Walden 6177 Week 5 Discussion Post

For this week’s discussion I would like to comment on my experience with a simulation game I’ve taken as part of what the Air Force calls Total Force Awareness Training (TFAT).  This is a series of computer based training modules (CBT’s) that every member of the Air Force, civilian and military, is required to take every year.  The CBT’s are housed in an enterprise-wide learning management system called Advanced Distributive Learning System (ADLS). 

One of the CBTs is called Information Awareness and it is about protecting sensitive and classified information.  The CBT is actually set up as a simulation, and is designed to let you set the setting from your personal point of view.  The scenes are narrated and also contain sound effects to add a degree of realism.  For example, one scene might say, “and as you open your email, your phone rings.”  The viewer sees a desktop with a computer screen showing Outlook and a phone with a flashing light.

As the training progresses you are asked to make choices and decisions about the information you access via documents, emails, phone calls, and conversations.  Each decision you make is followed by immediate feedback.  If you get enough of the decisions correct, you can proceed to the next phase of the training.  If you choose incorrectly too many times you have to take some remedial training before you can move forward in the program. 

My plan for using this kind technology in my educational setting to propose to my department chair that we commission a training vendor to design this type of simulation based on leadership training.  My objective is to engage students of organizational leadership in situations they may not have the opportunities to experience in real life.  I’m basing this objective on my own observations that many students of leadership are not actually in leadership positions yet.  Therefore, as they learn about leadership concepts in class, they may not have the opportunities to apply what they’ve learned on the job. 

Simulations that provide rapid and frequent feedback to the student can help the learner “feel what it’s like” to engage in that behavior in real life.  This can increase engagement and help learning be more effective (TED, 2010).

Cheers!

Ron N.

Reference

TED (Producer). (2010). Tom Chatfield: 7 ways games reward the brain   Retrieved from:             http://www.ted.com/talks/tom_chatfield_7_ways_games_reward_the_brain        .html