Web 2.0 and Emerging Learning Technologies/Different Sectors

Technologies for Different Sectors: Business, Higher Education, Schools, Military, and Government

Military and/or Government

Chris Brunclik

Instructional Systems Technology

Indiana University in Bloomington, USA

               Military Emerging Learning Distribution (MELD)

Training and learning have become paramount in the military for personal growth and operational success. Although a priority, the strain of current missions makes it difficult, if not impossible, for members to attend a traditional classroom. Also, it is not practical to have members in traditional classrooms due to troop constraints. It is becoming a necessity to look at alternative ways of delivery or creative pedagogy to effect better instruction and cognition for shorter classroom times. This includes both personal education and personnel training.

For a serviceperson there are two types of learning 1) for self and 2) for country. These can be broken down into personal education and personnel training. All the services have recognized the need to invest in the individual. As technology improves a more intelligent soldier or sailor is need to operate, what were in the past, simple machines. Education enhances cognition and enhances problem solving skills so the military is investing in the future of the serviceperson and the organization by supporting a personal education.

The other side is personnel training. Personnel’s training is in consistent motion as the amount of instruction developed and the number of personnel needing the instruction is a consistent stream. This is best focused on by the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Training Transformation Program that has moved from only training with other services but to a broader training partnership (Kauchak, 2007). With new technologies coming into the services every day personnel need to be trained on these systems and work with the ones who know the technologies best and may or may not be a military entity. It is with this new focus of quality of training that will keep our military sharp for the challenges ahead

                                Personal Education

Each branch of the service is committed to the success of the individual through personal education. This is prevalent in the Army’s slogan “An Army of One.” Each individual makes a contribution to the team and the team should be committed to the individual. More and more service regulations and policies are requiring a certain education level for promotion. In the Navy, starting in 2011, one must have an Associate’s Degree (AA) to make Senior Chief (E8). This is unprecedented because usually enlisted rates are technical and seen as specialty knowledge (US Navy Promotion Board, 2005). In the Air Force it is an unwritten policy an airman is to get an AA prior to a senior rating (Mckinley, 2006). The services are offering time and assistance to realize an individual educational goal. With the technology and educational institutions commitment, deployments are no longer an excuse.

In July 2006 the Department of Defense held its Worldwide Education Service Officer Symposium in Orlando, FL. There were over 100 colleges and universities committed to the educational success of the men and women in uniform. They also came with the products to deliver that success, mainly online degrees. Online degrees are especially tailored to the military because in a traditional program it is likely one will be transferred or deployed prior to degree completion. Online makes the transition seamless. Also, most of these colleges and universities offered In-State tuition or scholarships to assist the individual service member’s educational goal. Although they were recruiting, the universities have made their product feasible. The web is to thank.

There was also some forward thinking to bring “any time anywhere” a reality. In a traditional on-line course “anywhere” meant anywhere with an internet connection but no longer. Schools are experimenting with classes on iPods and Personal Data Assistants (PDA). The University of Western Florida has entered a partnership with the CG to deliver a certificate in Human Performance Technology via a PDA. On CG Cutters there is intermittent connectivity and security concerns thus a PDA with the programs installed were given to each student to complete on the ship. The Bluetooth and Wireless cards were removed to alleviate security concerns. (Pedraza, 2006) The technology was highlighted at the 2005 Distance Learning Conference in Madison, WI to much fanfare (Chappell, 2005).

                                Personnel Training

The military has always embraced and been on the forefront technology for personnel and systems. However, they have been reluctant to apply the latest educational tools to the masses. For example, the Department of Defense, at the Army’s Armor School (AC3-DL) in Fort Knox KY, uses collaborative, blended environments to deliver instruction in logistics and leadership to Junior Officers (Bonk, Olson, Wisher, & Orvis, 2002). The instruction used three phases of learning, 1 and 2 are asynchronous and synchronous and the final phase was face-to-face. This blended training is only now being regularly deployed even though success was noted over five years ago. A search on the Navy Human Performance Center’s Spider website show, all the services are busy with projects and initiatives but are rare to find an actual product or implementation. (Navy HPC Spider, 2005)

This is not to say the military is not on the “cutting edge” of training and technology. The Army was using this blended system successfully, for this class, before anyone knew what hybrid learning was. In 2001 Sander and Guyer (2001) and a second report from Sander and Burnside (2001) came out that had same group with similar outcomes (Bonk, Olson, Wisher, & Orvis, 2002). The military knows these systems work but is slow to implement to ensure stewardship, quality, and consistency of training.

