INNOVATIVE TRAINING, FRESH IDEAS

Some things are best shared with others.

With this in mind, more than 400 participants from the Air Force, Army and Navy came together for the inaugural Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) Training and Learning Seminar (TLS) 2013.

Themed Building Training Expertise in our RSAF, the seminar highlighted the applications of learning technologies and learning sciences which have led to new initiatives in making training more effective and efficient.

To give it a fresh approach, six "break-out" workshops comprising (1) Core Values in Action, (2) Case Based Learning, (3) Training Evaluation, (4) DNA of Training Needs Analysis, (5) Knowledge Management and (6) Exploiting Learning Technology were introduced in the seminar to allow participants to enjoy some hands-on experience. Showing that trainings could also be fun, a Nerf gun battle, which resembled an indoor paintball scenario, was even conducted at one of the sessions.

"We had so much fun, we were sweating it out!" exclaimed Major (MAJ) Adeline Kuah.

The Staff Officer from the Curriculum Development Branch in Headquarters Maritime Training and Doctrine Command added that "Battle Nerf" not only helped to hone strategy planning and execution skills, it also raised their awareness of how core values, such as leadership and fighting spirit, affected their actions.

"Such things (like imparting core values) need not be long and complex, it can be taught through something simple like this game, depending on how we contextualise it."

For Master Warrant Officer (MWO) Sanjee Singh, it was the Dr Ashley Tan's presentation which impacted him the most. At the seminar, Dr Tan spoke on innovative strategies for learning by drawing lessons from mobile device jailbreakers as a case study. The Head of the Centre for eLearning at the National Institute of Education explained that people who jailbreak their phones do so to have greater control of their devices and to customise their user experiences. Similarly, servicemen can also take charge of their training and rework them for better learning outcomes.

"Dr Ashley taught us that there are many ways of teaching a trainee and designing a lesson. It's how you redesign it to engage your audience," explained MWO Singh, Officer Commanding (OC) of Basic Tactic Wings, who which trains recruits.

"My biggest takeaway from this is that not only we but the trainees will see the results as well, and they will be more engaged in learning."

The half-day seminar was held at the Air Force Training Command (AFTC) on 31 Oct.

All materials from the six workshops will be uploaded onto an online portal.

For MAJ Kuah, not only would she be looking through the sessions she had missed out, she would also be sharing them with the rest of her colleagues.

"They might just know something more if they take a little time to look at it," she enthused.