In the fourth quarter of 2012, ” 96 new families and variants of Android threats were discovered, which almost doubles the number recorded in the previous quarter.” This quote is from the Mobile Threat Report issued by F-Secure Response Labs, a company with offices in Helsinki, Finland, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia that monitors security threats on a world-wide basis. While the number of mobile viruses is much lower than Internet viruses, they are rapidly increasing.  Just one mobile virus, Eurograbber, managed to steal $47 million USD from over 30,000 retail and corporate accounts in Europe.

The reason the report focuses on Android is simply because of its market share. Android’s market share rose to 79% worldwide in 2012 from 66.7% in 2011. This is a scary but worthwhile report for all those interested in the topic of security and mobile computing. Thanks to Daniel Pfeiffer of Float Mobile Learning for pointing me to it.

A review by Jessica Knox

(Full disclosure: My employer, Metrix Group, is currently partnering with Float Mobile on an app development project).

As learning professionals we see it everywhere. It’s trending in the corporate learning community. It’s quantified as the 70:20:10 rule, yet those numbers are not evidence-based,  they’re intuitive: it just feels right.

The biggest piece of this pie, the “70″, refers to the 70% of learning believed to occur on the job, by finding just-in-time information, by learning from our peers, by reflecting on our successes and mistakes. But despite being the biggest piece, it’s often the most elusive in the adult learning field. We tend to focus on the 10% that we can easily relate to: formal learning in classrooms, print and online (essentially a lifelong hangover from our educational system) with a nod to the other 20% comprised of coaching, mentoring and learning from others.

In June 2012, at the mLearnCon conference in San Jose, Float Mobile Learning took aim at the elusive 70-20 with the release of the Tappestry app for iOS, Android and the web, and have since released several updates. Tappestry is positioned as the first social network designed specifically for learning. Tappestry most closely resembles Twitter in that users have 140 characters or less to describe what they learned, be it a fact, a conference they attended, an article they read, or a blog entry they wrote. Some features mark a significant departure from Twitter functionality, however, that make this an app “designed specifically for learning”.

The first unique feature is the organization of posts by categories, such as Physics, Basketball, Application Design, and, my personal favourite, Homebrewing (containing one lonely post at the time this article was written – thanks Chad). These categories are colour-coded in the eponymous “Tappestry view” where user posts, each represented by a coloured square, form a visual patchwork of  learning across the network. This view is an ambitious approach to data visualization, but at the same time contributes to my occasional frustration as a user:  looking at this patchwork you don’t know beyond the high level category  what each post contains. An extra click is required to reveal the post; once revealed, they are often quite random and the navigation around the tappestry becomes slightly disorienting. For actually using the app as a resource to find or learn new information, nothing beats the search button, and as usage of the app grows, you will be more likely to find information of relevance and interest.

The second, more substantial unique feature is Tappestry’s ability to track learning events. When you create a post, you are encouraged to use a pre-defined syntax: “I read…”"I achieved…”I learned…”"I attended…” It is no coincidence that this is the same syntax used in the new SCORM specification, Project Tin Can. This specification was developed to enable SCORM to track many of the activities that were meaningful in the real world but inaccessible to tracking in Learning Management Systems. If someone publishes a book on Mobile Learning (hi Gary), they have a different depth of expertise than someone who only answers multiple choice questions on the same topic; previously SCORM could only track the latter.

This tracking functionality is important. It encourages users to develop a record of their learning journey over time, and organizes it for them so they can refer back as need be. The very act of giving informal learning a language and a solidity elevates our understanding of it in the 70-20-10 landscape. This emphasis is echoed by the new Certified Training and Development Professional (CTDP) designation maintenance requirements released by the Canadian Society for Training and Development (CSTD), which recognizes blog entries, workshop facilitation, and on-the-job projects with the same importance as attending CSTD-supplied courses, a stance that I fully support.

The fact that organizations can keep records of these informal activities will also help to increase their visibility and importance. But this ability to track activities, enabled by Tin Can, also raises some questions – large organizations are potentially opening themselves to a flood of new data. How do they make sense of this data and incorporate it into their overall development and evaluation strategies? I have some ideas, but I will save that for another post…

Tappestry raises a bigger question for me about the way we view digital learning tools that may be an unintended result of giving informal learning a more concrete language. I remember a social media guru once saying that she went to Twitter to find answers. Who can deny that their first reaction when they don’t know something is to Google it? Twitter has opened up my knowledge base – as a strategist and designer it allows me to learn and draw inspiration from an incredibly diverse set of people and disciplines, as it is a communication tool that has been embedded into people lives. By creating a separate space for “social learning” and encouraging users to adopt “I learned…, I read…” language, are we insulating and limiting ourselves from something more profound and more real: that there is actually no separation between when we’re learning and living?

