A few weeks ago I was visiting a client who is located across the street from Millennium Park in Chicago. I had a little time before our meeting so I went and sat down near one of Chicago’s most popular landmarks, the “Cloud Gate” sculpture. That’s the formal name but everyone affectionately calls it “The Bean.” It’s an impressive sight, this enormous, smooth stainless steel kidney bean, resting amongst the tall skyscrapers of the Windy City.
It’s an interesting study to watch people as they approach, experience and interact with The Bean. The attraction is much more than a static landmark. It is a living work of art that has a lasting impact on those who encounter it.
The more I watched the visitors to The Bean, the more I realized that it had several qualities that we should strive for in creating effective mobile learning. The Cloud Gate was teaching me about the importance of creativity, context, discovery and integrity in mLearning and to not be satisfied with something less than excellent.
As people approach the Cloud Gate, they do it in different ways. A child runs up to it excitedly and begins interacting with it immediately. An adult will walk up slowly admiring its size, shape, shine and uniqueness. And a college student, carrying a camera, moves forward almost in reverence, as he admires it as a work of art, making it an experience. The creativity and depth of the landmark reaches out to each and every visitor and causes them to react in their own distinct way.
The design and content of mLearning should have a similar goal. Any mLearning deliverable should be a work of quality with much forethought given to it. When we design mLearning we should take into account the target audience and how they learn. What will reach out to them most effectively? Especially in mobile learning, avoid the monotony of page after page of bulleted text. Learning on a handheld device can be effective when you consider adding exercises, interactivity, audio, or video and you can also take advantage of the device’s features such as geolocation. Don’t be satisfied with mediocrity and strive to make your content memorable.
You can see from the picture The Bean has a striking impact in its metropolitan setting. The sculpture, from Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor, has created a work that not only distinguishes itself from its surroundings but also integrates with it in a seamless style. Because of its unique design, the Cloud Gate provides a contrast to the stark straight lines and windowed walls of the surrounding skyscrapers and it’s a challenge to our conceptions of what a landmark should be and look like. At the same time, its polished mirrored surface reflects the city and the Bean takes on the shapes and patterns of the area in an almost chameleon-like way.
Mobile learning is much the same way. First of all, it is disruptive, changing the way we think about learning. Mobile learning causes us to ask new questions about interactivity, context and instructional design and even the user interface. Never have the conditions for training been so radically different. mLearning brings content directly into the learner’s world and adds a host of potential new learning enhancements. Not only is it disruptive, but it also integrates smoothly into the learner’s daily life. Your audience may be taking your training right at their worksite, on their delivery route, on a train or on the deck in their back yard. You will have to take into account their environment like never before when designing mobile learning.
Another fun part of Bean-watching is to see how people interact with it, especially children. The design of the Cloud Gate invites interaction. People lie on the ground underneath it, make funny faces in the mirror surface and make wild gestures with their body as they watch the fun-house effect of their image. And they enjoy it as a group, as well, which is a big victory for any type of media – to evoke a shared experience.
Does your mobile learning engage the learner? Lengthy, page-turning courseware is not going to be effective on a mobile device. In fact, most mLearning is delivered in smaller chunks of 2-3 minutes of learning per experience. Make use of interactivity and collaboration with your mobile content. When the learner can respond and discuss the training topic, your chances for a more memorable learning experience is increased. Just like The Bean, you can allow for your training to be a shared, dynamic experience.
If you walk up close to the Cloud Gate, you will find that the surface is impeccable with barely a blemish on its entire surface. The lower six feet of The Bean is cleaned twice a day by hand so its shiny surface stays that way. Thorough care is taken to keep the landmark virtually flawless and that adds to the visitor experience.
In the same way, mobile learning should strive for quality on every level. At Float Mobile Learning, we call it Integrity Assurance. That means that everything we do and make is correct, sound and true: our three levels of integrity. Correct means that everything is right in layout, spelling, punctuation or any other element that is used in the content of the deliverable. Sound means that it all works correctly and that there are no flaws in functionality or interactivity. Finally, True means that the content has been verified and it is accurate and appropriate. If you succeed on all of these levels of integrity, you create mlearning that has tremendous potential to be effective and engaging.
There was a certain reciprocity taking place as I sat near the Cloud Gate and Googled it so I could learn more about it. I was effectively using my mobile device as an mLearning tool to learn about The Bean and The Bean was teaching me about effective mLearning and the importance of creativity, context, discovery and integrity. On that sunny and hot Chicago afternoon, I realized you can learn a lot from a Bean.
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