Learning Technologies, a branch of the Army Knowledge Centre, provides Army with a niche capability that produces industry-standard media to optimise learning and knowledge acquisition. The branch is comprised of a team of Education Officers, multimedia technicians and audio-visual specialists.
This video: 'Army's Learning Ecosystem' was recently produced by the team as part of a Professional Development activity.
Their aim was to highlight the optimal learning environment they believe Army should aspire to. They also used this opportunity to explore how video animation can be used to communicate complex messages in a clear and memorable manner.
But I feel that one part was missing altogether. I'm referring to the formal system by which things that happen on active service can be analysed and 'lessons' deduced; these lessons being fed back into the training environment so that those replacements going into the war zone are able to benefit accordingly.
This used to be called Operational Analysis. It is much much more than an after action report. An example ... mines started out being laid on the ground. It was drilled into tank crews going to Vietnam to pay particular attention to any disturbance on the ground in front of them. Then the enemy realised that by attacking an AFV from above, they were able to target its most vulnerable point. What happened? Tank crews continued to be taught to focus on the ground. Why? There was no system of Operational Analysis to deduce lessons and pass them back in real time to the places that they needed to be understood.
It seems to me that we're no further advanced today. Or are we?