Learning Process

An Army instructor with 32 years of service as a soldier has written a paper pushing back against Training and Doctrine Command's “Army Learning Concept 2015,” criticizing its focus on developing digitally connected millennials rather than “adult” leaders.

“Our Army does not need more technology, gaming, simulations and technology-delivered approaches to 'individual' learning for digital aged millennial soldiers,” wrote Michael Sevcik, who teaches at the School for Command Preparation at the Army Command and General Staff College, Ft. Leavenworth, KS.

His paper, “Army Learning Concept 2015: These Are Not The Droids You're Looking For,” was posted today on Small Wars Journal.

“What our Army needs is a learning strategy targeted on adults and focused on the command team, NCOs and leaders at all levels,” Sevcik wrote. “ALC 2015 should be a source of help for our commanders who are responsible for leader development and lifetime learning of their Soldiers. As written, it clearly is not.”

ALC 2015 was published by TRADOC in January and heralded by Gen. Martin Dempsey (who ran the Army's schoolhouse at the time) as “an important component of our effort to drive change through a campaign of learning.” Dempsey also highlighted the strategy for focusing on “the opportunities presented by dynamic virtual environments, by on-line gaming, and by mobile learning.”

But Sevcik sees a problem with this focus and the service's recent effort to equip soldiers with handheld communication devices.

“For over a decade there have been warnings that our millennial generation is addicted to technology at the expense of interpersonal skills, team building, common respect, the ability to communicate to one another,” he wrote. “In many cases our millennial soldiers have exchanged critical thinking for a passionate embrace of trivia. . . . When TRADOC issues 100,000 new digital handheld devices to soldiers, how long will it be before 'Joe' is wasting time playing computer games, buying stuff on E-Bay and surfing the net for porn?”