The old real estate adage “Location, Location, Location” is gaining new meaning with current developments in mobile- and location-based technology. Nowhere is this truer than for mobile devices when workers use them to support learning and performance away from their desks and their computers.
With the advent of location-based services and two-dimensional bar-coding, for the first time many mobile devices can retrieve and deliver information based on the geographic position of the user, and on what the devices themselves can see there.
At this intersection of information and location, we find an explosion of novel and creative applications. These include advanced social networking programs that allow users to find each other and coordinate activities, and location-specific data broadcasts that provide detailed information for mobile professionals. Mobile phones, especially, with their cameras and Global Positioning Systems (GPSs), are the key platforms carrying these applications.
But how can instructional designers harness location-based services (LBS) to support learning? A new wave of applications promises to provide a fresh range of delivery options. This first-generation software demonstrates the possibilities of LBS, and suggests that innovative learning strategies may be just around the corner.
In this article, we explore some of the emerging technologies. This is a very early look, and at this point there is more potential than there are practical examples of its use in e?Learning. But even now, there is definite potential for use in performance support and just-in-time information delivery in learner populations already equipped with the right devices.
New applications
Most of the new applications related to location-based services do not directly support learning or performance as their primary purpose. At this time, the technology is very basic, and furthermore, not many learners actually own devices that support it. However, we would like to begin by reviewing what existed as of last week. Many readers will be aware of the release on Friday, July 11, of the iPhone 2.0, with incorporated GPS, accessible developer environment, and online application store. This is only the latest tip of the iceberg. There is much, much more, as you will see.
Hardware
Most location-based services get their power from global positioning services built into mobile devices. Until recently, GPS relied on independent devices that only provided location-related functions – latitude and longitude, height above sea level, direction of travel, and speed. With the advent of so-called smart phones, manufacturers began building GPS functions into mobile telephones.
The latest generation of many telephone models now includes GPS. Among these, in addition to the iPhone 2.0, are phones with even more powerful systems and software built in, such as the AT&T Tilt (also known as the HTC 8900 or TyTN, depending on the cellular provider), the Nokia N95, the latest Blackberry models, and many others. Other phones are able to link to separate GPS units with a cable or via Bluetooth radio, and these phones can run software that uses the GPS data.
Another hardware technology that is important to location-based services is the mobile phone camera, when used to read 2D barcodes. A 2D barcode is one in which the elements of the code appear as small black or colored squares within a larger square grid. (See Figures 1 and 2 for examples.) Thus, 2D stands for “two-dimensional,” to distinguish them from the older linear UPC bar codes so familiar from retail settings over the last thirty years.
With the appropriate software running on the parent device, a digital camera can scan the 2D code. (See Sidebar 1 for a discussion of 2D barcode systems.) Typically, these codes can contain information ranging from plain text to URLs (Web addresses), and from telephone numbers to computer instructions. The digital camera could be a Web cam attached to a desktop computer, but most often now it is a mobile phone camera.
There are a number of different approaches to encoding data in two-dimensional arrays for reading by cameras, but three particular systems are most significant world-wide (in terms of visibility and familiarity).
QR (Quick Response) is the most familiar 2D barcode scheme, especially in Japan and in China, where advertisers and retailers have used it for several years. It is so familiar that some people use “QR” as a generic term for all 2D codes, but QR is a specific type which the Japanese firm Denso-Wave created in 1994. These 2D barcodes appear on magazine covers, in newspapers, and on billboards, where consumers can easily use their mobile phones to read the information encrypted in them. QR codes contain all of the data within the barcode itself, and there are a number of related systems for generating the codes. Some systems (“Design QR”) can create a grid that incorporates an image, or that uses color. A QR code nominally can contain up to 7089 numeric characters, or 4296 alphanumerics, or 1817 kanji/kana characters, or 2953 bytes of 8-bit binary data, but variations on the code have different limits. The limit seems to be camera resolution. While Denso-Wave owns the patent on QR code technology, the company does not exercise its rights, which effectively makes QR code™ an open standard. (“QR Code” itself is a registered trademark of Denso-Wave Incorporated in Japan and elsewhere.)
Data Matrix code is more widely used in Europe, and increasingly by the U.S. Department of Defense, mostly for marking small items. Data Matrix codes can be very compact (2 or 3 mm on a side), and can contain up to 2335 alphanumeric characters in a matrix. The size of the matrix depends on the amount of information encoded. Data Matrix code may appear in square matrices or in rectangular arrangements. The data, as with QR, can be either text or raw data. There are several variations on the Data Matrix code, mainly intended to reduce errors when reading damaged codes. One company, Semacode, converts internet URLs into Data Matrix symbols to encode Web addresses. (Editor’s Note: Do not confuse Semacode with Semapedia.org, discussed later in this article. The two are not related.) Like QR, Data Matrix is a free standard, covered by an ISO standard. It is in the public domain, and is free of licensing and royalties. However, all documentation is only available for a fee. RVSI/Acuity CiMatrix (acquired by Siemens AG) created the Data Matrix system. There is some dispute about Data Matrix. Acacia Technologies claims that Data Matrix infringes on one of their U.S. patents. This claim is pending resolution in the courts. However, Acacia’s patent expired in 2007, so it only affects previous usage if the court finds for Acacia.