Perhaps the ability to integrate the organization and tracking of learning into the channels and tools we already use every day is a next step, once we more universally understand informal learning and how it shapes our skills and knowledge. In the meantime, Tappestry takes us one bold step forward into a more holistic view of learning and development. I look forward to using this tool with my clients, where we can create focused, relevant categories and tackle the pain points I hear so often: how can we capitalize on peer to peer learning and ensure best practices are spread across the organization? How do we stay up to date when our landscape changes so quickly? How do we keep our organizational knowledge secure? Until then, let’s keep weaving.

The winter season is approaching and the cold and flu season has started.  This has made me think more of the healthcare sector again as I was traveling and got a nasty cold.  Wouldn’t it be great to ensure my medical records travel with me?   Or, the doctors could learn about the number of flu outbreaks in their region – each week?

Mobile learning and mobility of the apps we use have definitely evolved in the last few years – thankfully.  We have seen each industry adapt and build on the opportunity to share information and learning with the masses.  Healthcare is no different.  We have sites to teach kids about CPR, in the car, on their parents phone, on the way to swimming lessons.  Although my health records were not available in the walk-in clinic while I was out of town, I can share that the conversations about mobile access and learning in the healthcare is expanding.

Enjoy the season!

Several members of the Metrix Group team will be presenting at the eLated event on November 22nd.

We have been working on individual professional development projects that have transformed our knowledge base in order to prepare for the increasing demand that we have from our clients for mobile learning projects.

The topic we will be speaking about include:

• Performance Model for Digital Learning Consultant
• Primer on Digital Learning
• Developing Collective Intelligence with Mobile Technologies
• Responsive Design for Multiple Mobile Device Form Factors
• Mobile Application Management/Mobile Device Management
• Learning Through Mobile Games
• Tracking Informal Learning with Tappestry and Tin Can API
• Blogging from Your Mobile Phone
• The Future of Learning

We are really looking forward to sharing our insights with the learning community!

How time does fly.  Another summer has almost past and having just returned from my Executive MBA first session I am thinking more mobile than ever.  It would be great to get my text books and reading material on my mobile device so I could learn at my convenience.  I also recalled a presentation on getting started in mobile learning I had access too.

I was speaking with an old friend who has over a 100 time pressured lawyers he is responsible for training in the UK.  He shared with me a presentation he gave this time last year on the pilot initiative and roll-out of mobile learning in the firm he works with.  I benefit from reviewing slides 11, 19, and 22.  This was a conference presentation so it is generic without Tim’s commentary yet useful to share and pass along.

http://www.slideshare.net/eversheds/effectively-using-mobile-technology-in-learning

All the best in your mobile forays….

Big Pharma smartphone apps: Janssen's Care4Today app

Some of the work we do at Metrix Group includes partnering with pharmaceutical companies to develop product and disease training solutions for the business.  We’re also on the forefront of the emerging field of mobile learning (mLearning) and are working with our clients from the initial idea of going mobile to fully deployed implementation of mobile-only sales forces.

As such, we’re keeping our eye on the use of mobile in the industry. For a Friday morning round-up, check out this sample of the types of apps that 10 Big Pharma companies have recently produced.

What is interesting to note is the wide array of uses of these apps:

• Improving patient adherence to medication regimens
• A way for patients to document and track their condition, treatments and symptoms
• Newsfeeds with relevant disease-related information
• Even comprehensive learning tools for healthcare professionals that enable accreditation

What do you think? Have you tried any of these apps? Are there other health-related apps that you find useful?

Over the past few months, I have had the distinct pleasure of working with Gary Woodill. Gary is a partner with the company I work with, Metrix Group, a performance consulting firm that works in the corporate learning and development space.

We, at Metrix Group, have enthusiastically delved into the world of mobile learning, both with our clients and for ourselves. With Gary’s help, many of us at Metrix Group have undertaken exciting new professional development projects, that will allow us to explore different aspects of learning, mobile and otherwise.

For part of my professional development, I am spearheading our company blog. We hope that our blog will be a good source of industry information for our colleagues and clients, as well as showcase some of the great thinking and work that comes from the people at Metrix Group.

There are many other exciting initiatives going on at Metrix Group. Stay tuned for our updated website, as well as white papers and other publications by several of our team members. You can also follow us on Twitter @MetrixGroup

I just came across this post for a webinar and although it has past, the idea of converging and diverging ideas and approaches appealed to me. I also subscribe to the philosophy that content from a year ago needs to harvested and weeded through not just thrown into the compost:) Yes, I still love the book “cool farming” a definite read if you missed it and the information below. Happy curating!

