(static) (rock music) - Roger, 48-07, approaching Runway 7-Bravo. (metallic whoosh) (beep) - The Air Force has announced the creation of a new information operations technical training school. (metallic whoosh) - The first command, simply must arm our airmen to out-think, out-perform, out-partner, out-innovate any potential adversary. (metallic whoosh) - Air Force Basic Military Training has an updated curriculum with a new focus on readiness and lethality. (static) - This is the Developing Mach-21 Airmen podcast. (thundering boom) - Hey everybody, welcome in to Episode 19 of Developing Mach-21 Airmen, and thanks for the subscribe, stream, or download, however you might get your podcast, if you get a chance to throw some stars, or even a review, our way, we certainly would appreciate that as well, my name is Dan Hawkins from the Air Education and Training Command, Public Affairs Office, and your host for this professional development podcast that's dedicated to bringing Total Force Big-A airmen inside tips, tricks, and lessons learned from the recruiting, training, and education worlds. On the pod today, it's a good one, First Lieutenant Kayshell Trudell, from the 37th Training Wing, Public Affairs Team, sat down with Colonel Isaac Davidson and Staff Sergeant Hugo Garza Salas, to talk about the Inter-American Air Forces Academy effort to expand their competitive edge in building the concept of a Classroom with a Future, which was devised and implemented in January of 2019. This effort really ties back to Lieutenant General Webb, our commander here in AETC, and his focus area of expanding strategic relationships in advancing force development. Better known as IAAFA, the Inter-American Armed Forces Academy has been around since 1943, providing world-class professional military education operations and technical training. It's called, oftentimes, the Gateway to the Americas, and IAAFA really helps the U.S. Air Force form enduring relationships with partner nations in both Central and South America, through things like relationship building, professional development opportunities, and specialized skills training for Spanish-speaking airmen and military personnel. These relationships that are built at IAAFA span the Americas, and give students the competitive advantage of a connected environment and collaboration workspace anywhere in the world. Lieutenant Trudell gets a chance to go in-depth on the Classroom of the Future, as IAAFA has classrooms and labs found throughout their campus that provide students and instructors with the digital tools and technology necessary to optimize and streamline their learning experiences at... What's really cool about these classrooms is they're really a learner-centric or learner-focused approach. These classrooms have been flipped with the teaching model that dramatically shortens students' learning curve. The other cool thing is, the capabilities of the Classroom of the Future allows for hands-on experimental learning, focused on solving real-world problems in a classroom setting, that can immediately be implemented out in the field, and students are able to learn at their own pace and apply what they have learned more creatively and in greater depth. So away we go with IAAFA and the Classroom of the Future, Episode 19 of Developing Mach-21 Airmen starts right now. (metallic whoosh) - Fantastic, well, it's great to have you guys here, just quickly introduce yourselves to our audience so they know who we're talking about and talking with for the Inter-American Air Forces Academy and Classroom of the Future. Sir? - I am Colonel Isaac Davidson, I'm the Commandant of the Inter-American Air Forces Academy, referred to as IAAFA. Glad to be here today and have an opportunity to converse. - Thank you, sir. - And I am Staff Sergeant Garza Salas, I am a Cyber Instructor here at IAAFA, and I've been working really closely with the Classroom of the Future system we got here. - That's fantastic. So that said, that you have this capability here, when did it come about? Where was the idea from, when did it get implemented? - Well, over a year ago, Lieutenant General Kwast, AETC Commander at the time, challenged the Command with innovation, continuum of learning. So there was some funding set aside, and he asked for ideas. In seeking ideas, we were challenged, so I went ahead and contacted my youngest son, Jason Davidson, and I challenged him, he had recently graduated from college, living here in Texas, in Houston, and I said, "I need you to tell me what the ideal classroom "of the future would be. "We'll call this Classroom of the Future, "what would it be? "What would be your ideal classroom?" Took him a couple of weeks, then he came back with five links. Then I took those five links, 'cause I wanted the decision to be that of us here at IAAFA, and gave it to our folks, our instructors, and everyone. And they selected what we call Classroom of the Future. - And were you here during that time? Did you get to review that and go with the selection, or...? - I arrived here about the time when we started installing the system itself, and I got to be a part of that installment process, so I've been here, not since the development phase, but the implementation phase. It's been a bit of a ride, I got to know the system very intimately, from the bottom up, so... - And what did the installation process entail, and the learning curve for the instructors to be able to implement it in their teaching? - The installation actually was very easy and straightforward, it was not too different from installing a regular computer, it was more the hardware that was the challenge, installing the projectors, the screens, but the learning curve, the system made it very easy for instructors to adapt. It