Friday 9 December 2011

One small step.....

For the past two Christmas seasons the same holiday music lingers in our TV room  at my house. My spunky six year old  is more than happy to recite the same song over and over again, from the 1964 classic Rudolph Red Nosed Reindeer  …. "you put one foot in front of the other". My wife (1/2 way thru her Bachelor of Education degree) chimes in mid song…."and soon you'll be walking out the door".  I think the lesson here is don't over think stuff - just get up and move.

Most recently; I began a new journey with Desire2learn, (D2L) a passionate thriving eLearning company squarely focused on changing the way learners engage with their peers, inspiring teachers to embrace innovative pedagogy methods and transforming the way we communicate. This is a tremendous opportunity for early adopters and pioneers of mobile enablement (serving both nimble app developers and the Enterprise) who can bring tangible ideas and opportunities to the academic community. I look forward to adding my voice to the (mobile learning) mlearning discussion and meeting new friends (partners) along the way. 

My charter is to evangelize, attract and build an international mobile application developer community.  I will be actively engaging with developers that are seeking to expand their audience  reach. Additionally; we will align with device manufactures and MDM vendors, identify key integration partners (Student Information Systems, Publishers, ERP and Talent Management firms) and collaborate with national Carriers that share our vision of empowering lifelong learning. 

I've been lucky in my career to be have collaborated with several dynamic entrepreneurs who have transformed and changed the way we communicate and use technology.  While @ Sybase, I managed our mobility partner program and witnessed first-hand common challenges and headaches associated with tackling mobility as a top of mind opportunity that just won't go away - including:  

  1. Supporting bring your own device (BYOD)
  2. Considerations for mobile device management (MDM)
  3. Managing risk and understanding potential bottlenecks 
  4. Define clear goals and objectives with the end users
  5. Be flexible in your planning - technologies changes rapidly

On a weekly basis I will share some of these findings and along with real world deployments, best practices and lessons learned .  Building community is a two way exchange. I welcome your comments, ideas and thoughts on mobility and the impact it has on Education.


This weekend we'll be putting one foot in front of the other by cutting down the annual tree at our local Christmas Tree farm 


Let it snow!


Shawn

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