Free Webinar: Things People Don’t Get About Mobile Learning

Esteemed author Clark Quinn joins Float mobile strategist and evangelist Jeff Tillett and Float senior analyst Gary Woodill for our next free webinar in the Mobile Learning Conversations series Wednesday, April 11.

The session will look at what people don’t understand about mobile learning. The most important thing to both Clark and Gary is what mobile learning isn’t.

“MLearning’s not courses on a phone,” Clark said via email (his emphasis).

“Mobile learning is not eLearning. I see a fundamental difference between the two,” Gary agreed (again, his emphasis). “Porting eLearning content for a smaller screen requires a different content strategy.”

Both Gary and Clark provided a laundry list of things people don’t get about mobile learning. Gary said that “mobile learning is not primarily about ‘consuming’ content from a mobile device, but is about acting in the world, with mobile information available when needed to augment and enrich real world experiences, or mobile devices used to collect data or to interact with others.” He added that “location is an important variable in learning.”

Clark said that some people don’t yet understand when they should connect to a person and not content. He pointed to the power of interactivity, another point Gary agreed with. “Your friends, family and peers have a huge influence on what you learn, and are a major information resource,” Gary said.

Clark suggested that people need to overcome habits, folk psychology and myths, and a lack of awareness in order to start to understand these things. Gary suggested something even more powerful. “We are reluctant to change our worldviews and frameworks for understanding the world,” he said. “(Doing so) requires a shakeup or ‘a-ha!’ experience, something like a religious conversion experience to make the shift.”

Clark hopes people take away “more ways to think about mobile than they imagined” after listening to this dialog.

“It is likely that in this online conversation, we will not agree on everything, which is great,” Gary said. “The field of learning and development needs some heretics and people who challenge conventional thinking and each other. Should be a blast!”

Dr. Clark Quinn is the executive director of Quinnovation, an independent learning technology consultancy company. He has been published numerous time, including his three books, Engaging Learning, Designing mLearning (featured in the Float Mobile Learning Primer), and The Mobile Academy,

The Mobile Learning Conversations free webinar series comes to you every month via Float Learning. This month’s session begins at 12 p.m. CT (-6 GMT) on Wednesday, April 11. If you register but cannot attend, we will send out a recording of the event later in the week. Register now for Mobile Learning Conversations>>