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CAPTAINS: Communication and Practical Training Applied in Nautical Studies

The CAPTAINS project aimed to transfer innovation and to conjugate existing knowledge concerning linguistic, paralinguistic, cultural and discourse formation issues acting as barriers in ship-to-ship, ship-to-shore-to-ship and crew communication in the multi-cultural context of a ship particularly since most ships are now multilingual. 80% of maritime accidents are imputable to human factors, of which failure of communication represents one third (Ziarati 2006, Trenkner 2007). The IMO has also underlined the importance of effective communication as a crucial issue for Marine Safety (IMO, 2006) while communicative language used in the context of real-life situations has hardly been part of any Maritime Education and Training (MET) curriculum.The main goals of the project were:1. To contribute to an enhanced safety at sea culture by improving English communication skills, oral or written, in order to deal with safety issues and real-life critical situations emerging from English communication problems and diverse cultures due to multi-national ship crews.2. To transfer innovations by combining advanced e-learning and collaboration tools, already existing at AIT, with interactive rich media learning contents created as the result of aim 1, taking into consideration scenario-based and experiential learning. State of the art technologies such as 2D/3D virtual and interactive simulators allow users to be active, interact and socialise with others, be represented as digital entities, etc. thus significantly reducing the learning curve and the time needed for transferring of skills, a key issue in competence-based and learning by doing. The main tangible outcome was transfer of knowledge from various nation/international databases for identification of communication failures in safety issues and preparation of scenarios for the training of seafarers working at sea and in ports.The main intangible outcome was that knowledge previously laying dormant such as technological breakthroughs and modern communication based learning strategies would be creatively combined forming dynamic synergies and acting as a pole of attraction for trainees who wish to improve themselves in their field. Safety will also become the cornerstone rather than just a concern in shipping (Prasad 2008).
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