Army Classroom 21 vision enters Air Force Published Oct. 21, 2009 By Staff Report 366th Training Squadron Detachment 7 Fort Leonard Wood, Miss. -- Airmen in the Inter-service Training Review Organization portion of the Engineering Course at the 366th Training Squadron, Detachment 7 at Fort Leonard Wood, Miss., will soon be training in an environment designed for the 21st century Airman. Since moving to Fort Leonard Wood in 1995, duties performed by Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors and Marines in the engineering specialty have become more automated and technology rich. With courses in drafting, geospatial engineering, site layout and project management, computers have become an integral part of learning and training. The Army's solution is the Classroom 21 Program. Classroom 21 is an Army vision which originated in the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command Headquarters, Deputy Chief Staff for Training, in the early 1990s. Classroom 21's objectives are focused to ensure cutting edge technology is available to meet the Army's ever-changing training requirements. The environment leverages information age technology to gain training efficiencies while maximizing training effectiveness. Five classrooms in the ITRO portion of the Engineering Apprentice Course are being rehabilitated. This provides increases in power and improvements in heating and air conditioning to support the Classroom 21 environment. Technology refresh includes new wide-screen format projectors, screens, plasmas, audio, video and computer systems. Communication improvements were also part of the Classroom 21 package, ensuring internet access for all instructors and trainees at their stations. Trainees will enjoy a very dynamic learning environment. In high technology Classroom 21, they will each have extra space for reference materials, stereo headphones equipped with a boom microphone attached to a linked learning communications system with the instructor. The instructor will be able to interact with the trainee privately or in groups through the headphones located at each student station. Classroom control panels allow instructors to operate equipment, electronically group trainees and control and assist trainees at the desktop. Trainees and instructors are supported with a full suite of office applications and provided with specialized software based on their training requirements. In the foreseeable future, Classroom 21 will provide cutting edge automation to support training requirements, adjusted to meet the needs of the trainer and the trainee with increased interactivity with the software. More importantly, it will provide the ability to respond to changes in technology and techniques to ensure learning is occurring in real time in support of all training requirements. All work is scheduled to be completed and classrooms ready for student use in November of 2009.