Focus on Government & Military: Armed Courses
September 22, 2008
Service members in the U.S. military more than ever need to learn fast and learn well. How is the military responding?
By Holly Dolezalek
Harvard Business School Professor Amy Edmondson identified a concept called "execution-as-learning" in the July/August issue of the Harvard Business Review. She described the approach, in which information, employee collaboration, process data, and process improvements based on that data form a continuous learning culture.
While it doesn't use that term, the U.S. military aspires to execution-as-learning—because it has to.
Whichever branch of the service is in harm's way, the lessons learned on each mission have to be brought back and taught to the soldiers who might follow later. Absorbing lessons from the heat of battle and incorporating them into existing training is as vital as guns or bullets—and the military is experimenting with all kinds of learning methods to make sure those lessons are learned.
That's why each branch of the service has a center for lessons learned. "The Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL) collects and analyzes data from a variety of current and historical sources, including Army operations and training events, and produces lessons for military commanders, staff, and students," the CALL's Website explains. "CALL disseminates these lessons and other related research materials through print and electronic media."
Those lessons are incorporated into all types of training, such as the games that are used to train soldiers for specific operations. A game called Ambush, created by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, lets soldiers experience convoy operations, infantry tactics, and other types of training. "One of Ambush's key advancements is its self-authoring capability," says Daniel Gardner, director of the Readiness and Training, Policy and Program Directorate for the Department of Defense. "So soldiers coming home from Iraq or Afghanistan can alter the game to reflect the new tactics being used in those theaters."
Millenial Challenge
Lessons learned don't just come from the battlefield, though. They also come from the new and relatively new recruits who enter the armed forces every year now—the Millennial generation, those "kids" born between roughly 1980 and 1994. To attract and retain this generation, the military has found it necessary to adapt not only to changing battle conditions but different technology requirements. No Millennial recruit is going to learn as effectively from flash cards as from video games or other technology-driven learning events. "They're the digital natives, and we're the immigrants, so we have to work hard to keep up with what they prefer," explains Lieutenant Colonel Larry Smith, director of the College of Continuing Education for the Marine Corps.
Technology-based learning such as computer-based simulations or games is often a hit with these Millennial recruits, but the military has been careful to blend its learning rather than rush to convert everything to ones and zeros. Virtual methods have served as preparation for hands-on training, such as the training for fire maneuvers. Recruits take a course in operating the M240 machine gun, and then practice their new skills in a virtual environment. Only then do they pick up an actual weapon with live rounds in it. "The virtual training only helps with cognitive skills," says Major Don Mathes of the technology division in the Marine Corps' Training and Education Command. "Clicking a mouse won't translate to pulling a trigger. But it does mean storing knowledge in the brain, so there are virtual experiences for the learner to draw on once he or she is in a live environment."
Equally important to the military's attempts to accommodate the Millennial learner is the use of networking technology. "This generation is plugged in, networking, and multitasking, and we need systems that accommodate that," says Gardner. "It's all about sources of information at people's fingertips."
Using MySpace is at the periphery of that effort, but the Department of Defense maintains several training networks and is expanding its use of personal digital assistants (PDAs).
The Air Force also is developing a virtual training environment called MyBase. It will be a portal structured as a virtual Air Force base. A white paper entitled "On Learning: The Future of Air Force Education and Training" says "the MyBase virtual environment will enable the convergence of training courses; educational programs; expert systems; distance learning; communities of practice; distributed mission operations; and other means of sharing, distributing, and applying knowledge."
Right now, MyBase is an experiment as much as it is a planned system. "We want to experiment with the platform and decide how we can best use its capabilities. For example, at Air University in Maxwell, AL, a small pilot project called Huffman Prairie is based in Second Life [a public 3-D virtual world]," says Major General Erwin Lessel, director of plans, requirements, and programs for the Air Education and Training Command. The project is being conducted on an island in Second Life, where participants experiment with learning technologies in a virtual environment to determine which ones will most effectively engage learners in those environments. Eventually, MyBase will allow airmen to create their own avatar to navigate the system, and based on what is learned at Huffman Prairie, the system will be tailored accordingly.
Non-lethal Training
A changing environment for the U.S. military has led to emphasis on a new type of training content: non-lethal strategies. That's because the military is operating in more environments that are not war. "The non-lethal way includes dealing with people so you don't have to use weapons," says Gardner. "It's a question of training [soldiers] so they respond correctly in a stressful environment." Non-lethal combat training includes such skills as detecting and responding to potentially aggressive behavior, self-defense, vehicle or individual searches, and the use of roadblocks.
For example, the Marine Corps bought an old tomato factory and created a simulation that gives young marines a visceral experience of the stress, noise, and complexities of a combat environment, including deciding who's an enemy, civilian, or fellow soldier. "The training gives them a better chance of responding the right way under fire," Gardner says.
Learning at a Distance
Like any global corporation, the military has service members all over the nation and the world, and faces similar challenges in providing the necessary training opportunities no matter where a service member is located. For that reason, distributed learning is becoming more of a priority for the military.
This shift will happen slowly and depends on the content, says Gardner, as some learning will be more compatible with non-classroom delivery than others. "For example, for a truck repairman, there eventually will be less classroom time and more simulations or hands-on training on live materials," he says.
The Air Force likewise is studying customized learning. "We all know individuals learn differently and have different strengths and weaknesses," says Lessel, "so why not customize that learning so the effect is increased for each learner?"
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