UK Army Uses iPad To Train Afghan Operators

Feel like learning how to handle a fire mission? Worry not, there's a device for that - and it's called the iPad. That's right, as the BBC reports, UK soldiers are using a special iPad app to learn the "jargon and procedures" of Afghan operations. And, according to Major Rich Gill (an Army training officer), this new interactive form of learning is expected to greatly cut down training time:

"If we can use this sort of technology, we can probably shorten the amount of training and that is pretty key nowadays when people are so committed to operations in Afghanistan."

And, what's more, the soldiers love it too. The application makes learning more interactive and enjoyable. As Lance Bombardier Jason Markham from 1st Regiment Royal Horse Artillery states:

"It makes it more fun instead of being sat in a classroom looking at a presentation being given information." "If you're on a course you can take this back to the block and practise with it, even have little competitions with it."

So there you go. Yet another purpose for what many have labeled "just a big iPod touch." It seems as though Apple's iPad is finding a place in a great many institutions - remember the article we published about the iPad heading off to college? Currently, an iPad app designed to teach army pilots how to recognize different vehicles from the air is in development - so perhaps this "revolutionary" method of training will catch on. We'll be reporting if we hear anything more.

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