Reflections on mLearnCon & Performance Support Symposium 2015 – Day 1

It’s hot in Austin. After a long day exploring yesterday, i was almost ready for a day in a ubiquitous and air conditioned hotel. A day exploring ideas, which started well with a session on our evolved relationship with knowledge. It’s easy to say, but things are changing. Have changed. It used to be about what you know, but today it’s about your ability to find things out, and to create (and co-create) the meaning within it. It’s about being effective: my session tomorrow includes ‘effective‘ in the title. It’s not about the technology: it’s about the outcomes.

Trends? Well, it’s good that the conversation has moved beyond the technology: it’s about performance, about meaning, about what we do with it. I always enjoy a conversation about knowledge: what is now unneeded? What do we push, in what context, and how? Clearly performance support is about contextualised knowledge, interpreted to my circumstance. Knowledge in the moment, packaged according to my needs.

Technology can streamline this, it can empower us, but only if it works on our terms. The point of technology is not to control, it’s to support, to facilitate: as i said in the book, it’s about a Mindset for Mobile, about effective methodology for design, about creating an ecosystem that supports us. Not one that controls us.

Technology is everywhere: we are entering the age of diverse ecosystems, interconnected devices (as i sit writing, wearing Glass, Watch, UPMove and with my phone in my pocket, i’m assailed by data and context). But it’s not enough to catch my attention: to help me be more effective, it needs to provide support.

I love how the fitness apps work on micro reward and micro failure: they don’t take it all away from me, they just tell me that i’ve failed today (due to being sat in halls all day…). They adjust my targets, they encourage and berate me, they support me. Contrast that to an annual performance review! It’s support and facilitation in the moment.

Day one has been great: catching up on conversations with old friends and making new ones. These three themes have predominated. Knowledge is no longer enough. Technology will not solve everything without the right methodology for design. Performance support is the prize: contextualised, in the moment, adaptive and responsive, by design.