Back in the olden days when I was in college, a professor of mine asked me to read Johan Huizinga's Homo Ludens.
For those who have known me throughout my life as academic, teacher, writer, entrepreneur, technologist, strategist--you have seen me surface and re-surface this text.
I used Home Ludens in multiple college papers, my master's thesis, the first post of the now defunct Great American Pinup team blog, as a frame for team building...it's power over me for the last 20 or so years has not diminished.
"Let my playing be my learning, and my learning be my playing." has become a core tenet of my thinking.
Currently I am re-using the tenets in how I frame product strategy.
The gamification of the Web for me is a symptom of this core human need to be "lost in it." This means we aspire to be engrossed, engaged, freed to feel free with the activity of the moment.
Oddly enough games and their rules provide microcosms where the feeling of total immersion, a sense of total freedom, a sense of transformation unbounded by fear, can be possible.
Sometimes games create but a flash of this feeling. But that flash may be rich enough to engage and re-engage its players. The lottery, tic-tac-toe, Go, rewards programs for credit cards, progress bars, all are game elements that displace the reality of the task with a game that compels me to participate.
Teachers have long sought games that reinforce their learning objectives. This is how teachers have created successful students at many levels. To get the student "playing" is to get them learning.
So why does this matter? The gamification of the Web is happening...and no where is this more important than in learning.
For the Kauffman Foundation I presented with Eric Ries to a group of learning start-ups. One myth I asked them to dispel, that was ripe for opportunity, is that games and video games in particular have negative learning impact. This is false, tremendous learning can be achieved through games, gaming, and video games in particular.
Challenges, points, badges, connections, Farmville, Sims, Kongregate, Scvngr, Gamesville, how it will all manifest, who knows?
The game-changing play for Learning (and the Web at large) will be the embrace of games and gaming as a wave of engagement that will re-invigorate the Web.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Thursday, September 02, 2010
5 Ways the iPad Changes the Learning Marketplace
The iPad will accelerate many changes in the learning space. I think there are specific capabilities on the iPad that will dramatically impact the production of learning applications and learning content going forward.
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1. "Occasionally connected computing" comes of age making any learning environment viable for computer use whether bandwidth is huge, weak, or non-existent.
The iPad fulfills on the promise of the uber-rich client that draws what it needs from the Web and renders it in the most optimal way for the user.
The sci-fi images of the user moving their hands side-to-side through holograms to manipulate a user interface is not far off.
2. Price. User's receive the richest available interface at the same price level as a smart phone.
The beef with tablets and handhelds and phones has always been the nature of their usable interface. Built to be small. Modeled after a keyboard/mouse interface.
The rocket science here is that the pricepoint is right AND the interface provides the ultimate user experience (not the least appealing experience). The expectation that the laptop/desktop experience is the ideal or preferred experience is gone!
3. Trust of the experience from Enterprise users.
The iPad is inheriting the best of the iPhone experience and it is seeing a universal groundswell in demand from the Enterprise user.
Large enterprise organizations, e.g. entire sales forces, are demanding the experience because it not only works as a hi-fi experience for training themselves but training (or demoing to) a customer by just holding up the iPad has real impact.
Who expected that the Enterprise would so rabidly (correct spelling) adopt the device?
4. Content and apps catalogs assumed as a default behavior of coursework.
iTunes tamed music and the iPad will tame coursework. The music labels used to control all the production and distribution of music.
With digitization, followed by stores like iTunes, the democratization of music production and consumption shifted radically.
Edu content will feel the same shift. Major providers of content will feel the shift of production of content into the hands of the distributed marketplace. Expect the aggregation of content from major providers and others into agnostic catalogs. Much of the content will be authored by indie providers. Much of the content will be consumed in short snippets (a single song rather than a entire album).
Expect "Kayak" for "Coursework" to make the iPad an even more powerful learning tool.
5. Collaboration as an experience will be assumed.
Like an OS, the features that accelerate collaboration will become assumed as part of the learning experience.
a. Location: I will understand who and what is nearby that is relevant to my learning and interests.
b. Opinion: I will see what others think of what I am learning. I will see what they think, how they classify my learning, and how they advise me and others to proceed. I will trust these people because either I know them or others I trust have ranked them as ideal sources.
c. Presence: I will be able to connect in real time with people interested in or knowledgeable about the same things I am interested in. Live voice, video, chat, and sharing will become instantaneous and easy in all of my learning on the iPad.
------
Undoubtedly the iPad is cool. What is really exciting is that the learning marketplace, including the corporate learning marketplace, appears to have adopted the iPad in a way that is unique and lends itself to becoming the tool of choice for transforming the learning space.
-----
1. "Occasionally connected computing" comes of age making any learning environment viable for computer use whether bandwidth is huge, weak, or non-existent.
The iPad fulfills on the promise of the uber-rich client that draws what it needs from the Web and renders it in the most optimal way for the user.
The sci-fi images of the user moving their hands side-to-side through holograms to manipulate a user interface is not far off.
2. Price. User's receive the richest available interface at the same price level as a smart phone.
The beef with tablets and handhelds and phones has always been the nature of their usable interface. Built to be small. Modeled after a keyboard/mouse interface.
The rocket science here is that the pricepoint is right AND the interface provides the ultimate user experience (not the least appealing experience). The expectation that the laptop/desktop experience is the ideal or preferred experience is gone!