kept the same structure of using projectors at a very basic level, while still adding to that all the capabilities that (mumbles) brings. - And what are those capabilities? What's the benefit that it brings to instructors and students alike? - Now that is a big question, because to say the capabilities is, it's a lot of them. On the broader sense, it brings the classroom focus from the teacher to the students, and what that means is, it enables them to interact with the board to begin with, at a more closer level with, not the touch-screen capabilities, but the... How would I put this? It has a system of pins that track the movements more accurately without being able to mess with it with your hand, and the applications that it comes with, it allows... Not so much that it allows, it focuses on having the students interacting with each other at the same time up on the board, not so much having them sit down and listening, but it is that focus that allows us to let the students teach themselves, and we fill in the gaps in the structures. It's more like we're guiding the class to keep that focus on the lessons, while the students are able to interact with each other, cooperate, and teach themselves. That's the amazing thing, and that's just touching it in the broadest sense. There's so much more to it. - So that collaborative learning piece, how does that play into the benefit outside of the classroom? I know that there's capabilities for remote teaching, instructing, and students as well, participating. - That's exactly right, the cloud storage, which means that everything that they put in the board or up on the board, we can make it accessible on the cloud, so they can, from any smart device, laptop, computer, et cetera, they can access it, and they can have the class there, but not only just have it accessible for them to see, they can also interact with it from their phones or from their laptops. It's a great system, anywhere in the world, that just opens a lotta capabilities. - So sorta from the bigger picture of IAAFA, what benefit does that bring to getting students through and bringing different subject matter experts into the conversation for students? - For one thing, listening to Sergeant Garza Salas, he just finished describing continuum of learning. What he just described is continuum of learning. He basically stated on demand, on command, in a student-centered learning environment, adding experience to the education and training, and then having the instructors now being a guide. So he described it, I don't think you were thinking (laughs) about the continuum of learning. Now strategically, what it does is that, now we have guest instructors. Now we have 12 guest instructors, one projected, 11 of them... 12 here, one projected to be here, for 13 guest instructors. But in essence, now with Classroom of the Future, we have an unlimited number of guest instructors and alumni, and individuals that may never have set foot at IAAFA or received training from IAAFA, available to interact with the students and to learn from what they're doing in the field. So it brings the field to here, strategically. Any country, we have done it with Brazil, we've done it with Peru, we've done it with several other countries. Many of the countries that we have been, know that we're dealing in this technology now, are chomping up the bits, Mexico's one of them, to be able to participate in this capability. So now what that does is that it adds what the field has to the classroom experience and vice versa. - So IAAFA has been also referred to as the Gateway to the Americas, but really, with this capability, has it also brought the Americas to the classroom here in the United States? - I believe that's what Sergeant Garza Salas just described, you know, without these interactions that he's having throughout the Americas, don't come through me, as a matter of fact, this is the guide, that instructor is leading the effort as a guide, and then the students are actually interacting and providing input on who they can bring in to add to the classroom experience, to the learning experience. So now, for instance, you could have a guest speaker come into IAAFA to make a presentation of 45 minutes, and for whatever reason, that guest speaker gets stuck at a... waiting for a flight for two, three hours. He or she is able to interact with the classroom from the phone. And actually, when I say interact, the things that you normally would do, trace a line, put a note, write, type, those type things, and this connected workspace is shared throughout the globe, you know, and also in the classroom is, what we provide is an expanded real estate, digital real estate. So now, instead of having, you know, one board, you have usually two boards, and in some classrooms, we have three boards across, and now you could have instructor, several of the students, it's unlimited the number that can interact on the fly in the learning experience. So now, what it does for the instructors now, it gives back time to the instructors, the instructors become a guide, and instead of spending time developing a syllabus, they spend time focused on the learning, and then the students actually take lead in the learning. - So the quality of student, in the same time frame, is accelerated and more in depth of what they're learning? Do you see that you have found that with students since the implementation of this capability? - Absolutely, absolutely, without a doubt. The students have gotten consistently better grades, but not only that, I've seen the applications of the learning be almost exponentially higher. I've seen students that, after leaving IAAFA, they reach back to me and say, "Sir, I have applied "what I learned in your class on this level," and