By Gheorghe (Gigi) Roman, ADL

Colonel (USAF) Timothy Dreifke, Commandant of the NATO School Oberammergau (NSO), was invited to take part in the Signature Event Panel of the International Innovations in the Classroom at the annual Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) in Orlando, Florida, US. Panel Moderator was Paul Thurkettle, Education & Training Technologies Manager, Allied Command Transformation, NATO. Other panelists included Air Vice-Marshall C J Luck, Commandant Joint Services Command and Staff College Defence Academy of the United Kingdom; Major General Sergey Salkutsan, Deputy Commandant for Academic Affairs of the National Defense University, Ukraine; Brigadier General Virginia Tattersall, Deputy Commander, Military Personnel Generation, Canadian Armed Forces; and Jean-Paul Massart, Chief Education and Training Service Line, NATO Communications and Information Agency, Belgium. Session Chair was Tom Archibald, Ph.D., Intelligent Decision Systems Inc.

MANY NATIONS, ONE GOAL: THE BEST POSSIBLE EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOR OUR STUDENTS

Colonel (USAF) Timothy Dreifke, Commandant of the NATO School Oberammergau (NSO), was invited to take part in the Signature Event Panel of the International Innovations in the Classroom at the annual Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) in Orlando, Florida, US. Panel Moderator was Paul Thurkettle, Education & Training Technologies Manager, Allied Command Transformation, NATO. Other panelists included Air Vice-Marshall C J Luck, Commandant Joint Services Command and Staff College Defence Academy of the United Kingdom; Major General Sergey Salkutsan, Deputy Commandant for Academic Affairs of the National Defense University, Ukraine; Brigadier General Virginia Tattersall, Deputy Commander, Military Personnel Generation, Canadian Armed Forces; and Jean-Paul Massart, Chief Education and Training Service Line, NATO Communications and Information Agency, Belgium. Session Chair was Tom Archibald, Ph.D., Intelligent Decision Systems Inc.

The last great revolution in international education and training technology was Power-Point. Today, worldwide, the atmosphere has changed. Leaders demand "revolutions" in their facilities to meet the needs of 21st century learners. Many national military and civilian institutions are leading this effort and many more seek to do the same, to cultivate desperately needed skills, capabilities, and attributes. In response to these challenges, many nations are now actively changing the structure and format of the classroom, bringing in new "ground breaking" (in terms of how we have done it for the past 200+ years) innovations. These ideas include virtual classrooms, "fipping" the classroom, video lecture libraries and streaming, and virtual reality and gamification. During this special event, international leaders of education and training facilities discussed implementing these changes (from the big stick to the carrot approach) and also shared success stories and challenges. Active discussions between the panel and attendees followed the opening comments. NSO’s ADL Team members Mr. Gheorghe (Gigi) Roman and Ms. Tanja Geiss contributed answering questions related to online courses use in training and education, repurposing the course content for online delivery and digital badges program.

The selected theme for this year’s I/ITSEC was "Launching Innovation in Learning: Ready, Set, Disrupt" called on the training, education, and simulation community of practice to bring their latest capabilities and innovations; principally, their disruptive and game-changing technologies which enhance a user’s ability to learn. The I/ITSEC is the world's largest modeling, simulation, and training conference. Held near the beginning of December in Orlando, Florida, USA, I/ITSEC consists of peer-reviewed paper presentations, tutorials, special events, professional workshops, a commercial exhibit hall, a serious games competition, and STEM events for teachers and secondary students. I/ITSEC is organized by the National Training and Simulation Association (NTSA), which promotes international and interdisciplinary cooperation within the fields of modeling and simulation (M&S), training, education, analysis, and related disciplines at this annual meeting. The NTSA is an affiliate subsidiary of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA). Hence, I/ITSEC also emphasizes themes related to defense and security (read more about the I/ITSEC 2018… )