When it comes to Mobile Learning it’s “ride or die”. Evidence suggests that organizations that do not adopt enterprise mobility solutions will go the way of the Dodo. There is no better time than NOW to become a truly Mobile Enterprise.
On the subject of wearable technologies: do we need Google Glass to enhance learning on the move? Absolutely not! Just as we don’t need a ‘smartwatch’ or ‘smart bracelet’ to enhance fitness performance. What we really need is the right app, or the right service. A wearable device could increase our sense of comfort, but not improve our training performance per se. Even so the buzzword of 2014 is still wearable technologies. So let’s ask (because defining words does matter!): can our latest smartphone be considered a wearable device?
Yes it can if it can become an integral part of our personal space. Let’s have a look at one of Gartner’s predictions:
“The smartphone will become the hub of a personal-area network (PAN) consisting of wearable gadgets such as on-body healthcare sensors, smart jewellery, smart watches, display devices (e.g., Google Glass) and a variety of sensors embedded in clothes and shoes. The sensors in these devices will communicate with mobile apps to provide information and deliver new products and services in areas such as sports, fitness, fashion, hobbies and healthcare.”
(Source: Gartner’s top 10 “mobile technologies and capabilities that organizations must master in 2015 and 2016”)
“Smartphone as a hub” is a strong metaphor. And we, as learning technology experts, absolutely agree with it.
M-learning is something that is happening right now, all over the world, in all industries and in all sized enterprises. And the main driver of this revolution is basic consumer behaviour: there’s at least one smartphone in each hand.
Now we have to build on this common and widespread behaviour of having a smart device in hand anywhere and at any time.
Why? Because we don’t want to miss an opportunity to join this wonderful trend of self-empowerment – and because the bottom line is, it works (i.e we expect good ROI).
In order to reach the market – fast and furious – standard mobile learning needs to jump at least one or two steps in its evolution!
It’s time for smart apps for mobile learning, so if you are still discussing basic issues like responsive yes/no, BYOD yes/no, flash vs HTML5… it’s time to move on!
If we look at the m-learning market, we see that it’s well and truly time for the Mobile Enterprise, that means enabling a flexible and scalable enterprise-wide mobility—for employees and customers—using a holistic, integrated approach. (Source: IBM- White Paper- Building the mobile enterprise: integrated, secure and productive)
M-learning for 2015 should, at a minimum, take into account the following mobile technologies and capabilities:
- Multiplatform / Multi Architecture Application Development Tools
- HTML5
- Advanced Mobile User Experience Design
- High-Precision Location Sensing
- Enterprise Mobile Management (EMM)
P.S. This post was originally entitled “What we can learn from Dominic Toretto….” but since not everyone I know has seen the movie “Fast and Furious” I went with something a little less abstract 😉
-Valentina
[banner-bottom-eng]