Clark Quinn

Senior Director, Interaction & Mobile

Media highlights

Last 3 Posts

Social media budget line item?
Where does social media fit in the organization? In talking with a social media entrepreneur over beers the other day, he mentioned that one of his barriers in dealing with organizations was that they didn’t have a budget line for social media software. That may sound trivial, but it’s actually a real issue in terms [...]
Sharing Failure
I’ve earlier talked about the importance of failure in learning, and now it’s revealed that Apple’s leadership development program plays that up in a big way. There are risks in sharing, and rewards. And ways to do it better and worse. In an article in Macrumors (obviously, an Apple info site), they detail part of Adam Lashinsky’s new Inside Apple book [...]
Levels of ‘levels’
I was defending Kirkpatrick’s levels the other day, and after being excoriated by my ITA colleagues, I realized there was not only a discrepancy between principle and practice, but between my interpretation and as it’s espoused. Perhaps I’ve been too generous. The general idea is that there are several levels at which you can evaluate interventions: whether the recipient [...]

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Top Articles

Social media budget line item? (0) Clark Quinn Where does social media fit in the organization? In talking with a social media entrepreneur over beers the other day, he mentioned that one of his barriers in dealing with organizations was that they didn't have a budget line for social media software....
Sharing Failure (0) Clark Quinn I’ve earlier talked about the importance of failure in learning, and now it’s revealed that Apple’s leadership development program plays that up in a big way. There are risks in sharing, and rewards. And ways to do it better and worse.
In an�...
Levels of 'levels' (0) Clark Quinn I was defending Kirkpatrick’s levels the other day, and after being excoriated by my ITA colleagues, I realized there was not only a discrepancy between principle and practice, but between my interpretation and as it’s espoused. Perhaps I’ve b...
Performance Architecture (0) Clark Quinn I’ve been using the tag ‘learning experience design strategy’ as a way to think about not taking the same old approaches of events über ales. The fact of the matter is that we’ve quite a lot of models and resources to draw upon, and we need to...
Failing to Learn (0) Clark Quinn My colleague Harold Jarche pointed me to a post by Dave Snowden about deliberative practice, which I found interesting for a facet not part of the key article (which makes worthwhile points). Among a list of important requirements for meaningful acti...
Social Cognitive Processing (0) Clark Quinn In an earlier post, I tried to convey the advantages of social activities in formal learning from the cognitive processing perspective, but my diagram apparently didn’t work for everyone. I took another shot for a presentation I gave on mobile social...
Sage at the Side (0) Clark Quinn A number of years ago, I wrote an article (PDF) talking about how we might go beyond our current ‘apart’ learning experiences. The notion is what I call ‘layered learning’, where we don’t send you away from your life to go attend a learning ...
Working Smarter (0) Clark Quinn Work smarter, not harder.
Have you heard that? I did, in my first job out of college; my boss said it, but it wasn’t clear what it meant. What does ‘work smarter’ mean? I already thought I was working smarter. Well, as I’ve learned (in ...
Goin’ Mobile (0) Clark Quinn This is a copy of an article I’ve written for a Wiley newsletter to promote my mlearning book.
The indicators are clear: the world is going mobile. Mobile subscriptions in the developed world are flattening out, not from lack of interest, but fr...
A new literacy? There’s an app for that (0) Clark Quinn The ubiquity of powerful mobile devices able to download applications that enable unique capabilities, has led David Pogue to coin them “app phones“. Similarly, the expression “there’s an app for that” has been part of widespread marketing cam...
Are You Committing Learning Malpractice? (0) Clark Quinn Odds are your organization is failing your learners in a variety of predictable but inexcusable ways.
We know what good learning is. The ways that formal learning, performance support and social learning work best are well known. Unfortunately, they are ...
Social Media Metrics (0) Clark Quinn I continue to get asked about social learning metrics. Until we get around to a whitepaper or something on metrics, here’re some thoughts:
Frankly, the problem with Kirkpatrick (sort of like with LMS’ and ADDIE, *drink*) is not in the concept...
Thought trails (0) Clark Quinn
I’ve riffed before about virtual mentorship, and it resonated again today. We were getting a tour of one of the social platforms, organized as many are around tasks, questions, and dialog. While implicitly it could support tracking a group’...
Harnessing Magic (0) Clark Quinn This is the extended abstract for the presentation I’m leaving today to give in Berlin at Online Educa on mobile learning on Dec 2.
Increasingly, workers are mobile. When we look not only at field-deployed individuals, but also those who occa...
Designing for an uncertain world (0) Clark Quinn My problem with the formal models of instructional design (e.g. ADDIE for process), is that most are based upon a flawed premise. The premise is that the world is predictable and understandable, so that we can capture the ‘right’ behavior and train ...
Rethinking e-Learning (0) Clark Quinn The opportunity we now have is to use technology to move from an event-based learning model that we know to be ineffective, to a more distributed and contextualized environment that elegantly spans the continuum from formal learning to performance support...
Publish or Perish: Educational Content at a Crossroads (0) Clark Quinn It's not news that we're experiencing increasing change. The quantity of information available is growing astronomically, new offerings are increasingly quick to be copied, businesses are under pressure to do more with less, and the internet is a disrupti...
Populating the LearnScape: e-Learning as Strategy (0) Clark Quinn Extract: While adaptation and change are necessary for continued success, neither organizations nor individuals find them easy. Information, communication, and learning technologies offer assistance, although no single solution fits all organizations or...
Optimizing Learning (0) Clark Quinn We're in a new age. Organizations can no longer be dependent on training to meet their learning needs. When things changed slowly, we could train people and trust that they could perform or be coached to do their jobs. That day has passed. The steady acce...
Social Networking: Bridging Formal and Informal Learning (0) Clark Quinn The recognition that learning is 80% informal suggests that we need to support natural connections between people who can help one another. And we can distribute that support between employees, partners, or customers. You can see real benefits, but you’...
Making It Matter to the Learner: e-Motional e-Learning (0) Clark Quinn At core, you want to design experiences, not just learning. You can’t make learners learn, you can only create environments that are conducive to learning, and to increase your likelihood of success, you’ll want to engage learners emotionally as well ...

