AICC News Blog

At meetings in Stuttgart, Germany, Aeroflot demonstrated innovative use of Second Life to support aviation training. Meeting sessions addressed many emerging technologies for training and advances in learning technology standards as applied to aviation.

Additional presentations by leading researchers and innovative suppliers addressed social learning, international technology standards for training, and solutions for emerging issues facing the aviation community. Aeroflot demonstrated live users of Second Life interacting with each other and natural language processing chat bots to refine radio communications and ICAO English for pilots. Many AICC presentations like this have direct applications in the larger Learning, Education and Training (LET) community.

Read the full “Second Life and Aviation Training Innovations at AICC October Meeting” press release online.

A link to the meeting minutes and presentations from the Stuttgart sessions can be found on the AICC Meeting Information page, along with information on past and upcoming meetings.

UPDATE November 16, 2009: In collaboration with the Halldale Media Group, the AICC will be meeting in conjunction with WATS 2010 during April in Orlando. The FAA will host AICC meetings during January 2010 in Palm Coast Florida, USA.

Anyone interested in aviation training and training technology is welcome to attend or to join the AICC. Meeting fees are waived for members and for airlines sending a representative for the first time. Watch for additional announcements regarding AICC and WATS 2010.

Labels: general information, meeting information, notices

The AICC is looking for an organization to host its June meeting. In exchange for hosting, the organization is free to participate as leading organizations in aviation training design, implementation and delivery join together to discuss products, processes, issues and solutions. This will be the only AICC meeting in North America in 2009 and represents a unique opportunity.

Meetings usually run for four days with typical participation of 30-40 representatives from airframe manufacturers, key component suppliers, training service providers, hardware and software vendors. Past participants have included representatives from:

• ADL
• Adobe
• Aeroflot
• Airbus
• Air France
• Alteon
• Boeing
• Bombardier
• CSA
• Delta
• Embraer
• Finnair
• Delta
• FAA
• FedEx
• Halldale Publications
• Honeywell
• Intel
• Lufthansa
• Microsoft
• Northwest Airlines
• Plateau
• Pratt & Whitney
• Questionmark Corp.
• Rockwell Collins
• Saba
• Singapore Airlines
• Skillsoft
• Thai Airways
• United Airlines
• UPS
• ... and many more.

The dates are flexible. This represents a unique opportunity to have aviation training colleagues and experts meet at your organization's location, training center or a nearby facility. Learn and share. Improve your expertise as experts come to you. Help define topics and themes for discussion.

Contact the AICC Administrator for more information or to volunteer as host.

Labels: call for presentations, general information, meeting information, notices

The AICC now hosts an online events calendar that features AICC and aviation industry training conferences and events. You can visit the calendar by visiting the AICC Events Calendar online. The public can subscribe to the AICC Events Calendar using an XML or iCal Feed available on that page.

Upcoming Events
Recent events added to the Events calendar include:

• AICC Singapore Meetings: February 24-27, 2009
• Halldale WATS Conference: April 28-30, 2009
• ITEC Conference: May 12-14, 2009

Additional events have also been posted to the calendar. If you would like your event included in the AICC Event calendar, please contact events@aicc.org.

Call for Papers and Presentations
The AICC and Halldale WATS events both have an open call for papers and presentations. Those interested in presenting at the AICC International Aviation Training Conference, can send a session title, speaker name, speaker title, and session description to: presentations@aicc.org. See the Halldale WATS conference site for additional details on submitting presentations or papers.

Proposal Deadlines

• AICC Singapore Meetings: January 16, 2009
• Halldale WATS Conference: January 9, 2009

NOTE: AICC members exhibiting at WATS are once again encouraged to participate in the “Proud to Be AICC” program. Contact the AICC Administrator or an AICC Executive Committee member for details.

Labels: call for presentations, general information, notices

Podcasts — Two additional podcasts are available in the AICC Podcasts series. Improved links to the podcasts are now included in the sidebar of the AICC News blog page. The latest podcasts feature Ed Cohen of Plateau, and current AICC Chairman, Neil Cramer, of Northwest Airlines.

Information
There were some great tidbits of information exchanged at the AICC Meeting in Louisville. Below are some of the items people contributed or found interesting.

Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky, 2008 – Excellent book on the “Power of Organizing Without Organizations,” that addresses social networks, social capital, and distributed coordination/organization of labor.

X-Plane – Excellent flight simulator available for Mac, Windows and Linux. Currently $39 USD it soon goes back up to $59 USD.

X-Plane for iPhone – As demonstrated by Kris Rockwell during the Mobile Technologies presentation. X-Plane flight simulator that runs on iPhone, pitch and roll controlled by tilting and accelerometers.

Xobni – Email organizer, search, analytics and productivity tool for individuals. Plugin for Microsoft Outlook that calculates average response times, threads conversations and more.

DeviceAnywhere – Test any mobile device on any mobile network with their hosted hardware and software solution. Great for mobile application development and deployment testing.

