NBN and eLearning
This post is going to focus on learning at work and the effects the National Broadband Network (NBN) might have on that. It's based on a short talk I gave at LearnX 2011.
The NBN will mean that 93% of Australian homes, schools and businesses will have broadband speeds of up to 100 MB. The remaining 7% will have access to high-speed wireless and satellite technologies.
The NBN is a major infrastructure project that is expected to be completed by 2021.
Why is bandwidth important?
Bandwidth is like the fuel for IT. It makes technology run faster and more cheaply. Australia is currently lagging behind in terms of access to broadband; in 2010, only 23.4% of households had broadband connections. Meanwhile, in Korea, the level is 50%; Seoul is known as the bandwidth capital of the world. In addition, Finland declared access to bandwidth to be a legal right. Maybe we could think about Australia's IT fuel as being a bit slow.
A lot of what is outlined in this blog post can already be done, but it's at the edges.
The future is already here; it's just not evenly distributed"”William Gibson.
It's the activity in which early adaptors are exploring. A good example of this is when clients start talking about interactive video and I start thinking about loading screen. Yes, it can be done now, but in a broadband enabled future it will be a reality.
To illustrate the possibilities, I'm going to use an example: joining a new organisation and comparing how things might work now with how they might work in the future. We are going to follow John on this journey.
John has been asked to do his safety induction online before he starts his first day.
Now
Now we have to worry about whether John has broadband access at home and his digital literacy.
In the future
In the future we will know that John is far more likely to have broadband access and be digitally literate. The NBN will give more people broadband connections at home, which will lead to a profound increase in digital literacy skills. This will also lead to greater demands and expectations for eLearning.
John wants to work from home for a few days a week.
Now
The organisation John is joining might have a work-from-home policy, but he will more than likely be the only person on the team working remotely, and the learning systems are geared for on-site access or face-to-face courses.
In 2010, a Telstra Survey showed that 80% of Australian employees would take up the offer of work-from-home arrangements if their employer offered it along with high-speed broadband access.
In the Future
In the future most of John's team will be nomadic and constantly connected through social networking. There will be daily HD video conferences that will allow the team to check in. It will feel just like being in the same room. The video sessions won't be just for meetings; they will be a permanent link to the office. The office will have a number of monitors with full-time video links to the people who are working remotely.
The learning and knowledge systems can be accessed from anywhere and are optimized for display on mobile devices.
An increase in telecommuting is one of major goal of the federal governments digital economy strategy. "Australia will have at least double its level of teleworking so that at least 12 percent of Australian employees report having a teleworking arrangement with their employer."
In the near future, more people will be working from home.
As part of John's career change he wants to complete a new postgraduate qualification.
Now
Now it's a blended course, with a workshop one weekend per month. All the lectures are recorded online and can be accessed on the learning management system.
Future
John finds some of the project work involves simulations using 3D virtual worlds. There is extensive use of video conferencing. As well as the traditional reading, there is a library of videos made by lecturers. One of the biggest changes the NBN will bring is in the way the "institutions of education" designs and develops delivery courses.
Video
If you don't already know it, YouTube is the second largest search engine online (after Google), and most of the traffic on our networks is now video bandwidth. As our Internet connections are becoming faster, we are choosing to use this bandwidth to watch video. We need to consider how we can increase the level of usage of video in our learning experiences.
John has some gaps in his skills and needs to understand some new business processes.
Now
He might now take some short face-to-face courses and be given coaching and mentoring in the workplace.
Future
Instead of taking face-to-face courses, there will be simulations of processes, and John could be coached through them. He learns by real exploration and gains real knowledge and expertise.
As John is working, he often needs to learn quickly.
Now
John's key resources for performance support are the intranet and LMS with PowerPoint style eLearning.
Future
In the near future, John's key resources will be in his pocket, on his phone, or on his tablet computer.
The NBN is mostly a fixed network, but there will be flow-on effects onto mobile networks.
We have already seen an explosion in sophisticated mobile use for learning. The real power and potential of mobile learning is to give context-sensitive instructions and information. Technologies such as augmented reality can look at a GPS location and allow video, sound and text to be layer over the views of the real world. Imagine standard operating procedures for machinery being shown over the tops of the machines. This could be the ultimate in real-time learning.
John discovers a process on Intranet that could be improved
Now
John has to talk with his manager about the change, and then the manager has to take that change to a committee.
Future
While John is following the process, he is able to make changes to the documentation. The performance systems are open, media rich and dynamic.
As more people become involved in generating content in their personal lives, doing things such as posting images on Facebook, they will come to expect the same sort of user-generated open-content systems at work.
Learner and user-generated content will become a more common part of our business systems.
To review the key points: The NBN will mean
- Increased digital literacy in the workplace
- Increased teleworking
- Increased media-rich learning experiences in our workplaces
- Increased context-sensitive mobile learning
- Increased learner-generated content
When we think about increased bandwidth, we often think about rich media, such as video and 3D simulations, what is more important is to think about what it might mean to have an increase in digital literacy in the workplace and increased teleworking. At a basic level, we see will see a profound shift in the demand for eLearning and an increased expectation for more sophisticated e-learning, which goes beyond PowerPoint slides and quizzes.
