Popular Mechanics (South Africa)
NETWORKS IN THE AIR
ATTACK PLANES TEAM UP TO ADD MORE PUNCH
CARS DO IT, HOMES DO IT…. now even educated planes do it. Boeing and the US Air Force recently demonstrated that multiple aircraft and ground stations can efficiently and securely communicate using the Boeing-developed Talon HATE airborne networking system.
During flight testing at Nellis Air Force Base in the US state of Nevada, Talon HATE pods on two F-15C aircraft enabled test pilots to share information through the military’s Link 16, Common Data Link and Wideband Global SATCOM satellites. The tests also validated intraflight datalink network capabilities used by F-22 aircraft.
Pilots using the system can transmit information quickly between the F-15C and other Air Force aircraft and weapon systems, enabling efficient information sharing in real time.
“We’ve completed developmental flight test,” said Lieutenant-colonel Christopher Bradley, Air Force Talon HATE manager. “We look forward to fielding this system, not only to immediately provide aircrews with actionable information faster and at a higher quality, but also to help the Air Force learn important lessons for the employment of tactical gateway systems in the future.”
The aerial network represented a giant leap forward in tactical fighter capability with real-time connectivity and expanded information sharing, according to said Paul Geery, vice president, Phantom Works Mission Solutions and Boeing’s Talon HATE programme manager. “We are now demonstrating secure datalink connections between F-15CS and F-22s in a way that integrates information for the pilot into a common operating picture.”
Additional tests later this year will be conducted later this year using advanced sensors, which will offer improved aircraft targeting capabilities. – Source: Boeing
Thiskind of secure communication between legacy fighters such as the F-15 and newer-generation stealth aircraft such as the F-22, combined with terrestrial and marine stations, could provide a decisive advantage ” in tomorrow’s warfare.
THE REVOLUTION IS AFOOT and the children are marching through the Palace of Versailles in search of the monarchy. They know where they’re going, too: they built the palace, according to historical data that they researched, and the exercise actually isn’t linked to the French Revolution, but is rather about the period architecture. What’s revolutionary is that this is all happening inside Minecraft, a game that the planet’s younger citizens can’t seem to get enough of and is now being used within a school curriculum.
Minecraft: Education Edition is a riff on the popular open-world game that encourages creativity and problem solving to meet curriculum objectives within an environment that children actually want to immerse themselves in. Stephen Reid of Scotland-based Immersive Minds is Microsoft’s global champion and main consultant for this version of the game.
“The key to harnessing technology as an effective tool for teaching and learning is in recognising its place in the everyday life of young people,” he explains. “The tools they embrace and enjoy using are not the same tools we tend to deploy in our school systems. For me it’s a three-step process: find something that is engaging and enthusing the children I am working with. Teach myself how to use it. Apply what I’ve learned to the curriculum teaching.”
He describes that as the best path to meeting children in their own world and using the tools they use to bring the learning to them.
Reid was in South Africa to launch Minecraft: Education Edition to the local network of Microsoft allied teachers. For now, this edition of the game is only available on the Windows Store, but it is based on the Pocket Edition, which is tailored to mobile devices. Launches happened at Brescia House in Johannesburg and Micklefield school in Cape Town.
“We need to embrace new technologies in education; we are still teaching for a world that does not exist and not preparing children for the actual world that they will
be entering,” he says of the coming education revolution. “If we teach children the common language used in technology it will better prepare them for when they need to learn to code.”
Importantly, this version of that game allows the teacher to create a closed world that keeps children engaged in the task at hand and removes temptation to wander into the expansive world. Children are also not bound by time and can pick up where they left off on another day, or in another period.
At its Education event in May, Microsoft announced a crucial enhancement to Minecraft: Education Edition, a new codebuilder addition meant to help students learn coding skills through the game. In-game coding will be facilitated by a helper robot into which players will be able to type commands using Tynker or Scratch. The company does, however, state that the potential of this addition extends as far as the user’s coding skills, with advanced users able to code commands directly in Javascript.
This is all to further shore up the game’s potential as a prototyping safe space for practical, hands-on learning. Like needing to demolish a building and learning how long of a fuse is needed for the explosives so that you can get out of the blast radius. Kids can play and not get hurt while grappling with dangerous concepts. Minecraft: Education Edition has been aligned with the CAPS curriculum in South Africa.