Alelo Inc., a developer of advanced learning products for cross-cultural communication skills, demonstrated a number of new capabilities and products at this year's Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation & Education Conference (I/ITSEC).
Alelo demonstrated new additions to the Tactical Language Training System (TLTS) line of "serious games" for learning foreign language and culture. These included new versions of the Tactical Iraqi and Tactical French videogames, which teach Iraqi Arabic and African French, respectively. Tactical Iraqi is already a winner of multiple awards, including the Serious Games Challenge at I/ITSEC 2007. The new expanded versions of these courses include extended lessons and game scenarios that are designed to take someone with no knowledge of Arabic or French up to an intermediate level of language proficiency, as measured by the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language) proficiency scale. Alelo also demonstrated its new Tactical Dari game, as well as adapted games focused on the needs of Australian, British, and other military forces.
In addition, Alelo demonstrated new Web-based courses, for both language and culture training. As with TLTS, these courses incorporate speech recognition and artificial intelligence technologies that enable learners to practice conversations with animated characters in the foreign language. These capabilities are now available via the World Wide Web, greatly expanding the accessibility of the courses. One course, Encounters: Chinese Language and Culture, is being developed jointly with Yale University, and received wide acclaim from Chinese language instructors at the recent ACTFL conference. Another course, VCAT (Virtual Culture Awareness Trainer), is being developed to teach cultural knowledge about the Horn of Africa region. This latter course will be made available via Joint Knowledge Online (JKO) to all military and civilian personnel wishing to gain cultural competency before deploying overseas.
Finally, Alelo demonstrated a first version of its new conversational artificial intelligence plug-in for Bohemia Interactive's VBS2 (Virtual Battlespace 2). This new training tool, called ALTS (Automated Language Training System), allows trainees to practice their language and cultural skills in multi-player training scenarios. In the current scenario, trainees must meet with a local sheikh and speak with him in Iraqi Arabic in order to obtain information about insurgents in the area. If the trainees demonstrate sufficient cultural awareness, and are able to use the language, the sheikh will cooperate and share information that will enable the trainees to complete their mission. ALTS thus serves as a multi-player counterpart to the single player Tactical Iraqi game.
The US Marine Corps Program Manager for Training Systems (PM TRASYS), a major sponsor of the TLTS and related training program, demonstrated these capabilities to a delegation of congressmen attending the show, including J. Randy Forbes (R/Virginia 4th District) and Bobby Scott (D/Virginia 3rd District). Paul Nichols, a dedicated contractor supporting PM TRASYS, explained to the visiting congressmen: "This is the training technology development portion of the system. We develop things here and then feed them to the current DVTE [Deployable Virtual Training Environment]." The DVTE is a package of portable computers and training software that is in use at dozens of military installations around the world.
About Alelo
Alelo is the Hawaiian word for "language", which is at the heart of the company's mission to develop technology-based learning systems that promote cross-cultural communication skills. Alelo is a spin-off of the University of Southern California.