Category: Simulation for Training

Oh, that’s just a video game. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard that comment, when someone stops at our trade show booth. But training simulation is not a video game. Here’s why. About “Fun” and “Work” and “Serious Games” In his book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (...)

I didn’t know what to say. The Director of a heavy equipment operator training school had called to talk about his new (Simlog) simulators, and asked me the following question: “What’s the #1 way they’re helping my students?” The #1 way? Well, simulation can improve operator training in so many (...)

Organisations that own and operate heavy equipment are always looking for new operators. And to do that, they are primarily targeting: current employees who are now doing other kinds of work, to grow their own people with work experience in other fields, including military veterans [1]. In both cases, people (...)

  “What I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do, I understand.” (Confucius) Yes, doing is the best way to learn, but the ancient Chinese scholar was only “half right”, because just any old “doing” … won’t do! The fact is, my father taught my mother (...)

  Time was, training to become a blacksmith, baker, or candlestick maker required person-to-person interaction. Today, that’s just as true for heavy equipment operators. And that’s because developing any kind of skill means first showing me what to do, and then watching what I do to help me learn to (...)

Typical operator training programs combine classroom-based instruction with real-world seat-time but the results are often discouraging, because there are three kinds of uncertainty. Are you choosing the right people to train? Are your trainees learning properly? Are your new operators working well enough? We can summarize the current arrangement in (...)

An early airplane flying enthusiast, Ed Link developed his “Pilot Maker” in 1929 by combining state-of-the-art technology (for that time) consisting of motors, pumps, and bellows from the electric pianos and movie theatre pipe organs manufactured in his father’s factory.