Acoustic Magic Voice Tracker – Array microphone that tracks / "tunes in" to the current speaker in a conference room. Recommended by a distance education technologist from University of Louisville.

Captionate – Captionate is a Windows application that embeds data into FLV (Flash Video) files. Excellent tool for captioning, closing captioning and using cue points with streaming media.

Celebration — Social networking is even better when celebrating. AICC participants shared ideas, memory and delicious cake during the 20th Anniversary Celebration. Happy Birthday AICC.

Special thanks to our wonderful hosts, UPS Airlines who handled all the meeting arrangements and provided a fantastic tour of the UPS Worldport facility. The AICC especially appreciated the arrangements made by Ray Butler of UPS for a special package:

Meeting minutes from Louisville will be posted shortly and announced here. Attendees will also receive a meeting roster of fellow participants. The January 2009 meeting is being planned for Mumbai, India. More information on that upcoming meeting will be posted in late October.

Labels: general information, meeting information

The AICC podcast series continues with some vendor perspective provided by Eric Shepherd of Questionmark. In interview format, Eric's responses provide insight on the benefits of participation and the AICC open processes.

Eric and Questionmark have been participating in the AICC for about 10 years, and have also obtained a record number of back-to-back AICC certifications for their product, Questionmark Perception. All that and managing to do hundreds of interoperable integrations across the globe too. Finally, with some prompting from Tom, Eric also chimes in with some tips on fascinating travel destinations that are bound to help support the aviation industry.

Thanks to Eric for the tips and insights. The full interview is available for free from either the AICC Podcasts RSS Feed on this site, or AICC Podcasts on Apple iTunes.

In other AICC news, AICC Technical Advisor Jack Hyde recently participated in ISO meetings in Stuttgart Germany. Jack will be providing a report on the activities later this month at the September 2008 AICC Meetings in Louisville. In the meantime, Jack Hyde's presentation is available via SlideShare, and inserted immediately below.

Labels: general information, podcast

A podcast interview with Peter Morton is now available (direct download: AICC-20th-Peter-Morton.mp3 (MP3 audio, 5.6 MB)). This is the first in what we hope to be a sustained series of podcasts from the AICC. It is only appropriate that this first interview is with one of the principal figures in the formation of the AICC.

Peter Morton and his Cirrus

Peter was a prominent figure in the formation of the AICC and was responsible for airline training at Boeing during the 1987-1995 time period. During the interview he shares memories of the formation of the AICC, including the interoperability and proprietary platform issues of the time. Please listen to this 12 minute podcast to learn about the AICC, the CBT of the late 1980s and Peter's memories of Boeing 777 CBT development. At the end of the interview, Peter admits he was initially surprised that the AICC is still active, and then upon reflection expresses his thoughts on the surprising longevity, and future, of the AICC.

Tips on AICC Podcasts

The RSS feed to subscribe to AICC Podcasts is: http://feeds.feedburner.com/AiccPodcasts

That link will allow you to directly download the podcast from a feed reader or podcast client. The free AICC podcast feed has also been submitted to the Apple iTunes store and is undergoing the review process. In the meantime those with an iPod or iPhone can manually subscribe to the podcast as follows

1. Right-click on this AICC Podcast link and select “Copy shortcut.”
2. Open iTunes and us the “Advanced” menu to select “Subscribe to Podcast.”
3. Look for the “Subscribe to Podcast” popup window. Paste AICC Podcast link URL into the field labeled “URL:”
4. Click “OK.” The most recent episode(s) will download to your computer. Enjoy them on your iPod or iPhone.

UPDATE August 12, 2008: The iTunes link has been approved. iTunes users can subscribe or download via this link: AICC Podcasts.

Labels: general information, notices, podcast

Visit the AICC Forum to read about how AICC got started and the recollections of AICC participants. Add your own success stories, links and memories. All are welcome.

http://aicc.org/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1214451897

Stay tuned to the AICC News Blog where we plan to add more highlights and some short podcasts as we celebrate 20 years of AICC achievements and experiences in aviation and technology-based training. The AICC is reaching out to past participants and AICC Chairmen for their observations and recollections. Please feel free to contribute and enjoy.

Labels: AICC Forum, general information, notices

In 2008 the AICC celebrates its 20th year of driving interoperability of learning systems and helping the aviation training community to get the best possible value from technology-based training. Please join us as we celebrate.

If you have colleagues, contacts or friends who participated in the AICC directly or remotely, please let them know we're interested in hearing from them and sharing their thoughts, memories and observations. Notes can be shared publicly on the AICC Forum in the AICC Memories discussion topic.

Those with pictures, notes, artifacts, videos or memorabilia that you'd like the AICC to share at the AICC 20th Anniversary event to be held in Louisville Kentucky USA in September 2008, please contact us by sending email to:

In the meantime, we'd like to encourage all of you to subscribe to the AICC News Blog (by email, IM or twitter), or Join the AICC LinkedIn Group or Join the AICC Facebook Group to stay in touch with colleagues and to expand your professional network.

Labels: general information