3. Trust of the experience from Enterprise users.
The iPad is inheriting the best of the iPhone experience and it is seeing a universal groundswell in demand from the Enterprise user.
Large enterprise organizations, e.g. entire sales forces, are demanding the experience because it not only works as a hi-fi experience for training themselves but training (or demoing to) a customer by just holding up the iPad has real impact.
Who expected that the Enterprise would so rabidly (correct spelling) adopt the device?
4. Content and apps catalogs assumed as a default behavior of coursework.
iTunes tamed music and the iPad will tame coursework. The music labels used to control all the production and distribution of music.
With digitization, followed by stores like iTunes, the democratization of music production and consumption shifted radically.
Edu content will feel the same shift. Major providers of content will feel the shift of production of content into the hands of the distributed marketplace. Expect the aggregation of content from major providers and others into agnostic catalogs. Much of the content will be authored by indie providers. Much of the content will be consumed in short snippets (a single song rather than a entire album).
Expect "Kayak" for "Coursework" to make the iPad an even more powerful learning tool.
5. Collaboration as an experience will be assumed.
Like an OS, the features that accelerate collaboration will become assumed as part of the learning experience.
a. Location: I will understand who and what is nearby that is relevant to my learning and interests.
b. Opinion: I will see what others think of what I am learning. I will see what they think, how they classify my learning, and how they advise me and others to proceed. I will trust these people because either I know them or others I trust have ranked them as ideal sources.
c. Presence: I will be able to connect in real time with people interested in or knowledgeable about the same things I am interested in. Live voice, video, chat, and sharing will become instantaneous and easy in all of my learning on the iPad.
------
Undoubtedly the iPad is cool. What is really exciting is that the learning marketplace, including the corporate learning marketplace, appears to have adopted the iPad in a way that is unique and lends itself to becoming the tool of choice for transforming the learning space.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
10 myths 10 Minutes 10 tweets for Opening Night of #SWSF Learning
This presentation was delivered at Startup Weekend San Francisco #SWSF just after Eric Ries's. No talk track or audio on this Slideshare. But do ask if you want to hear what I said.
10 myths 10 Minutes 10 tweets
View more presentations from dkoehn68.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Ignite Your People Knowhow: Learning Anywhere, Everywhere
http://bit.ly/bDpJgL
Tuesday, 24 August 2010, 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM (GMT -04:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
As your organization seeks new ways to outperform the status quo, ensure you're harnessing and multiplying the knowhow and performance of your people. Traditional work styles have given way to today's networked way of working, where the norm is highly “connected” people operating in a fluid environment and fast changing pace. Today's new work style means that learning needs to happen as part of work rather than as a separate, formal event. This means enabling learning where people work, where they travel, outside of work, connected, disconnected, practically anywhere and everywhere. Now more than ever, your organization needs to embrace all the ways in which you can give people and teams the knowhow necessary to effectively compete and succeed.
Register for this web seminar on Igniting People Knowhow to explore:
• How learning processes have evolved to incorporate formal, informal and social aspects
• How new approaches in learning delivery can transform the user experience
• How your corporate portal can become a one-stop solution for critical learning and process support
• How to assemble the experience of your choice with embeddable business processes
• How to deliver learning to individuals across the globe in offline and mobile situations
• How your learning initiatives can directly impact your company's revenue, profits and business agility
Join David Koehn, head of Saba's Learning Strategy group, and learn how organizations of all sizes are redefining the learning experience to accommodate the new way of working, thereby multiplying the productivity and knowhow of their people and improving their business agility.
Register here: http://bit.ly/bDpJgL
Tuesday, 24 August 2010, 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM (GMT -04:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
As your organization seeks new ways to outperform the status quo, ensure you're harnessing and multiplying the knowhow and performance of your people. Traditional work styles have given way to today's networked way of working, where the norm is highly “connected” people operating in a fluid environment and fast changing pace. Today's new work style means that learning needs to happen as part of work rather than as a separate, formal event. This means enabling learning where people work, where they travel, outside of work, connected, disconnected, practically anywhere and everywhere. Now more than ever, your organization needs to embrace all the ways in which you can give people and teams the knowhow necessary to effectively compete and succeed.
Register for this web seminar on Igniting People Knowhow to explore:
• How learning processes have evolved to incorporate formal, informal and social aspects
• How new approaches in learning delivery can transform the user experience
• How your corporate portal can become a one-stop solution for critical learning and process support
• How to assemble the experience of your choice with embeddable business processes
• How to deliver learning to individuals across the globe in offline and mobile situations
• How your learning initiatives can directly impact your company's revenue, profits and business agility
Join David Koehn, head of Saba's Learning Strategy group, and learn how organizations of all sizes are redefining the learning experience to accommodate the new way of working, thereby multiplying the productivity and knowhow of their people and improving their business agility.
Register here: http://bit.ly/bDpJgL
Monday, May 03, 2010
Pay to Perform vs. Pay to Fail
Pay to Perform vs. Pay to Fail http://tinyurl.com/2blqseq #SabaSoftware
Sunday, May 02, 2010
Using Twitter in Face-2-face Learning
Using Twitter in face-2-face learning, http://janeknight.typepad.com/socialmedia/2010/05/using-twitter-in-a-facetoface-workshop.html
Saturday, February 06, 2010
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