Acrossair have developed a very cool "augmented reality" iPhone (3G S only) apps to find Tube stations in London, and Subway stations in New York.
Imagine the potential for learning (pop-up info associated with objects in museums and so on), and performance support in workplaces, delivered in real time.
The YouTube video is a demo for the London version; click here to view the app working on the subway.
--
Today, 16th July 2009 is the 40th Anniversary of the launch of the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon. I'd like to commemorate this by pointing you towards some fascinating sites about the event.
I've mentioned in the past that I'm a Space nut; I believe the ongoing 
endeavor to explore, live, and work in space to be the epitome of the human spirit and our imperative to learn and to understand that which is currently beyond out ken. I also share a birthdate (but not the age) with Neil Armstrong, first man on the Moon and utterer of the infamous "One small step..." epigram. And because this is the E-Learning Curve Blog, I'm also going to discuss this event in the context of learning technology, particularly the role of asynchronous media in supporting cognitive events. But I'm not doing that last bit today; instead, I'm going to sit back and enjoy the events of July 1969.
Now read on...
The first site you can check out is the "official" NASA 40th Anniversary website, which has a variety of informative resources that will teach you about the historic mission. 
When you 'land' (sorry) on the page, you'll find a brief of the historical events surrounding the mission, as well as a listing of anniversary events for those of you lucky enough to be close to these commemorations. To supplement its own coverage, NASA has also posted several videos of user-generated videos detailing peoples' impressions of the lunar landing and why it was so important to them.
Next Google Moon. When you search for Apollo 11 on Google Moon, you'll find basic information such as the astronauts' biographies. Once you zoom in on their landing site in Mare Tranquillitatis (the 
Sea of Tranquility), you'll find nearly 20 landmarks that describe everything from where the TV camera was placed, where Armstrong's famous first footprints were left, to where location of Eagle, their Lunar Module. It also has images of all the landmarks. It's a nice way to learn more about Apollo 11.
The Project Apollo Archive is the most extensive collection of high-quality Apollo images, featuring images scanned for Eric Jones' Apollo Lunar Surface Journal. Many image and multimedia resources on this website are courtesy of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, specifically the NASA History Office, Kennedy Space Center and Johnson Space Center. The site also features:
Back on Earth and in the here-and-now, Steve Eves build and launched a 1/10th Scale working model of the Saturn V rocket. This is possibly the only build of the rocket that is completely re-usable, as all the stages safely parachuted back to earth (the original rockets' components either burned up in Earth's atmosphere, crashed into the Moon, or are still in orbit around the Sun).
Best of all, please check out We Choose the Moon - "an interactive experience recreating the historic Apollo 11 mission to the Moon in real time."
Using Flash, and a range of social media technologies and products, the site does an amazing job of recreating the experience of going to the Moon. As I sit here writing this blog post, I'm tuned in to the pre-launch sights and sounds. The site is Flash based, has three Twitter feeds (cleverly taking the audio from CapCom, Columbia - the command module - and Eagle) , as well as an Adobe Air-based desktop and FaceBook widget.
Fantastic.
Finally, if you're of a mischievous turn of mind, check out how The Onion is remembering Phurba Dorje, the unsung hero of the lunar landing who, according to Buzz Aldrin "...was as much a member of that team as anyone. Probably more than [Michael] Collins was."
Normal service tomorrow: just going to enjoy myself at We Choose the Moon today!
--
Learning professionals need to interrogate and understand data. Whether you're interpreting the LMS access logs of your courseware, checking out your blog and wiki usage, quantifying Kirkpatrick's Four Levels, or devising statistical instruments and analyzing data for your latest white paper, you need to look at and manipulate long columns and rows of information. (What 
do you mean you don't do any of that stuff? Are you in the right job?)
iPhone users now have another way to access and view their spreadsheets and charts: software development house MeLLmo have released RoamBi, an app that lets you view the static data from spreadsheets and tables as interactive charts that are published via an teh iPhone or iPod Touch. The free-to-use RoamBi Visualizer app is available for download from the iTunes App Store.
The RoamBi app displays data on your iPhone, giving you access to your stats and figures from your free-to-use online RoamBi account. The app works well with CVS- and Microsoft Excel-formatted data, and can manage Salesforce.com account reports, business process outsourcing (BPO) key performance indicators. Users of the enterprise version of RoamBi can also import SAP Crystal Reports and SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence data into the app.