it's a fulfilling feeling. (laughs) It definitely brings it home, all that it's allowing us to do. Just that capability of having the students lead the lesson, it really drives the learning home, in a literal sense. (laughs) It takes the learning all the way back to their home. - So there's specific classes that take place for security forces, intel, that sorta thing, but there's also developmental classes for leadership. Is that the case, sir? - That is the case. We use Classroom of the Future also for the Inter-American Squadron Officer School, and for officers or captains across the Americas to include United States Air Force Active Duty Captains, they're part of the class. Usually about 14, 15, and then five or so of each, or from the United States Air Force. We normally have two of those running at a time. Also the enlisted, on the enlisted side, we have that. What this affords us is the opportunity for these students to interact, especially in leadership challenges, with leaders that have graduated from IAAFA in the past. For instance, we have a two-star admiral that is actually from Mexico, graduated from the intel course that you just referred to, planning to be our guest speaker in December. Well, we're able to interact with him, so we're actually gonna look at the possibility of having him actually interact with the class. Both with the classes already, the classes are already doing that. Why is that important? Well, we're talking about leadership, principles of leadership, and challenges, and it is good that the instructors, now being guides, focus the students leading the learning, and able to interact directly with former students that are now in leadership positions, and how they're applying the things that they learned from each other and here at IAAFA, now and in the field. That is something that is happening throughout IAAFA right now, and is, as you can tell, one of the things that is exciting for me is that we are not driving this. The instructors and the students are the ones that are driving this. They're excited about the technology. Normally, you're trying to sell the idea or a concept to the students, but Classroom of the Future, that concept, is being driven by the instructors. For IAAFA, it doesn't matter, you know, what technology. What we're looking for is, as a learning institution, is the education, training, and experience, and this actually, I'm seeing it, day to day, growing, as an opportunity. But one thing that is important, things like this, these efforts don't happen overnight, and they don't happen because, you know, you have some great leader or you have some great instructor or some great student. It happens as a result of being airmen. You hear about the Marines. A Marine is a Marine, you know, soldiers are soldiers, we are airmen. We are innovators by nature. That's how we started. That's how the Air Force became. You know, the Air Force came up in an idea somehow from somebody thinking about flying something, a hunk of, you know, metal or wood in the air, and now look at us today. Well, Classroom of the Future is no different than that. So to me, that is exciting. And it happened from working with individuals like Chief Gudgel, our Command Chief, saw the excitement, Chief Bass, our Second Air Force, you know, Command Chief, seeing the excitement, you know, and this, Chief Flores, Colonel Janaros, our Wing Commander, Colonel Janaros, we think of somebody... We think of thinking outside of the box, I don't think Colonel Janaros knows of a box, you know, he just lives outside the box. But what it does for us, and it does for our folks, is that it gives us, gives them the freedom to explore, and what you're experiencing today and what you're hearing today, this wasn't rehearsed, as a matter of fact, these are Sergeant Garza Salas' ideas. So I'm actually listening, and every day that I listen to this, I learn something new, as you're learning it here. So all of that to say this. This is an effort by the instructors, as guides, leading this effort, and leaders like Colonel Janaros and General Leahy, when he was here, and now General Toulouse, allowing us to do this, and the Command Chiefs behind them, Chief Blazier, those encouraging words coming along and seeing the students do these things in the classroom. This is just the beginning. - That's fantastic. And with, some of our audience might not be aware, but your teachings take place in Spanish, correct? - (mumbles) - So as an instructor speaking Spanish and English as well, how is that capability used within the Classroom of the Future? Is there any language from language, or is there any skills or tools that can be used that enable you to teach more efficiently? - As far as the English and Spanish go, I'd say that's entirely more in the classroom and the instructor side. The system itself makes it very friendly to write, but that's only as far as the letters themselves, for example, I write horrible, my cursive is bad, but the system will make it so it appears more legible. But for the Spanish, it's entirely up to me and them (laughs) understanding each other, which is usually not too much of a challenge. - Well, that's great, to make more handwriting legible and being able to play back when you are in the classroom and that sorta thing. - Oh definitely, my handwriting, I cannot emphasize how bad it is. (laughs) The fact that it makes it legible is huge for me. - So that user-friendliness is helpful, because at any penmanship level or any skill level, the system is able to put it into where everyone can learn from it. - Absolutely, absolutely. It's ridiculously user-friendly, I would say, you don't even have to have any kind of experience with computers or Microsoft Paint, even, which is one of the tools that