The FIFA Soccer World Cup is already a distant memory. Yet, although it may be over, the competition taught us two valuable lessons. One is that beautiful football can still win games. The other is that technological solutions are never implemented for their own sake. However smart the technology, in the end its use always stands or falls on a business argument.

Fans have long appealed for the use of technology in football to aid the referee’s decision making, and these appeals reached fever pitch in two matches in the World Cup. Fortunately, England’s 4-1 loss to Germany was probably not altered by the referee failing to see that Frank Lampard’s shot had crossed the line. Nor did the fact that officials missed numerous fouls in the Dutch-Spanish final affect the result.

If either match had ended differently, the calls for technology to be used in high-value games would have been even higher. The technology surely sells itself – already used in tennis and rugby, reliable technology support for referees’ decisions seems eminently sensible. Yet the governing body FIFA had refused to consider any form of aid for the referee before the World Cup, and adamantly stuck to this refusal immediately after them.

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We recently presented our perspective on mobile learning at mLearnCon in San Diego.  The main theme communicated was that  mLearning should NOT be the act of transporting e-learning from a desktop to a smart phone.  The golden rule we follow at CERTPOINT, is to leverage new technologies, such as the smart phone, for what they are good at. As we look ahead at M-Learning, the approach to content must change.

What is mLearning good for?  A recent IBM study published in Training and Development Magazine gives us a clue.  In 2009,  IBM conducted a study to examine how its employees used their smart phones for their jobs and for skills growth. What they were surprised to find out was that mobile users rejected “e-Learning” delivered via their mobile phones and instead used their devices for job related support and access to late breaking information.  As a result of the study, IBM shifted its focus for mobile learning from delivering formal learning modules to just-in-time performance support systems.

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