Will HTML5 bring us closer to an ideal (mobile) world? Many leaders in the field of technology-delivered instruction believe it will.
There is a lot of excitement and controversy around HTML5 these days. HTML5 is predicted to have a big impact, perhaps because it seems to simplify the complexity associated with so many different mobile operating systems and bring us closer to that mobile-friendly ideal world that so many of us long for. In this article, I would like to explain what the excitement is all about, how it impacts learning professionals, and what the implications for handheld mobile devices are.
Figure 1. The HTML5 badge: Coming soon to a learning app near you?
In an ideal world, we would have a stable and reliable programming language that works across all mobile platforms. This language would allow us to develop a learning solution once, and then deploy and view the published output on all handheld mobile devices, such as smartphones, handheld personal digital assistants (PDA), Ultra-Mobile Personal Computers (UMPC), and Tablet PCs. The result on all platforms would retain the look and feel of the original design.
Reality raises its ugly head
Design and development of applications for mobile devices (including ones that support learning) poses challenges to learning professionals, since the applications must be highly customized for the specific device. To design and develop on-the-job performance support tools for the Android, BlackBerry, iOS, Symbian (Editor’s Note: At least for a little while), Linux, Windows Mobile, Windows Phone 7, and many other platforms, you must design, develop, and publish multiple versions of the same content, each with different screen size, resolution, orientation (e.g., landscape or portrait), color graphics, video, and audio format. This is time consuming and is hardly cost-effective. In addition to design and development constraints, learning leaders must also deal with creating and integrating mobile learning into their overall learning strategy. At the same time, they must produce a positive ROI, and the IT team must contend with the security and reliability issues associated with introducing new technologies to an enterprise.
What is HTML5?
HTML5 is the fifth major revision of the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), the core language of the Web. Unlike tools that developers use today to develop apps for mobile devices, HTML5 is non-proprietary and open source so it is free to all to use.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the main international standards organization for the Web, standardizes HTML5. To the delight of some and to the dismay of others, a related standards group, the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) created some hype last January when it declared a name change for HTML5, stating that from now on HTML5 will simply be known as HTML. (Ian Hickson, The WHATWG Blog, http://blog.whatwg.org/html-is-the-new-html5, January 2011.) However, since this new version is so significant, in this article I’ll continue to refer to its standard and related specifications as HTML5.
Instructional designers and developers will appreciate new elements and features in HTML5, as it makes it possible to design, develop, and publish once and display the published content via each mobile device's browser. For example, HTML5 has new video and audio tags that play video and audio even in a notebook or desktop browser without requiring a proprietary plugin such as Adobe's Flash, Microsoft's Silverlight, or Apple's Quicktime. These new tags are still far from the level of maturity and elegance that Flash currently offers; nontheless HTML5 is a very real contender.
Although HTML5 has been around since 2004, it is still officially a "working draft," meaning it is a work in progress and the specifications are changing even now. At the moment none of the Web browsers for either mobile or desktop fully support HTML5, so this means that browsers are unable to display everything that you are supposed to see. To test how well any of the browsers in your notebook and handheld mobile devices support elements of HTML5, you can use http://html5test.com/ and hope to get as close as possible to 400 points. You also receive bonus points if the test detects features that are beyond specification requirements. (Niels Leenheer created The HTML5 test and Github is developing it. Note that this test is unaffiliated with the W3C or the HTML5 working group. This is a good browser tester, so I recommend bookmarking this link and testing your browser frequently. You are likely to notice improvements.)
What's the excitement all about?
The dominance of Adobe's Flash in all major Web browsers is well known. Unlike laptops or desktops though, key smartphone platforms do not support Adobe’s Flash player. Specifically, Apple's CEO Steve Jobs in his love-hate relationship with Adobe has even publically denounced Adobe and banned Flash from iPhone and iPad. (Steve Jobs. “Thoughts on Flash”, April 2010.)
In this modern-day Battle of the Titans, we are in the midst of a series of battles fought between CEOs, between the giants Google, Microsoft, and Apple against Adobe in an attempt to "destroy" this dominance of Flash. We hear doom and gloom predictions for Flash. The untimely death of Flash could potentially have an impact on eLearning since so much of our published output is Flash-based. So as learning professionals, we should definitely stay informed. At the same time, not to worry, Flash is not dead, and considering how stable and mature the Flash technology is, predictions of the demise of Flash are unlikely to prove true overnight or in the near future.
HTML5, it appears, will be an alternative to Flash, especially for developing cross-platform mobile applications. It has the backing of Apple, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, and Opera. RIM's BlackBerry platform will also support HTML5. Apple and Google even have Websites dedicated to promoting HTML5. See Apple’s showcase here: http://www.apple.com/html5/. Google’s Website, “HTML5 Rocks,” features interactive presentations, samples, a sandbox, tutorials, and more at http://www.html5rocks.com/.
On the other hand, Adobe has not given up. Last year, Adobe released a free HTML5 Pack extension for Dreamweaver CS5. (Pooja Prasad. Adobe Featured Blogs – Adobe Delivers HTML5 Support in Dreamweaver CS5. May 2010.) In March of this year Adobe released Wallaby, an experimental Flash-to-HTML5 tool that converts Flash (.fla files) to HTML5 with a simple drag and drop of the mouse. (Vanessa Rios. Adobe Featured Blogs – Flash to HTML5 Conversion Tool on Adobe Labs. March 2011.)
Adobe is also working on a prototype of an HTML5 animation and transition tool codenamed “Edge.” (Mark Anders, Preview of the Edge Prototype Tool for HTML5. October 2010.) Overall, it certainly looks like Adobe sees the writing on the wall and is getting prepared. In a surprise news release on Friday, May 13, 2011, Adobe announced a Flash player for Android 2.2 and above. It will come pre-installed on upcoming tablets and smartphones.