it's very similar in the Classroom of the Future, it has tools, little color palettes you hold in your hand, and you touch them as if you were touching a brush to paint, and it'll apply it on the board itself. It's too user-friendly. You cannot go wrong. - So the benefits that we're seeing is the collaborative learning and the learning ecosystem improving while they're here in the classroom, but sir, you alluded to, a little bit before, that some of the benefits that will come from this aren't even being realized yet, (mumbles) as far as the relationships, the connections, and in the field, knowledge acquired now that can be utilized real-world in the future for any situation. - Absolutely, we are talking about education and training and learning. The system is being used for that already here, and it's looking to expand. But here it is, it is a connected workspace. For us, it's a connected learning space. So we can, in essence, hold a conference. We could've held this, that we're holding right now, with you at Headquarters, AETC at Randolph, with you at the 37th Training Wing Headquarters Building, you in your classroom and I in my office, and still hold this same thing, and have a connected real estate, digital real estate, where we interact visually and talk to each other, and you can interact visually from your phones or (mumbles). So that is a given example of why it makes a difference in an education and training learning environment. As we develop curriculum, while it would take funds to actually bring the five or six former instructors from IAAFA here to collaborate for a week, we don't have to do that anymore. We can actually plan it, and we can run it for a month or month and a half, and meet every, you know, twice a week for an hour and a half, and collaborate in from Brazil, from Dominican Republic, Panama, the United States, and continue working the project, and everybody continues with that workspace. And here, the 45 minutes that we spend together in that meeting, we can move it and continue to interact outside of whatever real estate we're dealing with. That is a dramatic technotic change. - So this modernization really is transforming the way that we learn and providing us a competitive edge to be lethal and ready all the time. - Absolutely, absolutely, this is... Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General Goldfein, said this, "We're no longer, as airmen, we're no longer "seeking to be the only ones with a technology." Right now, we are the only ones with this capability in the U.S. Government, and we know that because if it wasn't that way, the certification process would (mumbles) a lot faster. So we wish we had another capability, the capability in the... but we don't have it. IAAFA is the first one, you know, with this, in the United States Government. But as we move now in the future, General Goldfein would say, "We no longer wanna be the only ones, "we wanna be the first," because as great as this technology is, I don't think we're gonna remain being the only ones with this for an extremely long time. But we are the first, and we're taking advantage of it. So as we're using this, we're already looking way ahead of this. And you alluded to it earlier. We're not looking to stay here, we're looking to go way beyond, and looking already beyond in how we can develop capabilities, sustainable capabilities, in security cooperation to the advantage of the United States and our partner nations. - So you alluded a little bit to that, some students have reached back to you, saying what they learned in class with you is already something they've been able to apply in the field, real-world. Can you explain or tell us a little bit more about a student in a situation? - Gladly. In my own course, Cyber Networks, we teach from the ground up, what is a computer and how to build a network. We literally take them from nothing to all the way up to building their own networks from scratch. That said, through (mumbles) we were able to have the cooperative environment that I just talked about, and have two teams work together to design a network on the boards and on the papers, and go through all the steps of setting up a network, setting the components together, and configuring them, and then we took it out to the field here outside the building, we established wireless communication, again, from the ground up, from every single component, computers, networks, switches, and then the student, as soon as he went back to his home country, he immediately told me he started applying that same concept of configuring the switches and networks from the ground up to establish one of the longest link-to-link networks in Uruguay. Straight from the class, he told me exactly that the methods we use to configure our systems here is exactly what he's using over there. So now I wanna bring him back to the classroom, so for my next class, he'll be able to explain how, what he learned here, and (mumbles) he can interact through his phone on my board how he applied it exactly. - So the problem solving that they're doing isn't, "Here is an example, "and let's solve something in a fictional setting," it's real-life situations that they can be working in a classroom setting to bring benefit to true things taking place. - Exactly, that real-life application is really strengthening our alliances with all these partner nations, and they definitely reach back, it's not us reaching to them, they reach back to say how grateful they are for all that it's bringing to them, and this is people that have experience in the field. They'll tell me, "I've been in my field for six, seven years, "and it's not until now that I can actually learn in that, "what it is that I can bring to my forces." - So what is this