The book ‘The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine’ is Michael Lewis’ marvellous account of the idiocy and greed that led to the sub-prime bubble and the resulting global financial crisis.

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 from saturation.  People are accessing the internet more from mobile devices than desktops, and some people only access the internet via mobile!  And when a small company like Google says that they’re designing for mobile first and the desktop is an afterthought, it is safe to say mobile is on the move. Read more →

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, but in the execution.  As he would say, stopping at level 1 or 2 is worthless.  You need to start with Level 4, and work back.  This is true whether you’re talking about formal learning, informal learning, or whatever. Then, I’m not feeling like you have to be anal about levels 1-3, it’s level 4 that matters, but there’s plausibility that making the link makes your case stronger.  And I also like what I heard added at a client meeting: level 0, are they even taking the course/accessing the system?  But I digress… Read more →

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 it.  Which, I think, is a naive assumption, at least in this day and age. Read more →