Sir Alex Ferguson yesterday praised Ben Foster calling him Englands first-choice goalkeeper in waiting, after a game changing penalty shoot-out save. It proved pivotal to Manchester United claiming the Carling Cup to complete the second leg of what could be an unprecedented haul of five trophies.

We previously spoke about m-learning as a key growth area in learning for 2009. But what has this got to do with Manchester United winning their match? Ben Foster spent the moments before the penalties watching footage of Spurs players taking recent penalties on a video iPod, including another luckless O’Hara attempt.

The reduction in cost of portable video devices like the iPhone and the widespread availability of personal mp3 players with video capability represent a massive opportunity for all employees, not just future England goalkeepers.

Yesterday Manchester United took advantage of the fact that mobile learning provides learning-on-demand, at the point-of-need and just-in-time. Any employer can use it to provide performance support to learners in the workplace. All it takes is a simple set of How-Do-I procedures with a sprinkling of video or audio. As a form of positive reinforcement it clearly adds value.

When asked about his innovative use of technology the 25-year-old keeper said “I did a bit of research for the penalties, we tried to find out everything we could about Spurs beforehand and just before the shoot-out I was looking at a video on an iPod with Eric Steele our goalkeeping coach and Edwin. It’s a new innovation he’s brought in since coming to the club and on it were some of Spurs penalties, including one from O’Hara“

This is a great example of using m-learning in a very high pressure situation.