Face-to-face learning continues to be the method of choice for instructional delivery. Whether it is residential learning a “rate” or a trade, the environment focuses attention on peer interaction. It is for networking, as much as it is for learning, where camaraderie is born and career collaboration starts. This is true especially in a network field such as CG Marine Inspectors who regulate commercial vessels. The CG wants to meld these individuals together to form partnerships and a web of knowledge and expertise for a broad range of regulatory mandates which only a face-to-face can do, initially. However, there is no real professional development beyond the core courses and this is where advanced technologies and learning strategies can assist. Also, a comprehensive look of the length and scope and classes should be looked at to see if they could be shorted while maintaining social cohesiveness.

Online Training

There is a move to online training or e-learning, especially redundant mandatory instruction, and is now a mainstay in military environments. In the CG there is e-learning to deliver annual training such as Information Security and Sexual Harassment. It is also employed on a wider front by the Army with the AC3-DL program. As stated by Bonk and Wisher (2000); “As training in the military setting becomes increasingly distributed through the Internet or intranets, it is advantageous to understand the documented Web-enabled instructional approaches and learning results.” It is not only important to use the web but to identify what instruction works using the web (constructivism) and track the results of the learning (Human Performance Technology). Online we can deliver and measure performance easier than ever before and this benefit has being realized by the military enhancing accountability.

Blended Learning

Blended learning is becoming more prominent. It is not uncommon for instruction to begin prior to arrival at a military school. The CG deployed a blended learning course for its Boarding Officer Program within the last year. The instruction is only open to reservists who do not have the time to go to five weeks of residential instruction. One completes an on-line computer based learning course then goes for two weeks to the Federal Law Enforcement Center in Charleston, SC, to complete instruction. If this program is successful the CG plans to open it to the Active Duty because less time away means more time to the mission and family. However, blended or hybrid learning is more synonymous with asynchronous and synchronous chat.

If one is sent to a military school the standard is that minor preparations must be done by the student learning terms and concepts prior to arrival. The method is more than likely to be asynchronous, through email. There are systems designed for the military for synchronous chat, such as the Virtual Tactical Operations Center (VTOC) for the AC3-DL, but it is not common (Bonk et al., 2002). Synchronous chat had been verified as an effective means of communication but there is a lot in the deployment and the security of the system (Orvis, Wisher, Bonk, & Olson, 2002). The Coast Guard has recently initiated an instant messaging function through its main portal, CG Central. Although not yet fully operational it will have the potential to communicate, real time, with others throughout the CG.

Simulations

Simulations and gaming are becoming prominent in the training and education field and the military is at the forefront. It is important to realize the difference between the two. Games involve strategy or problem solving, like a puzzle that can be real or not real. Simulations are, according to Bonk and Denning (2005), “Simulations attempt to provide an environment that represents or mimics reality so as to facilitate learning of the player or user.” A game is like the Army’s “American Army” which is a popular game free to download. Within the game one must complete basic training before they can get a specialty and go on missions. This is unlike Massive Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) where people are networked, potentially, throughout the world in an interactive virtual game competing or collaborating, in real time. This has potential benefits for the military to launch month or yearlong games where people make decisions about certain logistic or combat situations. The data from the game can then reviewed for feedback (Bonk & Denning 2005)

The National Center of Simulation (NCS) is the main name of simulation not only in the military but also in the industry as they are the bridge to both. According to the NCS website (2007); “The National Center for Simulation is a member supported non-profit organization formed in 1993 as the link among the defense industry, government, and academia on behalf of the entire simulation, training, and modeling community.” They are located in the center of the model and simulation (M&S) company hub and military acquisition centers in Orlando, FL. The NCS then acts as a liaison between the industry of innovation and implementation in the services. Some of the industry leaders are the University of Central Florida which focuses on robotics. An example of the projects they have or are working on is an “Autonomous Wireless Robots” for long term surveillance and an “Indoor Mapping Robot (IMR) that does, “exploratory operations inside a building.” (Hauck, 2007). NCS also oversees “Team Orlando” where, “military services, industry, and academia work together to leverage resources and contribute to the overall national security.” (Hauck, 2007). This team has several priorities including developing the Joint Training and Evaluation Center (JTIEC) and enhancing connectivity through the Defense Research Engineering Network (DREN) and Joint Training and Experimentation Network (JTEN).

