HTML5 and the opportunities of not having Flash

Apple published a collection of demos as a showcase for the support of HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript on their mobile devices and new Macs. All of these demos work very well and fast with the Safari browsers on my iPad and Macbook.

I have been thinking a lot about the lack of Flash support and the impact on the Learning field in recent weeks. Let me be provocative by saying that there is a part of me that has started to see this restriction as an opportunity:

We would by now have probably done a "mass conversion" of millions of existing Flash based eLearning courses without paying much attention to the new device capabilities being offered. Instead, we are now somewhat forced to reconsider our options because our existing standards and tools cannot be applied.

The demos above are not groundbreaking and do not leverage the device capabilities either but like every new iPad app I come across they did provide me with a different perspective and new ideas for potential learning applications.

It does take an effort and the learning curve is steep but as fundamental is the impact on Learning we could have by coming up with a totally new set of Mobile Learning standards and applications. Don't you think so? ;-)