Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin - Federation of American ...

ucational foundations developed in the program
to their daily work requirements.
At this time, a total of 22 DA civilians have taken
advantage of this opportunity to enhance their technological
skills and earned a master’s degree in educational
technology as a result. Nineteen are still
government employees. Currently, there are eight
civilians scheduled to continue and/or start the
program in January.
When you ask graduates of the program what impact
this opportunity has had on them personally or
in their job performance, their answers reinforce the
original intent of the program.
Mr. Leon Leszczynski, an Education Specialist with
the 111 th MI Brigade here at Fort Huachuca, notes
that the program “provided me an opportunity
to ‘retool’ my skills, knowledge, and abilities
to those required by the Intelligence Center.”
Further, “this program gave me a solid grasp of
learning theory and how it relates to instructional
system design and, consequently, I am better able
to advise and assist brigade training developers
and instructors design, develop and implement
the training and training products for which they
are responsible.”
“I highly recommend this program to anyone who
wishes to remain competitive and upwardly mobile
at the Intelligence Center. The time and effort
invested in the program pale in comparison with
the dividends enjoyed as a result of completing
it,” he adds.
Similar comments come from Mr. Pete Shaver,
Director, MI Foreign Language Training Center, also
a graduate of the program. He feels the program
provided him “the capability to design, develop and
evaluate language education programs” and the
“ability to assess their effectiveness.”
Addressing both the personal and professional
benefits of the program, Mr. Shaver adds, “thanks to
the program, I feel my contribution to the language
community and Fort Huachuca linguists has been
more effective and beneficial.”
Evolving Curriculum
As is the nature of educational technology, the
curriculum is constantly evolving to better meet
the technological and educational needs of the
Intelligence Center and its DA civilians, and remain
relevant. Unlike those first 12 students in the pro-
trAInInG tHE COrPs
gram who received their training in the University’s
traditional classrooms and computer labs, the students
now in the program receive almost all of their
training online.
The change to an all online program is reflective
of the direction training is taking, and is a major
effort of Dr. Betul C. Ozkan, who currently heads
up the Educational Technology Department at the
University of Arizona South. Experienced in technology
integration, teacher education, distance learning
environments, educational technology research,
and emerging technologies, she is moving ahead to
make the program relevant to the “millennial” generation
of students.
And so, while the core courses in instructional
design and computer applications in education
and training remain, today’s DA civilians in the
program are heavily involved in such courses as
Application of Technology in Education; Multimedia
Applications in Education; Introduction to Interface
Design; Designing Online Learning Environments;
Educational Change Through Technology, and
Emerging Technologies in Education. They are engaged
in web based development, authoring tools,
basic programming, scripting, streaming audio and
video, dynamic content determined by server database
values, and many other areas of study.
The program is project based with each course requiring
a major development effort by the student.
Students are also expected to complete a comprehensive
best-works portfolio demonstrating competency
within the discipline as a requisite component
for program completion.
Conclusion
The curriculum evolves to meet the ever changing
wave of educational technology, but the commitment
remains the same. After 10 years, the Intelligence
Center is still “growing” their own–investing in the
technological and educational development of it’s
civilian training developers and instructors.
Richard K. Ward is an Instructional Systems Specialist in
the Training, Development and Support (TD&S) Directorate,
USAIC, Fort Huachuca, Arizona. He serves as the Chief of
the Staff & Faculty Development Division (SFDD). Mr. Ward
holds an MA in Education Psychology and Technologies
from the University of Arizona. He can be contacted at
rick.ward1@us.army.mil
April - June 2009 57