M&S has also been on the forefront of open source software use in the military. The DoD has allowed the use of open source since 2003 and has seen a flurry of applications arrive into the force. To get away from contractors “locking in” applications the military allowed the open source. The problem is security, the use of GNU a substitute for Unix requires the source code be open for all to see. This is of course not in the interest of the military but Linux is used frequently. According to Frank Boosman (2007), “this (Linux) is not only acceptable, but even desirable, given the well-documented suitability of Linux for many tasks.” However, he argues, building a secure system with Linux is not feasible in the defense environment. There are other programs that do not have as strict licensing restrictions that show promise like FreeBSD (Berkeley Software Design) and an operating system called Croquet(Boosman, 2007).

Simulations have been used extensively by the military. The Air Force has a simulator for each type of aircraft. The Navy and CG have ship bridge simulators at their respective Academies and the Navy has additional simulators in Norfolk and San Diego. Simulators not only teach how to navigate a vessel or fly an aircraft they also foster emergency management and teach new technologies. The Navy has just opened a new ship simulator at its Enlisted Training Center in Great Lakes, IL. Unlike the bridge simulator discussed above this is a vessel mock-up to give recruits the feeling they are by or on a ship. The simulator is housed in a 157,000 foot building and inside resides a pier and a ship. According to Scott Gourley (2007), “recruits find themselves walking along “Pier 8” gazing at the USS Trayer, a 210-foot-long replica of a guided-missile destroyer.” To enhance the effect, the smell of diesel and the sound of waves against the hull is introduced inside the space that is made to look and feel like a pier and ship in Norflok, VA. Here they will also be shown from the most mundane of tasks, loading stores, to the most intense emergency scenario, fighting an onboard fire. The detail of realism is in place so recruits will not be shown what it will be like when the first report to their first duty station but also what it will feel like to work and survive on a US Navy Vessel.

The Coast Guard Deepwater program is the largest acquisition project in its history. Built within Deepwater is the acquisition of the latest navigation and communication systems that integrate into many shore systems to better effect law enforcement and search and rescue. To be able to successfully crew these “state of the art” vessels, a simulation center and instruction has been built and will be delivered at the Coast Guard Training Center, in Petaluma, CA (Fuhr, 2003). Just like the new technology onboard the vessels, the training needed to be tailored to match.

                                     The Future

Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL)

It used to be known who the enemy was but there are many variables involved. The military needs to be prepared for the unknown. This is going to be done through training, blended learning, simulations, and games. However, to do this the military needs vision and has to implement planning, jointness, and lifelong learning which is being lead by Advance Distributed Learning. ADL is mandated (through an Executive Order) to assist and develop in instructional products for the DoD (Reiser, & Dempsey, 2006). ADL has the current knowledge and foresight how the military is and will use gaming, tutoring, collaboration, and simulations that integrate into traditional training. The future is through this path. The services will have to anticipate an unknown enemy and the training will employ learning objects and mandated use of Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) (Bonk & Graham, 2006).

Just like open source is used in today’s US military, as discussed above, open standards like SCORM are pervasive. SCORM is a set of standards and includes three areas the Content Aggregation Model, Sequencing and Navigation, and RunTime Environment. SCORM is a cooperative effort between the Aviation Industry Computer Based Training Committee, The IMS Global Learning Consortium, Inc., the IEEE, the Alliance for Remote Instructional Authoring and Distribution Networks for Europe and others (Wisher, 2006). Boosman (2007) states; “The simulation learning community has a strong track record of creating and adopting open standards for content creation and delivery. These standards include XML (extensible markup language) for generic data representation, SCORM for sharing learning objects, S1000D for technical publications, U3D (universal 3-D) for 3-D data repurposing and others.” The military is not inventing something for itself it is using open standards to build what it needs and ADL is mandated to do so.