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Bio

Clark Quinn is an innovator who successfully blends broad experience in new technologies with deep understanding of how humans think, learn, and perform to achieve meaningful outcomes. Through his books, articles, speaking, and work, Clark communicates a clear vision of how we can be achieving organizational goals through smarter design.

Whether busting myths about learning, providing deeper insight into the important elements of design, or creating inspired new solutions to real needs, Clark has demonstrated an ability to communicate and apply theoretically grounded and research based principles to organizational imperatives. Clark’s innovations have included the first web-based serious game, an early web conference, mlearning designs, content architectures, and more. He has provided strategies for Fortune 500 companies, government, not-for-profits, and the education sector, working successfully with stakeholders at all levels.

While an undergraduate, Clark recognized the connection between learning and information technologies, designing his own major in what then was called Computer Based Education. After a stint designing and programming educational computer games at DesignWare (including award-winning titles FaceMaker and Spellicopter), Clark returned to UC San Diego for a Ph.D. in applied cognitive science. His postdoctoral fellowship at UPittburgh’s Learning Research and Development Center was followed by an academic position at the University of New South Wales, teaching interface design and researching learning technology. He spent time at two Australian government initiatives in online learning before returning to the US to lead the design and development of an intelligently-adaptive learning system.

Clark’s goal is the appropriate use of technology, including the full spectrum of human and capabilities and goals. He’s been a leader in talking about how to consider the emotional side of learning as well as cognitive, not using learning when the problem isn’t a lack of skill, incorporating social into both formal and informal learning, cutting through the hype to the real affordances of technology, and promoting the value of learning to learn. These are the necessary steps to really start helping organizations deliver on meaningful improvement.

Quotes

Optimal execution is only the cost of entry; going forward, continual innovation will be the only sustainable differentiator.

The limitation is no longer the technology, the limit now is our imagination.

Conversations are the engine of business.

If you get the design right, there are lots of ways to implement it; if you don’t get the design right it doesn’t matter how you implement it.

Testimonials

Clark Quinn leads us through the necessary stages of development. He provides precisely what you need to know: systematic, logical coverage of how to create simulations and games that engage the learner and create the compelling learning experience we all dream about. ~ Donald Norman (on Clark’s first book: Engaging Learning)

…consistently demonstrated an imaginative (but also down-to-earth) ability to help the rest of us successfully to achieve the integration of advanced technology with the real world of learning. ~ James Burke

Clark Quinn sets the pace for a swift race toward mobile everything. His thought-leadership and focus on solutions that work make him the one to watch, to read, and to learn from now!” ~ Marcia Conner (on Clark’s second book, Designing mLearning)

… provided us the ability to improve the engagement of our product while retaining the educational and technical sophistication of our solutions … professional, creative, and adds significant value …” ~ Charlie Gillette

Clark Quinn gives aspiring learning technologists a crash course in what it will take to harness the power and potential of mobile learning in higher educational settings. He has given us a comprehensive, engaging guide for creating mobile learning solutions that inspire anytime, anywhere, and on whatever device one chooses.” ~ Ellen Wagner (on Clark’s third book: The Mobile Academy)