DECODING THE SAF LEARNING MATRIX

Ten years ago, a science-fiction movie The Matrix exploded onto the big screen, depicting a world where humans were immersed in an illusory virtual reality. To break free from this simulated reality and unravel its mysteries, the central character made the choice to learn the truth and take the road less travelled.

The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) faces a similar challenge to "understand and appreciate the new trends in front of us today", shared Chief of Defence Force, Lieutenant-General (LG) Desmond Kuek in his speech at the opening ceremony of the SAF Learning Festival on 25 Jun.

"Significant changes are taking place in the world, in technology, in our society, in the attitudes and aspirations of our people," he said.

"We must make the first move to decode our own matrix and focus on the basic binary unit - our people... and this SAF Learning Festival comes at a timely juncture for us to share best practices and pedagogies in learning, so that we can continually seek to improve our organisation."

With the theme Realising the 3rd Generation SAF - Delivering the Edge, the inaugural SAF Learning Festival aimed to promote the sharing of best practices, training ideas and learning pedagogies from training institutions and school houses across all three Services.

Held at SAFTI Military Institute (SAFTI MI), the two-day event was attended by over 3,000 servicemen, and also saw the launch of the SAF Instructional Guide - a compilation of learning and instructional strategies and methods from the various Services - by Brigadier-General (BG) Jimmy Tan, then Commandant of SAFTI MI.

Described as a "handy guide" for all SAF instructors, especially those who are taking on an instructional role for the first time, BG Tan noted that the book is not meant to be a prescribed, one-size-fits-all approach, but rather, a collation of descriptive strategies and methods to serve the needs of instructors coming from the three Services.

Besides engaging participants in a series of master classes and plenary sessions, 23 booths were also set up to give soldiers an opportunity to view and gain greater awareness of the latest advancements in training and development in the SAF.

Some of the new and advanced systems on display included My Learning Space, an e-learning tool developed in-house by the Signal Institute, the Air Traffic Control Simulator from the Air Force Training Command, and the Reflective Driving Training simulator from the Army Logistics Training Institute.

The new Reflective Driving Training simulator, for instance, is able to replicate realistic traffic scenarios - such as jay-walking - and even simulate different vehicle classes, from the Class 3 SAF Land Rover to the Class 4 three-tonne military truck.

It was an informative and engaging experience at the festival for Officer Cadet (OCT) Ryan Marcus Colond from the Officer Cadet School, who told cyberpioneer: "It was quite enjoyable getting to see and go hands-on with some of the latest tools and training technology."

"I'm really looking forward to my training in the next six months and trying some of the new equipment that they have to offer."