Gamebase training and education. Testing the usefulness of gameconsols in the Swedish Armed Forces

Effective and efficient training methods are essential in most organisations and the ability to manage technology is vital. One way of conducting training and education while integrating technology and learning is via simulation. Personal Computer (PC) and game consoles (Xbox, Playstation2 and Game Cube) could be viewed as a form of a low-cost simulation tool. Thus, if it would be possible to use game consoles for training it might create successful training methods. Therefore, this report investigates whether gaming consoles could be used as an effective and efficient tool for training and education. Furthermore, it identifies opportunities created by a console based training environment. The Swedish Armed Forces are as many other organisations, dependent on efficient training methods and they have a constant pressure of cutting costs. Therefore, this research has been conducted within the Swedish Army combat school where 48 cadets participated playing a commercial game on each of the four platforms. Their performances and attitudes were logged and analysed. The results revealed that gaming consoles have a great potential to improve the human capital as well as the structural capital therefore individuals as well as organisations could gain from console based training.