classroom doing for strengthening all of the partner and alliances that we have with countries in Central and South America? - It starts with the relationship that we establish and sustain with our students and leaders throughout the Americas. The Air Forces, the police, the Armies, and the Navies, that's what IAAFA deals with, in education and training. And with that now, students come here and actually seeking to implement, as you heard just described, making us the partner of choice, wanting to interact with IAAFA. Interestingly enough, interacting with IAAFA makes it easier for them to bring across that wanting to interact with the United States. IAAFA is a United States Air Force learning institution, education and training learning institution, but it also allows them to easily communicate the desire to be close with IAAFA, which translates to being close with the United States, and being close with the United States Air Force and the other services. Most of our students come here with a desire and actually a task to go back and implement what they learned here. Industrial, international logistics, material management, intelligence, we just described with the cyber course, those are just examples. The Aircraft Maintenance Officer Course, Aircraft Maintenance Superintendents Course, these are all examples where we're using Classroom of the Future technology in a learning environment, where the student is learning, goes back, implements, making the United States a partner of choice, attractive to our partner nations, and here's something that ties IAAFA even deeper with, I call it, the Spanish speakers of the (mumbles) family, you know, here, in that, by law and doctrine, we are to deliver, as an Air Force, airmen into the joint environment. IAAFA delivers partner nations inter-operably alongside our United States military and airmen, or instead of us. That is huge. That is part of our doctrine, that is our calling, what we get to see it, IAAFA, you know, right here. And these students, and these instructors, get to see directly from the tactical, operational, and strategic, you know, the impact that they're having in the classroom, and that this is happening every day right here in the 37th Training Wing under the leadership of Colonel Jason Janaros. - It wouldn't be a stretch to say that, here in IAAFA, we are obliterating the gap, whether they are here in the classroom or back at home, there is no gap, they can be right here interacting with us, and we are producing quality graduates that our partner nations can see, I'm pretty sure they can see immediately the results of what it means to be a grand IAAFA graduate. They see the results of the Classroom of the Future and the quality of graduates that return back home, by seeing what they can apply and what they bring, they literally bring back home, all the knowledge they bring and how they apply it, it's all possible through the Classroom of the Future and through all the possibilities that it's brought with it, with us. - So everyone's volunteering and hoping to get to IAAFA and to learn and be in a environment with us here. - Absolutely, absolutely, and the students now, they've always been leaders, but now they're even more impact and strategic leaders, because now every student that leaves IAAFA has the opportunity to benefit across the Americas, even after they leave, and they continue to learn after they leave, because that interaction that they're having now with the instructors and the students after they leave, increases their learning, and it also increases the learning and shortens the learning curve of the students that are remaining behind. So for our strategic, for our national defense strategy, this is literally a game changer, as you heard described. We're not learning what the rules of the games are. What you heard described so far is that we have dramatically destroyed the previous games, instituted a new game, and are actually putting out the rules on how to best implement that game, and there's a lot more ahead of us than we've experienced so far. - Well, that's fantastic, I can't wait to see what the Classroom of the Future continues to bring us in the future, both far and close time frames, so thank you for your time, and all of your expertise that you bring here to the Inter-American Air Forces Academy, here as an instructor and all of the students you teach, it's been an honor to speak with you guys today and learn more about this creative and innovative technology we have. - Likewise, thank you for having us. - No, Lieutenant Trudell, Lieutenant, guest, thank you so much (rock music) for taking the time to spend with us. (metallic whoosh) - Just a ton to unpack on Episode 19, pretty cool stuff happening at IAAFA, in terms of learning and expanding our strategic relationships throughout the Central and South Americas, of course, IAAFA, the Gateway to the Americas, and they're doing some pretty big things there at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. Big thank you to both Colonel Davidson and Staff Sergeant Garza Salas, as well as Lieutenant Trudell, for taking time out to record this podcast for us, as a reminder, you can follow Air Education and Training Command on social media, we're on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, as well as on the web at www.aetc.af.mil. Don't forget, you can also check out General Webb and Chief Gudgel, they're on social media as well, AETC Command Team, they're on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, just like we are. Thanks for checking out the podcast as we dive into the world of recruiting, training, and education. For our entire AETC Public Affairs Team, I'm Dan Hawkins, so long, we'll talk to you next time on Developing Mach-21 Airmen.