According to MeLLmo’s Santiago Becerra,
It’s the first real enterprise-grade app that allows users to transfer all the info they use on a day-to-day basis onto the iPhone.
Your spreadsheet, BPO and KPI data is stored on the app’s accompanying Web site. Developed in Adobe Flex (the open source Flash-based framework for building and maintaining expressive web applications), you upload your content to RoamBi Designer, where you can customize views for delivery to the iPhone. The finished views are published from the Web tool to your phone through an Amazon-hosted server. MeLLmo state that the resultant outputs are
like a mini-app that allows you to navigate through a particular set of data in a way that feels very natural to you.
RoamBi has a number of views including
I recently commented on the growing acceptance of the iPhone as an enterprise-level communications solution. I would assert that we are now beginning to see the emergence of a virtuous circle: now that the popular demand is there, software houses will invest in developing productivity apps like RoamBi, which will in turn drive more business users to the device, which will result in more business functionality being ported to the device. I hope this will lead to an upswing in the number and range of knowledge-sharing, informational, and educational applications for this and other personal mobile devices.
--
Reflecting upon the growing adoption of Web 2.0 technologies in enterprises and organizations, about two weeks ago I wrote a post called Shiny new technologies used by dusty old professions. In it I considered that an ad hoc approach to adding Web 2.0-based learning channels without appropriate strategy, planning, and management could lead to a diminution of their effectiveness in the long term.
In response to my article, I received a comment from a person associated with an organization who had gone down this very road by implementing informal learning and knowledge-sharing channels (including FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and asynchronous content delivery) on an “as needed” basis, and who contradicted or declared against the points I made in my post.
Here are some of the assertions made in the comment:
Naturally I published the comment (as I do with every comment I receive unless it’s spam). The missive wasn’t e-mailed to me personally, but to my blog, so I assumed it was submitted to the public domain. About a week later, I composed a response to the comment and e-mailed it to my correspondent.
To date I have received no reply from them, so I considered the matter is closed. However, a few people who read the comment got on to me (privately) and said that the remarks that were made in the comment were so inaccurate and erroneous, that it was worth highlighting them to a larger audience.
In fact, they said, the comment was a distillation of the general lack of understanding of informal learning, e-learning, and Web 2.0, and should be addressed as a matter of credibility for L&D professionals, if nothing else. And also that my name is not Brian.
So, for your consideration, my rebuttal to the charge that “Social Media has Nothing to do with E-Learning.”
Now read on…
“To whom it may concern:
Many thanks for taking the time to communicate with me. Firstly I need to apologize: as in many occupations (accountancy among them, no doubt), learning and development professionals sometimes use certain words and phrases in very specific contexts that extend their meaning beyond popular use. It simply didn't occur to me that any of the terminology in the blog article text needed further exposition, and I regret that lack of clarity has caused you to object to and attempt to refute the remarks I made in my blog post.
However, you have misquoted me, suggested that my article was inaccurate, and that I "missed the point completely" so I'm invoking my right to reply. I'd like to say that I hate having to do this, as it makes me come across as long-winded and boring, and I am neither. Nevertheless, I wish to address each of the remarks you made in your comment: I'd appreciate it if you would take the time to reflect upon what follows.
First the misquote: you state in quote marks that I wrote "informal and casual" somewhere in my text. Let me be crystal clear about this: there is nothing "casual" about acquiring skills, knowledge, and expertise. I take the activity (and my part in it) very seriously. I did use the term "ad hoc" but in a completely different context, I will address this later.
I would assert that you felt motivated to respond to me because you would argue for what Colley, Hodkinson & Malcolm call the "perceived inherent superiority" (2002, p.2) of formal learning over informal learning.
Let's get this formal/non-formal/informal business out of the way, because it's part of the first point you refuted. All learning occurs on a continuum (see Figure 1) with formal learning at one extreme, and informal learning at the other, and non-formal learning 'in the middle.' Now here's the good bit, so I'm going to place this in a paragraph all on its own:
Eighty percent of organizational learning takes place informally.
Gartner Research (2008, p.1).
You will note that the continuum illustrated below is on a horizontal axis, and that there is no hierarchical distinction between the learning modalities.
Figure 1. The Learning Continuum
It's apparent that a dichotomy exists between the paradigms of formal, goal-directed training programs and informal "learning at the water cooler" (Grebow, 2002):
it is difficult to make a clear distinction between formal and informal learning as there is often a crossover between the two
(McGivney, 1999, p.1).
For much of the forty years since the terms were first coined (Coombs, 1968, p.1.) there has been a great deal of debate as to the nature of formal, informal and non-formal learning; the components of each of the paradigms, their boundaries and their overlaps. It's an ongoing discussion in L&D, but at this juncture we can say that the distinctions between them have been recognized by the EU and the OECD among other organizations. The European Commission state:
Learning takes place in different settings and contexts, formal, non-formal as well as informal. Learning that is taking place in the formal education and training system is traditionally the most visible and the one likely to be recognized in the labor market and by society in general. In recent years, however, there has been a growing appreciation that learning in non-formal and informal settings is seen as crucial for the realization of lifelong learning, thus requiring new strategies for identification and validation of these 'invisible' learning outcomes. However, definitions and understandings of what counts as formal, non-formal and informal learning can vary between countries.
(Valuing learning outside formal education and training)
At EU level, the following definitions are used:
Table 1. Definition of learning types
| Learning Type | Description |
| Formal Learning | Learning typically provided by an education or training institution, structured (in terms of learning objectives, learning time or learning support) and leading to certification. Formal learning is intentional from the learner’s perspective [my italics]. |
| Non-formal Learning | Learning that is not provided by an education or training institution and typically does not lead to formalised certification. It is, however, structured (in terms of learning objectives, learning time or learning support). Non-formal learning is intentional from the learner’s perspective [my italics]. |
| Informal Learning | Learning resulting from daily life activities related to work, family or leisure. It is not structured (in terms of learning objectives, learning time or learning support) and typically does not lead to certification. Informal learning may be intentional but in most cases it is non-intentional (or “incidental”/ random) [my italics]. |
Regarding your own organization, I notice that in Continuing Professional Education, under the section entitled 'Unstructured CPE' (p.3), it is stated that:
Unstructured CPE can be defined as any form of informal learning or development of day to day working skills achieved through self-study and/or informal training. Unstructured CPE can be measurable but is not verifiable [my italics].
Personally, I support Alan Rogers' view that a 'new paradigm' for learning exists, in which "most programs [are] partly formal and partly informal" going from formal to informal and from informal to formal in both directions along a continuum. Both forms of education are important elements in the total learning experience" (Looking again at non-formal and informal education - towards a new paradigm, 2004).
As you stated in the Silicon Republic article Number crunchers find social media a ‘tweet’ surprise "It's our job to support our members at each point in their career." Implicit in this statement is support for the ongoing, formal, certified professional development initiatives that are required to ensure your members achieve and retain the appropriate knowledge and skills to undertake their professional activities competently. I didn't question this facet of these activities at any point in my article.
Equally I'm sure you design, develop, and implement your formal training initiatives based upon Training Needs Assessments and Skill/Gap Analyses to remediate deficiencies in your members' current skillsets and knowledge.
The next point I'd like to clarify concerns e-learning, social media, and the Read/Write Web (or Web 2.0). E-learning has been characterized as:
The continuous assimilation of knowledge and skills by adults stimulated by synchronous and asynchronous learning events - and sometimes knowledge management outputs - which are authored, delivered engaged with, supported and administered using internet technologies.
(Morrison, D. 2004, p.4)
So while you confidently tell me that "Social media is nothing to do with e-learning" I have to tell you that you're wrong: it has everything to do with it.
I suspect you perceive e-learning to be that old pageturner-with-audio stuff that characterized e-learning 10 years ago, and is still occasionally foisted upon organizations like the yours for compliance and regulatory reasons.
You don't have to believe me if you don't want to, but believe your own reasoning faculties and reflect on Don Morrison's above definition carefully. You'll see that e-learning 'checks all the boxes' that characterize social media.
As you state, social media are a great way to communicate, engage with, and create dialog between communities of practice. This is what makes Web 2.0 technologies - and it's associated products like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, as well as related technologies like on-demand video, such valuable and effective learning channels. According to industry analysts Forrester:
Learning 2.0 - or informal learning - means that employees take charge of their learning. Specifically, employees decide when they need information, where to go for information, and how to get information from other resources.
(Schooley, C. 2007, p.3)
This approach delivers learning right when people need it via:
Forgive me if I'm incorrect, but is this not exactly what your organization is doing?
And finally we get to The Point That I Apparently Missed.
Is social media a "fad"? No.
Everett Rogers' Diffusion of Innovation theory tells us that the technology is maturing and has entered the Mainstream Adoption phase. My view is that the shift in information transmission we're seeing will prove to be as socio-culturally important as the invention of movable type 500 years ago.
