Army looking for new ways to provide training and education materials

FORT EUSTIS, Va. (June 24, 2014) -- Mobile devices have created new opportunities for the Army to deliver training and education materials to Soldiers around the world.

Now the Army is looking for ways to harness technology to make these materials more accessible.

The use of mobile devices for distributed learning was a topic of discussion at the Training and Education 2025 and Beyond Industry Forum that brought together Army officials and defense industry representatives here, Wednesday and Thursday.

"The Army wants to establish a learning environment that will provide Soldiers with the right training and educational content at the point of need. Industry may be able to help us close the technological gap," said Helen Remily, director of the TRADOC Capability Manager-The Army Distributed Learning Program.

She led the forum's panel discussion about future Army training and education capabilities.

Panelists discussed how the Army is transitioning from a classroom-based approach to one that extends the classroom walls and makes information available through mobile devices, E-books, games for training, simulations and other methods.

The Army, however, faces some security and technical challenges, such as providing materials on devices that don't require a Common Access Card.

Panelists said that to bring distributed learning materials to Soldiers, the Army needs:

• A network infrastructure and pervasive wireless connectivity
• Content delivered to Soldiers on demand anytime, anywhere in a fully mobile environment, while balancing security risks
• A broad range of devices with full interoperability and access to all forms of content at any security level
• Full access to information on military, interagency, intergovernmental, educational and social websites

The Army is taking steps toward realizing those capabilities. Last year, the Army established the TRADOC Project Office for Mobile, which is working to resolve complex security and technical issues.

To learn more about the Army's effort to deliver training and educational materials to Soldiers at the point of need, see the PowerPoint presentation at:
http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/CAC-T/Repository/FutureArmyTrainingandEducationCapabilities.pdf

 By Mike Casey, Combined Arms Center-Training

  http://www.army.mil/article/128560/Army_looking_for_new_ways_to_provide_training_and_education_materials/