Online auction powerhouse Ebay just bought a company called Redlaser. Redlaser produces an application that allows users to scan barcodes using an iPhone. Scanbuy, another barcode scanning technology provider, has announced the availability of a barcode software development kit for the android platform. Clearly, scanning barcodes with camera-enabled smartphones will be commonplace in the very near future.
Harvard Business Review’s John Sviokla describes some of the potential uses of barcode technology. Many of these are applicable to learning and development and performance support.
Technical performance support:
“Simply attaching a permanent barcode to any product … allows it to be indexed to all its documentation, service history, ancillary products, parts, etc.”
Layered information and supporting media:
“L.A. Candy, a book by Lauren Conrad … has a 2D barcode on it that takes you to videos and other content about the book.”
Indexing of information for easy retrieval:
“…scan all the data, have it stored in a secure place with the appropriate passcodes … and generate a unique barcode that will be a robust index to that data.”
In the last week, I’ve sat in on two excellent briefings by learning management system vendors that are investing heavily in supporting mobile learning. As barcode scanning becomes more common, we’ll see additional ideas on how this technology can be used for learning and development.
How Barcodes and Smartphones Will Rearchitect Information | John Sviokla | Harvard Business Review | 28 June 2010
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Nice posting Richard! It provides more evidence of how mobile learning can actually be a quite different experience from the traditional ways we’ve all consumed our corporate learning in the recent past (e.g., ILT, online learning, simulations). And its good to see that other LMS platform providers are finally taking note and starting to devise their own strategies for mlearning too!