Games and story telling – what a way to learn!
My colleagues are developing a game which will teach student air traffic controllers to appreciate bearings and distances while having fun. What a great idea. Even better they intend to make an abstraction of the skills necessary to perform the tasks, take them out of the immediate context of air traffic control, and place them in another environment. In this way, the students will feel like they are doing something else whilst in fact they are learning.
When would you think you would remember a lesson better, when the meaning is abstracted and told in a fable in the Esopic style or when you are told bluntly: You should do this or that?
Stories are being used extensively to teach young and adults alike, and air traffic management is no exception to this. We already prefer to illustrate learning objectives by telling stories, especially in the context of refresher training where the audience is experienced and can easily relate with the stories told. The results are impressive. Those using this technique usually get feedback such as: “Me too I have had a similar experience”; Every learner knows that when a student tells him this, they have hit goal! Needless to say, those not using this technique are strongly encouraged to do so.
Now back to games.
Similar to stories, games have the ability of giving a context to the objectives to be learned [skill, knowledge or attitude based]. In addition the context can be different to the working one and thus in a number of situations can be perceived by the student as alternative, fresh and fun.
Games also have the ability of including elements such as competition in an environment where its serious counterpart [real life] should not be. A game which has nothing to do with air traffic control but which teaches bearing and distance appreciation could be competitive, for example having a car riding through a track and arriving first to destination can easily be competitive, whilst giving headings to aircraft to maintain separation is too near to reality and probably should not be perceived as a competitive endeavor.
Outside ATC and into the broader ATM environment, games could also be used to teach how to deal with new situations. Imagine a future supervisor having to deal with his staff, the operational environment and his management in a ‘Sims’ way, or a future safety manager having to provide related services in a different environment than air traffic management – maybe for example within a formula 1 team!
To conclude, both games and stories have high training potential. We just need to be creative to be able abstract what we want to teach from its immediate context, put it into an alternative one, and create an environment which naturally motivates the student to listen or to play!Â