ADL’s future plans are built around repositories where SCORM learning objects are stored. This vision has been underway since 2003 and is growing exponentially with all the services now onboard. These repositories that ADL has built had to deal with meta-data management, content management, and interoperability (Holden, 2004). Content management has been addressed by each entity having a specific repository they can upload to and have control over. Interoperability had to address standards so everyone can access specific content. It is the meta-data, or a Registry, for accessing and retrieving the content within the repository that is the issue. ADL is building the Content Object Repository Discovery and Registration Architecture (CORDRA) as the final link.

CORDRA is the missing piece and without it all the content objects developed would only be visible in their respective repositories and would be difficult to find and use an object outside. “CORDRA will enable ADL to establish a network of content repositories where learning objects may be accumulated and centrally cataloged for easy discovery distribution and use, said Dr. Robert Wisher, Director, ADL” (Kauchak, 2006). Currently there is the ADL Registry (ADL-R) which is the CORDRA architecture using its software, hardware, and standards. Now by signing up in the registry one can access anything allowable to build what is needed using already composed content objects stored on the repositories. This is the idea behind ADL’s performance aiding delivering content to where it is needed to assist performance making training, skills, and performance seamless (ADL Performance Aiding, 2007). On a policy scale it allowed the recent development and implementation of the DoD Joint Knowledge Development and Distribution capability (JKDDC) and the Joint Knowledge Online (JKO) Portal (Chu, 2007). Since the “system” of repositories (SCORM, CORDRA, ADL-R), and connectivity is nearly complete it will then be time to take it to the next level. According to Paul Jesukiewicz at the recent Implementation Fest Aug 2007, ADL has current initiatives and future initiatives. The current initiatives are to promote SCORM and the ADL-Registry, integrate learning and technical data, as stated above, with S1000D-SCORM, and research and development. An example of S1000D-SCORM is, currently, data writers and training developers place their content into separate servers and the training developer’s content goes to the classroom and/or training and the data writers goes into a database for retrieval or on paper reports. The repository is to be integrated so everyone can have access to the data to better effect both through ADL-R of CORDRA (Jesukiewicz, 2007). A new version of SCORM will be coming out in 2008 and is applying to be adopted by International Standards Organization to migrate into civilian global ventures with the assistance of the not-for-profit international organization Learning-Education-Training System Interoperability (LETSI). Also, ADL are developing a new portal of open source code to so others can assist functionality of CORDRA solutions. Then as this is further adopted the ADL/CORDRA field will be broken into secure (DoD) using ADL-R and the rest of the “communities of practice” with CORDRA. The current vision of ADL is focusing on a government wide federation of registries, addressing specific competencies, open source community for learning software called SCORM Forge, and re-use, asset management, automatic metadata creation, and automatic registration and synchronization with repositories tools (Jesukiewicz, 2007)

Still Human

The services are focusing more and more on Human Performance Technology by analyzing the needs up front and tracking the performance. The Navy and the CG are looking to become “learning organizations” and building performance knowledge so initiatives are not repeated (Douglas, 2005). The question is, are the services focusing too much on gadgetry rather than developing better and more efficient instruction? This revisits what was said at the beginning of this chapter. Although new learning initiatives are sound and more efficient there is not a comprehensive move to on-line or blended training to major instruction which would be a move toward focusing on the person rather than the tools. This sentiment was shared by Brigadier General Erhard Drews, commander, Center for Transformation, Bundeswehr, Germany at the 2007 ITEC conference in Cologne, Germany. He stated, “… is that the important factor in the transformation process is the human being itself – not the technology.” He went on saying, “Without well educated and properly trained military personnel, the success of transformation will be doubtful” (Kauchak, 2007). Again, the technology is a tool, a powerful tool, but it takes humans to utilize these tools to best effect the performance of the personnel and the effectiveness and efficiency of the technology.

References:

ADL Performance Aiding (2007). Performance Aiding Informational Page. ADL website. Retrieved October 24, 2007 from http://www.adlnet.gov/technologies/performanceaid/index.aspx

Bonk, C. J., & Dennen, V. P. (2005). Massive multiplayer online gaming: A research framework for military education and training. (Technical Report # 2005-1). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Defense (DUSD/R): Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative. Can download from: http://mypage.iu.edu/~cjbonk/GameReport_Bonk_final.pdf or from the ADL lab: http://www.adlnet.org/downloads/189.cfm

Bonk, C. J., Olson, T., Wisher, R. A., & Orvis, K. L. (2002). Learning from focus groups: An examination of blended learning. Journal of Distance Education, 17(3), 97-118.

Bonk, C. J., Olson, T., Wisher, R. A., & Orvis, K. L. (2002). Reflections on blended learning: The Armor Captains Career Course. (Research Note #2002-13). Alexandria, VA: U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences.

Bonk, C. J. & Graham, C. R. (2006). The Handbook of Blended Learning: Global Perspectives, Local Designs; Blended Learning in Military Training; Ch. 37, Wisher, R. R. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. San Francisco, CA.

Bonk, C. J., & Wisher, R. A. (2000). Applying collaborative and e-learning tools to military distance learning: A research framework.  (Technical Report #1107).  Alexandria, VA: U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences. [1].

Chappell L. (2005). PDAs add new dimension to distance learning. Wisconsin Technology Network. Retrieved October 9, 2007 from http://wistechnology.com/article.php?id=2103

Douglas I. (2005). Supporting Organizational E-Learning. IEEE Computer Society. Icebe pp. 360-363. Retrieved October 9, 2007 from http://csdl2.computer.org/persagen/DLAbsToc.jsp?resourcePath=/dl/proceedings/&toc=comp/proceedings/icebe/2005/2430/00/2430toc.xml&DOI=10.1109/ICEBE.2005.115

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Pedraza, J. (2006). Coast Guard Members Continue Education Using PDAs. UWF News. Retrieved October 9, 2007 from http://uwf.edu/uwfMain/press/topstoryarch.cfm?emailID=16453

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US Navy HPT Spider (2003). Human Performance Center Spider. Navy Human Performance Center. Retrieved October 14, 2007 from https://www.spider.hpc.navy.mil/index.cfm?RID=WEB_OT_1001333

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Wisher R. R. & Freeman M. (2005). Advanced Distributed Learning. Military Training Technology, Volume 10; Issue 4. Retrieved October 9, 2007 from http://www.military-training-technology.com/article.cfm?DocID=1111

Wisher, R. A., & Olson, T. M., (2000). The Effectiveness of Web-based Training. (Research Report #1802). Alexandria, VA: U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences.

Hauck, R. (2007). NCS Heading M&S Charge. Military Training Technology, Volume 12; Issue 5. Retrieved October 24, 2007 from http://www.military-training-technology.com/article.cfm?DocID=2193

Boosman, F. (2005). Open Source, Open Standards. Military Training Technology, Volume 10; Issue 3. Retrieved October 24, 2007 from http://www.military-training-technology.com/article.cfm?DocID=1036

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Wisher, R.A (2006). ADL Advocate: Making the Vision of Learning Anytime Anywhere, a Reality, an interview with Dr. Robert A. Wisher. Military Training Technology, Volume 11; Issue 4. Retrieved October 24, 2007 from http://www.military-training-technology.com/article.cfm?DocID=1800

Kauchak, M. (2007). ITEC 2007 Highlights. Military Training Technology, Volume 12; Issue 2. Retrieved October 24, 2007 from http://www.military-training-technology.com/article.cfm?DocID=2061

Chu, D. S. C. (2007). Memorandum for the Secretaries of the Military Departments: Transforming DoD Training (T2) – New Milestone Reached. ADL website. Retrieved October 24, 2007 from http://www.adlnet.gov/downloads/DownloadPage.aspx?ID=300

Jesukiewicz, P (2007). Keynote Speech Implementation Fest 2007: ADL 2007 to 2017. Advanced Distributed Learning website: Retrieved October 24, 2007, from http://www.jointadlcolab.org/newsandevents/ifests/2007/briefs.aspx

Holden, C. (2004). What We Mean When We Say “Repositories”: User Expectations of Repository Systems. Advanced Distributed Learning website: Retrieved October 24, 2007, from http://www.academiccolab.org/resources/RepoSurvey2004-1.pdf

Trends and Possibility of Technologies for Different Sectors in Business and Government

Lin, Yi-Chun

Instructional Systems Technology

Indiana University in Bloomington, USA

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