The Air Force’s new blended learning construct that combines digital and in-person education will put the emphasis back on the learner, CMSAF James Cody told reporters at AFA’s Air & Space Conference in National Harbor, Md., on Wednesday. “We have worked diligently over decades to build the brick-and-mortar system that we have today; it is a high-quality level of education that we provide for our airmen, but it is now beginning to lag,” he said. The new approach will allow airmen to master academic content on their own and focus on experiential learning during their actual in-residence periods, he said. “In a classroom, it’s instructor-centric. … But at the end of that session … it’s over,” said Cody. “With distance learning, it’s learner-centric,” he said.
This year’s Association of the United States Army’s annual meeting buzzed with talk of countering the rapidly evolving drone threat facing the entire U.S. military, including the Air Force. Leaders and defense industry officials discussed the need for new approaches to procurement and employment of a new class of these…