5 Tips for Social Networking

How the world’s foremost management experts are reinventing management using social software. What do finalists for the Harvard Business Review/McKinsey M-prize for Management Innovation and the Management Innovation eXchange have to do with enterprise social networking ?

The Management Innovation eXchange (MIX) is an open innovation project aimed at reinventing management for the 21st century. (The MIX started as a brainchild of Gary Hamel, visiting professor at the London Business School. The Wall Street Journal recently ranked Gary as the world’s most influential business thinker, and Fortune magazine has called him “the world’s leading expert on business strategy.”) The MIX community recently piloted a “Hackathon” – an experiment in open collaboration and global ideation that they hope will help shape the future of the MIX and lead to genuine progress when it comes to crafting the “source code” for Management 2.0.

The Hackathon supports collective work over individual contribution, bringing management experts from far-flung locations together in a social community. Three of the finalists for the M-prize this year came from this new transformative approach to reinventing management. In this webinar, Michele Zanini, co-founder of the MIX and Chris Grams, the MIX’s Community Guide and lead for the MiX Hackathon, will share 5 best practices to structuring or phasing aHackathon or a global ideation effort, to achieve tangible results.

They will discuss the staged process of “divergence and convergence of ideas,” and the subsequent process of synthesis and filtering of the best ideas. Additionally, they will discuss the 5 phases followed to achieve a structured ideation process:

Phase 1: Orientation and aspiration setting

Phase 2: Identification of specific root causes

Phase 3: Early “hacking” (or idea generation)

Phase 4: Refining the best hacks

Phase 5: Execution and dissemination

http://www.managementexchange.com/

This is gutsy website that will lead to more information on management than mobile learning.  However it does get to the source of those who posted the original excerpt above.  Personal opinions on the above site and comments reserved.

I was reading a commentary in Forbes and realized that someday we may actually grant credits for learning off the internet and reading books for leisure that apply to workplace requirements.  That may be a few years away yet with some recent grants there is hope on the horizon.

As written by Michael Horn, in Forbes, June 20, 2012…here is an excerpt.

“….In the postsecondary space, the Gates Foundation made a number of grants—both directly and through NGLC*—to intriguing ventures with the potential to improve education dramatically, including some of my disruptive favorites: start-up MyCollege Foundation, which will establish a non-profit college that blends adaptive online learning solutions with other services at a low cost; University of the People, the world’s first tuition-free, non-profit, online academic institution dedicated to opening access to higher education globally; New Charter University, a competency-based university that charges only $199 per month for students seeking a degree and for which NGLC will fund a research study of its online students and a comparative one of students enrolled in a blended-learning environment delivered through a partnership with the Community College of the District of Columbia; Southern New Hampshire University, which under its President Paul LeBlanc has already created an autonomous online division and will now pioneer the “Pathways Project,” which will offer a self-paced and student-centric associates degree; and MIT, which will use the funds to create a free prototype computer science online course for edX.”

*NGLC: Next Generation Learning Challenges

As we continue to evolve when and how we learn it is exciting to know that accreditations for this learning is being pushed beyond the traditional chair and desk requirements.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelhorn/2012/06/20/gates-foundation-steps-up-with-investments-in-next-generation-learning/

Where are women when it comes to developing mobile technology? Well, according to K.T. Bradford, February 2011, Laptop… Men account for at least 85% of all CEO’s, CTOs, CFOs and other top-level positions in IT companies. Gee … big surprise there. Like James Brown sang “It’s a Man’s Man’s World but remember he also added “but it wouldn’t be nothing without a women in it” What we do know is that women have played a critical role in the evolution of technology. Bradford writes that Charles Babbage may have created the first mechanical computer, but it was Countess Ada Lovelace who in 1842 wrote the first computer program.

Through the ages there has always been woman to woman support. Whether in burning bras, working together in bomb factories or taking care of each others babes in arms in the age of technology that hasn’t changed. Today women are making big waves in the world of mobile. Check out Laptop’s 2011 top 20 women who have influenced the mobile tech industry.  2011 Most Important Women in Mobile Tech and recently founded “Women Innovate Mobile” (WIM) brings that woman to woman support to the 21^st century with a start-up accelerator and mentorship-driven programs designed for women-founded companies in today’s mobile technology. One such program is “Women in Wireless” (WIW) a program promoting and developing female leaders in mobile and digital media.

There’s more too the techno female in the mobile environment then just a pretty face.

You Go Girls….