How Google Docs saved me during ABIC

Recently I attended an ABIC (Army Basic Instructor Course) Refresher Course...reasons why are for another blog post, so any way back to how Google Docs saved me. On day one we are issued this stack of papers as a Student Reference and a CDROM. On day two we are assigned a specific common core/general knowledge class that we will present in the ABIC/TRADOCian method.

We develop a training outline, then develop a question outline, prior to giving our presentation. We are given access to a computer lab in another building before and after class but I head back to the office as we are down to the wire before the big TRADOC QAO Accreditation visit. Google Docs is not accessible from .mil domain so it never really saves me on the computer I use at work when I need a product that I save in my Google Docs.

For some reason, the CDROM was blank after using at work and we were required to submit a printed copy of the training outline to our evaluator. Because I saved, created, and modified my requirements in Google Docs, I knew if I needed the data I could access the information with my tablet or my phone. 

While I was frustrated in the walled learning environment, which included a ban on cell phones, I enjoyed working with the great group of NCOs who taught the course and those who were students in the course as they prepare for their military instructor positions for the leadership and technical aspects of the Signal Corps. Would I do it again? Not unless I am required to do so and the course is implementing the Army Learning Concept 2015 or following the pilot using iPads and mentors.


Hopefully, the course improvements will adapt more of the tenets of ALC 2015 before FY 15 as FY 12 starts next Saturday, 1 October 2011.