Creating effective mobile learning in the Social Age

Julian Stodd BSc (hons) MA !

Captain at SeaSalt Learning

Part 1 - foundations

The Social Age of Learning

What have you got?• Facebook

• Twitter

• Mail

• Shazam

• Google Maps

• A game

• A railway timetable

• Photos

• Music

What have you got?• Facebook - community, sharing, collaboration, cohesion

• Twitter - sharing, news, highly curated

• Mail - sharing, volume, formal?

• Shazam - identifying, capturing, sharing, learning

• Google Maps - functional, performance enhancing, external knowledge

• A game - distracting, competing, networked

• A railway timetable - knowledge, performance enhancing, just in time

• Photos - capturing, narrating, sharing

• Music - entertaining, cohesive

The Social Age

• The semi formal layers that surround the formal

• Supported by communities

• Facilitated by technology

The Social Age

• What is different about your social life than from 10 years ago?

• What is different about your work from ten years ago?

• What is different about how you learn from 10 years ago?

Where can you turn to for these answers?

Where is your first choice?

Let's consider the technology...

Our evolving relationship with knowledge

Knowledge vs Meaning

• In the old world: knowledge was power

• In the Social Age, power comes through reputation and sharing, humility and community

• Roles are contextual: we are adaptable

• We need to utilise knowledge to create meaning

How does your organisation use

knowledge?

How does your organisation use knowledge?

• To inform

• To control

• To do things

• To create transparency

• To build tribal capability

• To earn money

How does your organisation control

knowledge?

How does your organisation control knowledge

• Through technology

• Through elders

• Through physical constraints

• Through geography

• Through mindset

• Through formal heirarchy

What does the organisation give you?

• Technology

• Space

• Community

• Structure

What does the organisation give you?

• Technology - but is it agile? Is it a mechanism of control?

• Space - but do you need it? Do the walls constrain you?

• Community - but you have your own. What's it's purpose?

• Structure - codified knowledge: but is it up to date?

Part 2 - making sense of it all

Sense Making Spaces

Communities

Where are your communities?

What purposes do they serve?

Does your organisation have formal

communities?

Does your organisation have formal communities?

• Were they put in place by the organisation or emergent from the community?

• Are they used to broadcast or co-create?

• Who owns them?

• Are you on top of issues of privacy and permanence?

How does mobile support us in our roles?

How does mobile support us in our role

• Is it providing knowledge or helping us to create meaning?

• Is it saving the organisation time or saving me time?

• Is it connecting or controlling?

How can you support the formation of the

community?

What happens if the conversation goes off

track?

Changing the Frame

• If the frame is too narrow, change it

• If the co-created meaning is divergent from expectation, what will you do?

Tone of Voice

• What communities are you engaged in?

• What is their moderation tone of voice?

Generating engagement with learning

Stance

• Journalistic perspective

• It's conscious, not accidental or enforced

Stance

• It's not about facts, it can be emotive

• It's not about logic, it's about values

Authenticity• We are experts at spotting authenticity

• Only authentic tones of voice generate engagement

• Curiosity

• Humility

• Recognises everyday reality

Reputation

• The Social Age is a Reputation economy

• We can't rely on our positional authority for social learning

Reputation subverts hierarchy

Exercise: create your framework for moderation

• What is your stance?

• What is your tone of voice?

• Where will your authority come from?

• How does this fit within the social contract?

• Will you share this with your learners or co-create it with them?

• Are you prepared, as an organisation, to reframe?

Part 3 - A methodology for learning

A Methodology for Learning

• Context

• Demonstration

• Exploration

Context• Setting up the contract with the learner:

• Understanding everyday reality

• The bridge between abstract theory and concrete practice

• The social contract

• Perspective: how this relates to everything else !

• Context is about the stories you tell and where you tell them from

• It's a journalistic stance

What is the everyday reality in your organisation?

Do your stories face inwards or outwards?

Demonstration• Illustrating the core concepts of the learning

• Demonstrating things within context

• The role of the Guide and Narrator

• Understanding the role of the different modalities

• Media: video, animation, audio

• The superfluous experience

How do you currently Demonstrate things in

your organisation?

How do you create disturbance?

Exploration• Playing with the learning

• Developing vocabulary

• The role of different modalities

• The importance of making mistakes

• The role of different modalities

• Contextual feedback

Have you created space to build vocabulary?

How are you choosing which modality to use?

Remember... Choices based on...

• Cost

• Trends... what's cool right now?

• Logistics

• Time... we need it tomorrow...

• Efficacy... because it works...

• Because that's how we do it... and always have...!

• Templates... brand...

These are outward facing stories: what will you do

with it?

A Methodology for Learning

• Reflection

• Assessment

• Footsteps

Reflection• Internalising the learning

• Internal and external reflection

• Personal narratives

• Co-created group narratives

• Solitary and group reflection

• Reflection as assessment

• The role of different modalities

Where do you find your space to reflect?

How can you build in space for reflection?

Assessment• Understanding the purpose of assessment:

• What are we assessing?

• Should we assess?

• Formal and informal assessment

• Observation as assessment

• Triangulating assessment

• Social assessment

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What are performance outcomes?

• Improved skills

• Increased knowledge

• Greater ability to create meaning

• Broadened perspective

• Accepting the learning?!

• Changed attitude?!

• Foundations for the future?

For your project: how will you measure

performance outcomes?

How will you measure this?• Triangulate assessment through 3 of these:

• Individual reflection on what has been learnt

• Observation of the learner in action

• Peer review

• 360 assessment of change

• Formal tests

Footsteps• Bridging the gap between learning and doing

• Revisiting everyday reality

• Understanding vs performance

• Pragmatism

• Revisiting the learner and the learning

• Modalities for footsteps

Where does the learning end?

What happens if we don't engineer in Footsteps?

How can you implement Footsteps in your

projects?

Part 4

Creating Scaffolded Mobile Learning Solutions

Exercise: Building a scaffolded Social Learning experience

• Define your story: this is your scaffolding

• Create the spaces for co-creation

• Hang them on your scaffolding

• Define your gateways: formal or informal?

• Define your spaces for reflection and narrative

Demonstration• How can we demonstrate the core concepts?

• What activities can we use?

• How can technology facilitate this?

• What media can we use?

• How will this be more effective?

Exploration

• What spaces can we provide to explore?

• What will people be able to do?

• How will we keep this space safe?

• How will we capture the learning?

Reflection

• Where is the space to explore?

• Who provides the support?

• Where is the space for narrative?

• What is the legacy?

Presenting your Scaffolding

• Groups presenting their solutions

• Link back to Learning Methodology

• 8 week scaffolded experience

• Gateways are calls

• Structured by 4 Q's a section

• Social space for collaboration

• Group narrative shared through blog

Example of Scaffolding

• 5 week scaffolded experience

• Learners seek out experiences within the scaffolding

• They quantify what they find

• The community carries out the 'sense making'

Example of Scaffolding

Summary

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