mLearnCon Session: MLearning on Multiple Devices: A Practical Guide

Wednesday June 16, 2010 10:45 AMMain Pointsthe mobile phone isn’t the end of your strategy, it’s the scaffolding, it’s not the substancelook for the sweet spot of development, too little and too many features have a negative impact on the…

Wednesday June 16, 2010 10:45 AM

Main Points

  • the mobile phone isn’t the end of your strategy, it’s the scaffolding, it’s not the substance
  • look for the sweet spot of development, too little and too many features have a negative impact on the user experience; performance support is the sweet spot when using SMS
  • it’s best to develop using the 4.0 SKD since the user agreements have changed; keep with HTML and Javascript
  • Instapaper is a good model for mLearning
  • testing is critical

Raw Dump:

Mlearning on multiple devices (smartphone devices as opposed to Sms)
With Richard Clark

Why is he choosing to focus on smart phones?
Not flash, it’s too early, too many devices that can’t us it
He’s talking about native application development

The mobile phone is not the end of your strategy… It’s the scaffold. It builds on the roadmap you create as a mobile strategy… It’s not the substance

Produce a small video, and everything else is learning via a native app or SMS

If the scaffolding is performance support, you feed bits of info to get their work done

Key questions
What is your comfort level with technology
Who is your audience, are they open to mobile learning
Sweet spot for mobile learning is performance support
Online vs offline, are your students online? Keep in mind the limited storage of a smartphone: think instapaper a good model for mobile learning
What are the range of devices you have to accommodate
Are the apps developed for the devices it’s made for?

Development options
Common data, built-in or custom viewer
Common or no common denominator

Simple
HTML + graphics
Then add JavaScript
Then html5 and JavaScript: local databases
Cross-platform toolkits
Finally native apps
Most complex

Appcellerator and Rhodes (new iPhone os closes the door on rhodes)
Appcellerator would be a better tool to work with

Unit testing is critical, you can’t just reboot
You work in small pieces and test your logic
Simulator based testing, get others to look at it as well, accompanies user testing
Manual vs vnc-based automatic testing
Remote devices testing (perfectos mobile) testing a range of drives and locations around the world

Pragprog.com

A very technical presentation