be added to the program to make it more realistic.

Though engaging, Gronstedt says this format "isn't the right place to do the annual diversity training," or anything that would require the aid of visuals such as software training.

Better suited to "Talk Radio" on the iPod are product updates for sales reps, changes in the marketplace and the latest news from competitors so salespeople are kept informed. "[It's] probably not a substitute for anything else," Gronstedt says of such iPod delivered tutorials, "but we're finding it can be a heck of a complement to other training."

GETTING DRAMATIC WITH iPods

Another option for the iPod is a radio drama. Learners can't interact with it, but they'll hear dialogue and sound effects along with a narrator explaining the scenario.

The dramatic scene might be set so listeners are told they're driving out to a client meeting, with all of the appropriate sound effects. Once there, they might hear the main character preparing for the meeting, and then hear the meeting itself, thereby illustrating the do?s and don'ts of customer interaction.

Gillece says he can envision using the iPod as a way of reinforcing knowledge. "It could be a follow-up to a high-touch learning experience, where you had somebody in the class, and you want to follow it up with a podcast," he says.

There is ample "down time" in the day, Metcalf noted, when people have time to listen to an iPod. "There are certainly opportunities for people to get learning when they want it, when they need it, sort of just in time, so I think iPods fill that need nicely."

Since PDAs, on the other hand, aren't generally used for entertainment, the approach is the exact opposite of that taken for iPod-based learning.

Training that's delivered via PDA needs to be highly practical and to the point, Gronstedt says, echoing Metcalf's suggestion that it be used for on-demand learning.

"You need to serve up short little chunks of information that [learners] can use right then and there," he advises. "It doesn't work for your one-hour lecture. People are not going to read lengthy documents on their Blackberry."

Gronstedt gives the example of a salesperson heading to a bank he wants to sell a software system to, and using his Blackberry to get a quick primer.

"What if your PDA could serve up the three questions that you should be asking of that particular client based on some kind of information about the industry you're going into, and the kind of person you?ll be talking to?" Gronstedt asks.

The tips transmitted through the PDA, Gronstedt says, "might also serve up an elevator pitch, a pithy, two-sentence statement about your value proposition."

M-LEARNING: ALL A GAME?

Cell phones, iPods and PDAs aren't the only mobile technology, by the way, that can deliver learning. Gillece wonders about the possibility of developing learning-oriented games for handheld devices such as Nintendo's Game Boy or the Sony PlayStation. Over the last few years, games have become more popular in the learning space.

Employees, he observes, could learn through games delivered by mobile means the same way they do through computer-based training games.

"It's here," Gillece says of m-learning and gaming technology. "The question is: How are we going to fit this into the [learning] piece? How are we going to blend it? I don't necessarily believe [gaming] is a single solution, but it's a part. If you're not exploring it soon or in the near future, you could miss out on a nice opportunity."

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So, What is Mobile Anyway? The first step to incorporating mobile learning into your training regime may be deciding what it is. The argument can be made that any portable electronic device?even laptops?is capable of delivering mobile learning, but some experts say the criteria is more exact than that. ?Having instant on/instant access where you don?t have to wait,? says David Metcalf, Ph.D. and researcher at the Institute for Simulation and Training at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, of what puts the ?mobile? in mobile learning. ?Even on a laptop you wait up to a minute for it to boot up.? Not everyone agrees. ?Everybody seems to think mobile learning focuses on handheld devices,? says Bob Lee, senior product marketing manager for Santa Clara, Calif.-based virtual conference and meeting tool provider WebEx Communications. ?I tend to paint it in broader strokes.? Companies, he explains, use WebEx Training Center, a Web-based application that provides a virtual space for conducting hands-on training, as a mobile tool. One such company is Lake Success, N.Y.-based Canon USA, a provider of office and consumer imaging equipment. The company has used Training Center for about two years to teach salespeople at dealerships throughout the country about the features of the document management and publishing management software it sells, says Paul Balsamo, curriculum development manager in Canon U.S.A.?s sales training division. Training Center lets salespeople, who may be at remote dealerships or on the road, log into Canon?s learning management system and connect to document management and publishing management software housed within computers located at Canon?s headquarters. Once salespeople gain access to the software, they are able to practice using it as the instructor leads the course. WebEx solution pricing starts at $75 per month per host or instructor, Lee says. Balsamo says the technology gives workers the ability to learn as though they were sitting behind computers in a live classroom. Once salespeople complete the course, and are selling, they can use Training Center to conduct a live demonstration of the software for potential customers. ?It takes the logistics out of setting up a class [when] all the people are scattered,? Balsamo explains. ?Without getting [the learner] to install the software, we can teach you the software.? ?M.W.

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