EZcode is a 2D code system coming into use in the United States. Invented by ETH Zurich, and licensed by Scanbuy, EZcode matrices contain a single “index” number that relates to content held on a central server, rather than containing the information itself. The EZcode system transmits the index code to the central server via a wireless connection. The server retrieves the content (alphanumeric textual information, telephone number, internet URL, or instructions to the mobile device that scanned the code), and transmits it back to the scanning device, where it is displayed or executed. The scanning device depends on having a wireless connection to the Internet to receive the information indexed by the code. Scanbuy offers scanner software that runs on any operating system and on popular mobile phones, including Windows Mobile phones, Blackberry, Nokia, and Palm Treo (among many others). As with Data Matrix, EZcode is the subject of patent infringement claims. Since 2004, NeoMedia and Scanbuy have been in court over NeoMedia’s claim that Scanbuy’s use of an indexing system infringes on NeoMedia’s patents. However, at this point, Scanbuy is moving forward with a campaign to persuade advertisers and publishers to use EZcode, and some examples have appeared in the last couple of years.
Scanner (reader) downloads:
QR code
http://reader.kaywa.com (Does not support Windows Mobile)
http://www.quickmark.com/tw/En/basic/download.asp (Covers many phone models, including Windows Mobile, requires registration)
Data Matrix
Both the QuickMark scanner and the Kaywa scanner can decode Data Matrix codes
EZcode
In the United States, text SCAN to 43588
Elsewhere in the world, direct your mobile phone browser to www.getscanlife.com.
Note: The EZcode scanner will decode only EZcode in the United States, Mexico, and Denmark. In Spain and France, it will decode EZcode and Data Matrix. In China, it will decode EZcode and QR code. It will decode EZcode anywhere in the world.
Creating 2D codes
To create QR codes, direct your browser to: http://qrcode.kaywa.com or http://www.quickmark.com.tw/En/diy/?qmLink (no login required) or just Google “qr code generate”
To create Data Matrix codes, see: datamatrix.kaywa.com or http://invx.com (also generates a QR code for the same content)
To create EZcodes, go to: www.scanlife.com (requires registration, limit three EZcodes for personal use)
Software
How do organizations use the location data and the bar-coded information that mobile devices can now acquire? Many of the applications are straightforward and obvious. By giving directions, GPS provides performance support for drivers, sales people, and others who must move efficiently from one location to another. 2D barcodes can provide information about products and inventory, links to company Web sites and sales notices, among other things. If that were all that these services provided, they would be little more than novelties.
What makes the difference? Software and the processing power built into mobile devices, and wireless communication between each individual device and servers, other devices, and the Web “cloud.” Here are some examples, and potential applications to e-Learning.
Location-based social networking
Applications like Loopt (http://www.loopt.com), Whrrl (http://www.whrrl.com) and nrme (http://www.nrme.com) (for the iPhone only) allow the user to broadcast his or her location and receive updates on their friend’s movements (as long as the user and the friend use phones that can run the same software and have service from participating providers). Users can share recommendations on restaurants, and meet up for lunch spontaneously when they happen to be in the same area. All three of these applications rely on built-in GPS in mobile phones.
Admittedly, these specific applications may be trivial as far as learning is concerned, and there is the added drawback that GPS generally requires that one be in an area with an unobstructed view of the sky (i.e., no roof, no tall buildings blocking direct visual access to the GPS satellites). However, they do demonstrate a possibility at the intersection of social networking (you can only get the locations of friends who give you permission to know) and location data.
Sense Networks has
developed an application for the iPhone and Blackberry, known as Citysense
(http://www.citysense.com), that takes user location data a step further.
Citysense has as its goal the creation of traffic maps that correspond to
specific tastes and subcultures.(Editor’s Note: This is not the
same application as CitySense at www.citysense.net.)
In its current release, Citysense combines live anonymous data (GPS- and
WiFi-derived locations of users in
Other applications may align more closely with the requirements of mobile learning.
Image navigation and geo-tagging
Breadcrumbz for the Android platform, and GPSed for Blackberry, Nokia N95, and Windows Mobile smartphones allow the user to navigate with images instead of relying on maps. (Editor’s Note: Android is the first complete, open, and free mobile platform, developed by The Open Handset Alliance, which is headed by Google. The main site is at http://code.google.com/android/.)
