Semantics, semantics

I dislike grammar jokes, pedants, and Oxford commas.

That’s my jovial way to end a year that will be remembered as a tough one for a long time to come.

I found blogging a welcome distraction, so much so that in addition to my annual list of e-learning conferences in Australia (which took a beating!) I churned out no fewer than ten thought pieces.

My joke at the start of this summary is a nod to the theme of semantics, which I maintain are important in the L&D profession. Because it is with shared meaning that we do our best work.

I invite you to share your own views on each piece, so feel free to drop me a like and contribute a comment or two…

• In 6 more examples of Augmented Reality I share half a dozen real-world instances of an emerging technology.
   
• In Unhappy sheets I reframe Level 1 evaluation.
   
• In The next normal several of my peers and I anticipate the long-term nature of Learning & Development.
   
• In Yellow submarine I round down the prevailing notion of human-centered design.
   
• In The leader’s new clothes I distinguish between management training and leadership training.
   
• In Transformers I redefine training for a remote workforce.
   
• In More than just a pretty face I maintain a difference between certification badges and practitioner badges.
   
• In Academic deflation I spot a trend in higher education.
   
• In Roses are red I propose definitions for oft-used yet ambiguous terms such as “competency” and “capability”.
   
• In Scaling up I offer a simplified scale of measurement to support proficiency across an organisation.

I hope you find my articulations helpful.

In the meantime, I wish that for you and your family the Christmas season will be a time of healing, rest and renewal.

6 more examples of Augmented Reality

Busted any ghosts lately?

About this time last year I published one of my most popular blog posts, 20 real-world examples of Augmented Reality, in which I shared examples of what people in the real world are currently doing with this emerging technology – in contrast to the promise of what we could be doing.

I’d like to share with you half a dozen other examples that I’ve stumbled upon since then. They aren’t necessarily new to the world, but they were new to me.

Feel free to share your own examples via a comment below…

Hot on the heels of LEGO’s recent foray into AR – namely LEGO AR-Studio which lays virtual bricks over the real world – is LEGO Hidden Side which lays virtual ghosts over real bricks.

The hunt-and-trap game mechanics sound suspiciously similar to those of Pokémon Go, but I suppose their objective is to introduce a narrative into the playing experience, thereby increasing its engagement value.

While we’re in the interactive entertainment space, another concept evolving with AR technology is the escape room.

One app billing itself as an augmented reality escape room is Scriptum, but it looks more like VR to me. My idea of AR is what Escape the Room: AR does: place virtual puzzles in a real room.

On a more serious note, scientists have reported clinical outcomes with augmented reality prostheses to alleviate phantom limb pain.

And while we’re nerding out, I’m thoroughly impressed with something simpler: Measure, which turns your Apple device into a virtual tape measure for sizing up objects in the real world.

I wonder if it can measure a ghost?

Less is more

Well that’s my excuse, anyway.

2019 has been a tumultuous year for me, so I haven’t been able to write as much as I have in previous years.

Nonetheless, I hope the few articles I was able to publish proved useful and worthwhile.

Here they are again in case you missed them or fancy a refresh…

20 real-world examples of Augmented Reality

As with VR, there’s plenty of talk out there about how wonderful AR is and the incredible potential it offers us. But I’m more interested in what people in the real world are currently doing with this emerging technology.

The L&D maturity curve

By looking through the lens of “Performance First”, an L&D team can work backwards to focus its energy on where it’s needed.

Micro-learning’s unsung sibling

While I’m an advocate of micro-learning, a less buzzy but perhaps just-as-important variant is micro-assessment.

5 podcasts every e-learning professional should listen to

If like me you’re just getting started with podcasts, or perhaps you’re looking for another one to add to your subscription, I offer you 5 of my favourites.

I wish you loads of joy over the Christmas season, and I look forward to reconnecting with you in 2020!

20 real-world examples of Augmented Reality

The 2019 instalment of Virtual Reality Working Out Loud Week kicks off next month. For a couple of previous VR WOL Weeks I’ve collated lists of the examples that the participants unearthed – see 20 real-world examples of Virtual Reality and 25 more real-world examples of Virtual Reality.

This time however I’ve decided to do something different. I’ve decided to focus my attention on Augmented Reality.

As with VR, there’s plenty of talk out there about how wonderful AR is and the incredible potential it offers us. There’s also a lot of talk about how much better it is than VR, which I find comically absolutist. Surely it’s circumstantial?

In any case, I’m interested in what people in the real world are currently doing with this emerging technology, so I’ve collated the following examples.

In the post-Pokémon Go era, an increasing number of AR games pepper the market. While one game replaces Pikachu with robots, another goes a step further by leveraging the background environment as you ward off alien invaders.

For its part, Niantic is continuing to evolve Pokémon Go with occlusion, by which the augmentation integrates with the background environment. (For example, a monster pops its head up from behind your couch.) Word on the street is this kind of next level immersion will feature in their upcoming Harry Potter spinoff.

The trail being blazed by the entertainment industry is being quickly followed by workplace educators. For example, Japan Airlines uses AR to train its engine technicians, while Deakin University uses it to teach its healthcare students. In terms of performance support, doctors use AR to perform target guided surgery, while the Royal Navy uses it to aid the officer of the watch.

Some companies are also using AR to educate their customers. In my previous blog post Educate everyone I praised Hyundai’s virtual guide which helps Sonata owners maintain their vehicle. Another car maker, MINI, has glasses that not only provide its drivers with navigational prompts, but also lets them see through the car.

In the world of retail furniture, Ikea lets you see how their products look in your home and another app walks you through assembling them.

Customer education blurs with marketing, and prime examples of the latter are ModiFace’s hair colour and nail polish previewers. In a similar vein, Kinect lets you try on clothes, Lacoste lets you try on shoes, Shop 4 Rings lets you try on jewellery, while Speqs completes your look with glasses.

In regard to the point-and-play type of AR, one of the most impressive I’ve seen is that of winemaker 19 Crimes who brings the convicts on their labels to life. The eerie black-and-white treatment reminds me of Koko tormenting a cat in The Clown’s Little Brother – which was released back in 1920!

My coverage of augmented reality here is by no means exhaustive; it simply represents the instances I’ve stumbled upon recently. If you are aware of another real-world example, please share it via a comment below.

For more virtual reality, follow the #VRwolweek hashtag on Twitter and I encourage you to participate yourself.

In the meantime, who fancies running an #ARwolweek…?

Cognitive Reality

Yet another year has come and gone at the speed of light!

For me, 2016 has been the year in which the Virtual Reality rubber finally met the road, while Augmented Reality made a surprise splash into the mainstream via those pesky Pikachu.

As a consequence, VR & AR dominated much of my blogging attention this year. But they weren’t the be-all-and-end-all of the e-learning universe. Plenty of other topics occupied my mind, from 70:20:10 and 3D printing to the extended enterprise and our universally despised compliance training regime.

I hope you found something useful among my musings, and I invite you to catch up on any that you may have missed…

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality

• Paper cuts

• 20 real-world examples of Virtual Reality

• Educate everyone

• Good gear

• The future of entertainment

• 3 uses of Virtual Reality in workplace education

• Pokémon whoa!

Other stuff

• 70:20:10 for trainers

• The 70:20:10 lens

• Clarifying the extension

• A use for 3D Printing in the corporate sector

• Our secret world of learning

• How to fix our senseless compliance training

• Psst…! 10 more tips for sales reps

• Constructive criticism of Coursera

To those who celebrate Christmas, I wish you a merry one, and I look forward to reconnecting with everyone in 2017.