You say that social media is
one of many communication channels we successfully use to direct members to education and learning opportunities, class-based or online.
I say that it is a learning channel - as you yourself said "Many share war stories and know-how in the forums": this epitomizes informal (e-)learning in action.
I think now I can reiterate my point (remember the "ad hoc" reference?). The purpose of the blog post was to highlight the issues associated with adding new learning / social media channels without a strategy, a plan, a goal, and a set of learning outcomes. Now, as we know, ad hoc according to Webster's Online Dictionary means "for the particular end or case at hand without consideration of wider application." As I concluded my article:
...it's one of the advantages of a non- or informal approach to e-learning, but I would suggest that too much of a 'make it up as we go along' approach can lead to spreading finite resources too thinly for any of them to be truly effective.
Or, more prosaically, if you don't manage, and maintain your content delivery channels effectively, you will see fall-off in use, and enter what Gartner call the ‘Trough of Disillusionment’ where
[technologies] fail to meet expectations and quickly become unfashionable.
Consequently, they are abandoned. In online circles this is called "blogrot" named after the estimated 125 million out of 133 million blogs that are not updated regularly (Technorati, State of the Blogosphere, 2008). To counter this, organizations need to actively manage and maintain their content and their knowledge, or can peter out and ultimately cease to be of value.
The purpose of my post then, was to commend your informal e-learning activities, but to temper that commendation by highlighting the requirement to keep up the momentum surrounding these activities, for if your initiative fails, it becomes that much more difficult to re-implement similar programs in the future. Indeed, I consult for institutions including UCC and the ECDL Foundation, assisting the development of their learning programs, so I have a substantial amount of experience in this domain.
I hope this detailed missive clarifies matters; I look forward to making your acquaintance at some point in our respective careers, and I wish you every success in your ongoing learning and development initiatives.
Best regards,
Michael Hanley BA, H.Dip.Ed., H.Dip.Communications, MSc. Education (Hons), MIITD”
__________
References:
Certified Public Accountants (ND). Continuing Professional Education. [Internet] Available from: http://www.cpaireland.ie/UserFiles/File/CPE/CPE_Requirements.pdf [Accessed 1 July 2009]
Colley, H., Hodkinson, P., & Malcolm J. (2002) Non-formal learning: mapping the conceptual terrain. a consultation report [Internet] Available from: http://www.infed.org/archives/e-texts/colley_informal_learning.htm [Accessed 28th January 2009]
Coombs, P. (1968) The World Educational Crisis, New York, Oxford University Press.
Eraut, M. (2000) Non-formal learning, implicit learning and tacit knowledge, in Coffield, F. (Ed.) The Necessity of Informal Learning. Policy Press. Bristol
European Commission, Education and Training (2009). Valuing learning outside formal education and training. [Internet] Available from: http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-policy/doc52_en.htm [Accessed 1 July 2009]
Holford, J. Patulny, R. & Sturgis, P. (2005). Indicators of Non-formal & Informal Educational Contributions to Active Citizenship. A Paper Prepared for the European Commission by the University of Surrey. [Internet]. Available from: http://crell.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ActiveCitizenship/Conference/05_Surrey_final.pdf [Accessed 1st July, 2009]
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (2009). Recognition of Non-formal and Informal Learning. [Internet] Available from: http://www.oecd.org/document/25/0,3343,en_2649_39263238_37136921_1_1_1_1,00.html [Accessed 1 July 2009]
Grebow, D. (2002) At the Water Cooler of Learning [Internet] Available from: http://agelesslearner.com/articles/watercooler_dgrebow_tc600.html [Accessed 30th February 2009]
McGivney, V. (1999) Informal learning in the community: a trigger for change and development NIACE. Leicester.
Morrison, D. (2004) E-Learning Strategies: how to get implementation and delivery right first time, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Rogers, A. (2004) Looking again at non-formal and informal education - towards a new paradigm [Internet] Available from: http://www.infed.org/biblio/non_formal_paradigm.htm [Accessed 30th January 2008]
Rozwell, C. (2008) The Business Impact of Social Computing on Corporate Learning. Gartner. [Internet] Available from: http://www.gartner.com (subscription required) [Accessed 1 July 2009]
Schooley, C. (2007) Informal Learning Connects With Corporate Training Programs. Forrester Research. [Internet] Available from: http://www.forrester.com (subscription required) [Accessed 1 July 2009]
--