Breadcrumbz (http://www.bcrumbz.com) supports navigating by pictures alone (or by pictures and map together). Users create routes with their smartphones, as the GPS in the phone records the route, and as the users take pictures of landmarks with the phone camera. When the user takes a picture, the software records the location, creating a geo-tag for the photo. The user can then store and share the recorded route. On playback in another smartphone, the phone’s GPS will visually guide the new user along the route, and will display the landmark photos at the correct locations, giving visual cues and reassurance. Breadcrumbz also supports voice instructions, and works in areas where GPS loses its signal. It does not require an Internet connection. You can supplement routes with rich content.
The developers refer to this as “user-created geo-content.” (Editor’s Note: Watch the video on the Breadcrumbz Web site, which involves a route through Jerusalem by car and on foot, and this makes much more sense.) This is performance support, at the least, for pedestrians and cyclists, supports digital “guided tours,” and could easily be a learning application for such jobs that involve getting around in areas where GPS maps do not exist or are of no use.
GPSed (http://www.gpsed.com) is similar to Breadcrumbz, and supports more mobile phone models. It offers a site where users can publicly post their tracks, as well as archive them privately. Users can display their tracks on Google Maps or Google Earth, and attach photos to GPS tracks from Picasa and Flickr. It does not support “playback” of a track on another mobile device. (Editor’s Note: Again, this makes more sense if you look at some of the featured tracks posted on the GPSed Web site.)
Since these programs focus on navigation, they use the geographic data composited with the images to prompt the user to turn, or to take notice of a specific entrance (in the case of Breadcrumbz), or to place the images in the right place on a map (in the case of GPSed). But the idea of accessing images of the user’s physical location laden with relevant data could find ready application in the context of mobile learning.
This technique could be adapted to quickly orient employees to a new workplace, or to provide mobile professionals with a convenient instructional tool. For example, property appraisers and building inspectors could create image-based Wiki’s of a given site. These Wikis would be an ideal way to store information about building features and code compliance, which they could also use to develop tutorials for students. Such tutorials would be an ideal implementation of Bruner’s Constructivist theories of learning (see http://tip.psychology.org/bruner.html). Almost like an interactive scavenger hunt, this form of instruction encourages the student to learn through self-directed experience.
Seero (http://www.seero.com/), a ”journalism” application (actually, “video-journaling” might be a better description), approaches location-based learning from a different perspective. Instead of focusing on providing information to the user based on their location, Seero enables users to become “geo-broadcasters.” It supports producing and sharing live and archived, geo-tagged video streams referenced to the user’s physical location. The program also seeks to provide the geo-broadcaster with a range of local information in order to provide them with context for their broadcasts. Viewers can then search for these broadcasts, and “tune in” to a specific geographic area or watch an archived video of a location. During playback, a separate window displays a moving map of the user’s location, synchronized to the video. (Editor’s Note: The featured videos on the site make this much clearer.) Seero has the potential to become a powerful tool for any learning application where geography is a relevant factor.
Interview with Ernie Thor
We had the opportunity to discuss the future of location-based learning with Ernie Thor, a member of The eLearning Guild, and a senior instructional Designer at AT&T. He has thirty years of experience in the field of instruction design; ten of those years focused on wireless training. He has worked for many companies, including Boeing and Bank of America. His expertise provided much of the foundational knowledge for this article.
Ernie described how the Bluetooth protocol, which originally provided users with information about local computer and printer settings, was a forerunner of location-based services. The limitation on Bluetooth is that it is highly localized, with an effective range of only a few meters. But providing location-based services over a mobile network allows for ubiquitous coverage.
Enthusiastic about the potential for these new services, Thor said, “[Location-based Learning] will provide the means to give an employee what they need, when they need it, wherever they need it, and it can be specific to their location. It’s another tool in the belt of just-in-time training.”
To explain the utility of this instructional method, he described how certain skills lend themselves more readily to one form of instruction than another. For example, a video is not the best way to learn to ride a bicycle, because you need to develop the motor skills necessary to maintain control. In the same way, there are skills sets and information that can derive tremendous benefit from an instructional method that incorporates location-specific information.
Ernie also discussed how the evolution of training technologies transforms the very nature of instructional content. When he began his career, 16mm educational films were the gold standard. The time and expense required to produce movies greatly restricted their potential applications. But with the introduction of affordable video cameras, and even more so with the proliferation of Web video, the cost of production dropped quickly. In this environment, training videos can be short, cheap, and very spontaneous. In the same way, mobile technology will facilitate the development of new modes of instruction.
