Tim Workman, NRC-IIT

6 October 2010

Technology, the Future, and Change: Emergent Trends in Learning

NRC Institute for Information Technology

• Specializing in:– 3D imaging, modeling, and visualization– Learning and collaborative technologies– Human-computer interaction– Intelligent internet applications– Natural language processing– Data and text mining

• Research Labs focused on:– Augmented Reality– Service Oriented Systems– People Centered Technologies– Semantic Web Technologies

A Period of Significant Social Change

• Society is changing, in terms of demographics, priorities, and how people consume information

• “Stop talking about Alternative Training Delivery – it is now the way that all training will be conducted. Legacy training models are no longer an option...”

– Commander, Combat Training Centre, CFB Gagetown

• “If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less…”

– General Eric Shinseki, US Army Chief of Staff

• Policy is currently driven by people who’s personal experiences and understanding may no longer be wholly relevant

Advanced Learning and Technology Represents...

• Methodologies and technologies that enhance learning processes, cognitive function, knowledge transfer, memory and retention, and both individual and collective performance

• Applies to Training & Education and Operational Performance Support

Challenges Identified: Government Participants

• Lack of standards between organizations / departments

• Lack of situational awareness between organizations / departments for potentially synergistic initiatives, projects, content, past research, etc

• Training models are being shaped to fit available / existing tools, versus shaping tools to fit emergent problems / models

• Organizations tend to pre-position the solution space

• Too much redundant “basic” research and not enough scaffolding to emphasize “applied” research

• Challenges in matching the right resources to the problem that provides cost and process efficiency

Opportunities Identified: Workshop Participants

• A national Centre of Excellence for Advanced Learning and Technology could provide / facilitate:– Framework for discussion / collaboration between stakeholders– Technology “sandbox” to develop / trial / showcase emergent

technologies, capabilities, and methods– Knowledge integration, coordination, and warehousing– Advice to policy, standardization, and interoperability – Needs assessments and prioritization of effort– Synthesis of requirements across government organizations to

support industry engagement, innovation, etc – Access to vendors, organizations, stakeholders within and across the

ALT ecosystem– Alignment of stakeholder capabilities to opportunities

Online Government Advanced Research and Development Environment

• The purpose of ONGARDE is to provide government (security cluster) organizations with a common virtual environment within which collaboration, experimentation, and resource sharing can occur. Intent is to– Eliminate redundant / individually funded efforts and create a

collective resource pool– Create a unified research agenda based on priority areas of

importance / impact– Target research and development investment against Key

Performance Indicators / Return on Investment metrics– Leverage “whole of government” capabilities, resources, and

user-base to maximize the value proposition and impact

Project OnGARDE designed as…

• A collaboration framework between government organizations to facilitate, expand, and optimize mutually supportive efforts

• An initiative designed to:– Support “coal-face innovation” by linking operational

organizations with advanced institutional support– Eliminate historic “distance” and barriers between operators and

academia at the organizational levels– Establish new models for industry collaboration

• A technology infrastructure that will enable government organizations to collaborate within a common virtual environment for the purposes of research, development, and evaluation of emergent methodologies and technologies

ONGARDE Partnership

• Co-hosted with the Canadian Defence Academy– Manages Canada’s ADL Co-lab– Provides Canadian Forces training policy guidance to all branch– Creates CF research agenda for learning concepts– CF representatives to NATO on use of commercial platforms for

training – CF managing authority for Defence Learning Network and DND

Learn, the enterprise LMS / LCMS– Within “whole of government” mandate, actively collaborates with

other government departments to unify efforts and agendas

• New partners welcome

Immersive Reflexive Engagement Trainer Project

• The purpose of the IRET project is to blend a number of technologies to allow soldiers to train within a blended live-virtual environment– Primary application is judgmental training for ROE and use of

force– Secondary application for development of engagement skills with

primary and secondary weapons.

• 24-month project (complete summer 2011) • Three core components

– Multimodal command interfaces (voice and laser)– Cognitive modeling of tasks / behaviours– Augmented reality visualization systems

Clandestine Labs Project

• Current stakeholders include RCMP, CPKN, Canadian Police Research Centre(CPRC), NRC-IIT, and DND

• Intent is to develop “proof of concept” in a police training context that highlights:– Personalized Learning / Personal Learning Environments

– Competency & Proficiency Measurement / Management

– Intelligent Tutoring / Assessment

• High-level agreements should be in place by end-Oct• Three trial user groups:

– National police force (RCMP)

– Regional police force (volunteer?)

– Municipal police force (volunteer?)

Clandestine Labs Project

• Proposed “course” intended to parallel existing efforts– Frame of reference / contrast– Content conversion

• Require “hard problems” to solve – Training tasks– Learning outcomes

• Need a “wish list…”

QUESTIONS / DISCUSSION

Timothy Workman, CD, MDE

Project Manager – Strategic Partnerships

National Research Council Institute for Information Technology

timothy.workman@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca