If you are like me, some or all of the following conditions may be true at this very moment: So let's start with the fun stuff: Summer Sizzle. Yes, the Summer Sizzle is what occurs when other people want to look as though they have accomplished all their goals while on the golf course. They dish their work to everyone else and turn up the heat until you produce the results they should have worked hard for while you your buns sizzle trying to keep everyone and their brother happy (often this means you are also trying to keep your job). Even with events like the Summer Sizzle, I can't help but feel that I just can't say no to those people holding me over the fire. My desire to make others happy often gets in the way of my common sense. I have found that these things generally happen only over the summer. I want to do ALL kinds of work, get loads accomplished. I don't feel depressed because the sun is shining and it's hotter than a sauna in here, the air is on the fritz again and I'll be right back because I have to find a fan to help move the air around. Yup – it's summer and who wants to be in the office working away on eLearning projects, planning, having meetings, doing design work? Not me, I want to be outside, in the sun (or rain as it happens to be today). I want to be walking down the street, playing with my dog, enjoying a BBQ, and reading a trashy romance. I want to be anywhere but where I am right now. It's sure hard to beat the "I'm in the office all summer" summertime blues. To lift the spirits, and because I truly like to share, I'm going to share a couple of things that help me deal with the procrastination associated with working during the summer. So – I hope your summer isn't filled with the kind of procrastination and longing that occupies my every waking, sun-filled second. Get out there – enjoy the summer, but make sure you earned it!
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Procrastination: Synonymous with Summer?
Monday, June 16, 2008
As The Saying Goes
Is it really true, that old adage: "Those who can, do; those who can't, teach"? Deep in thought this morning at my desk I was reevaluating my current work/life balance and wondering if, in fact this was true. As an instructor, I cared very much that the content provided to my students was meaningful, timely and valuable. I tried to relate it with the real world and give as much opportunity for group discussion as could be allotted to our tight course timeline. I facilitated many successful sales, telesales and customer relationship management courses over my many years of instructing. I read many books, listened to audio tapes and knew what to do in any given situation. What I couldn't do was put everything I knew, had learned and successfully instructed, into practice. I was not a very good sales person, but I knew what made a good salesperson great and could share that information with others. Many of the individuals in my training sessions have had very successful careers in sales and I've had many of them remain in contact with me. I received an email not long ago from someone in one of those sessions thanking me for the time I took to share my knowledge, my pain, my ideas, feedback and wisdom and for being frank when I told her at the end of the three days that she really wasn't cut out for sales and strongly suggested she think about other career opportunities. She (like me) knew what had to be done but just couldn't do it…so guess what? She is now teaching sales management for a large multinational – taking many of the same approaches I did with her and mentoring new sales professionals in her company. We talked for an hour about how we could take all those great exercises we did in class and translate them to an E-Learning environment, and it's got me thinking about it more and more… Maybe, just maybe, that saying really is true. I can't so I'll help someone else do.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
New E-Learning Network
For those that know me well, you know I have a passion for community, sharing, education and people! I am pleased to let you know that I've been working very hard to bring all those things together via a FREE community for e-learning professionals from ALL areas of e-learning and instructional design including, content generation, testing, storyboards, graphics, animations, programs used, databases, and will bring you, my fellow e-learning pros, a new blog complete with some of my best friends in the e-learning spere, best practices, cheap solutions (I'm all about the pocketbook fitness challenge) and some networking and free online presentations and support from some of the biggest names out there – like Microsoft, Articulate (thanks Tom!!!) Trivantis, just to name a few. And to the ITPRO community of Greater Toronto – thank you for letting us piggy-back as a Special Interest Group! My goal for this community is to create a place where e-learning pros can meet and greet, learn new skills, network and find people with expertise that perhaps you don't possess but need for a project, a place for free learning and sharing of ideas, best practices, and solutions as well as a place to engage yourself and your peers in a little friendly competition from time to time. I invite you to visit the blog and if you are interested in posting an article please let me know – my contact info is in the May post…The online community will go live before the end of June (I hope) www.etrainnetwork.com – currently there is a placeholder there until my good friend Dominic at Rebel Networks gets me up and running. (thanks Dom for supporting the e-learning community). We already have our first item up on the blog-poll – asking about your dedication to Mobile Learning…so get heard and put your vote in. It is also important for you to understand that while I had the idea for this community I couldn't do it without the great support of Microsoft Canada, Shannon, Jenn, Sheri and Ian, who being in Scotland truly makes this a GLOBAL community for e-learning professionals.
Thank you and I hope you find it as fun and enjoyable to participate as I have had putting it all together.
Discovering Camtasia Studio’s SmartFocus
It's been a number of years since I used Camtasia Studio 3 to create a cool recording of a virtual classroom learning session. I was concerned that perhaps I had forgotten how to use it or maybe there were so many features they added since 2001 that maybe, just maybe I'd not be able to use it and I'd look a fool for having said, "ooooh – Camtasia Studio ROCKS". The reality is, it does still rock, only this time, it rocks WAY MORE! The one cool feature I found that I just love, especially since one of the projects I'm working on is a project to demo a new area of a company "portal", I needed to find a way to zoom in to areas on the screen capture so that I could show a close-up of the screen options. SmartFocus is a new tool in Camtasia Studio that does just that. While you mouse is resting in an area on the screen, SmartFocus adds code to the record to zoom in to an area, then when the mouse is moved, it zooms back out. The cool thing is that you can edit the SmartFocus points if you want some but not all of the preselected, Camtasia assigned focus points. Unfortunately I was not able to attain permission from my company to use the item I created for this session, but maybe if I can find some time in my busy schedule I'll post the example. I highly recommend that you try it! You get a 30 day trial – no restrictions on use like some programs. (My new big beef these days are those companies that let you try their stuff but you can't save what you spent hours working on!!!! It makes me not want to purchase their products for the frustration. But I do understand it is a business preservation act so … enough said! J)
Friday, May 9, 2008
Lectora Vegas Conference – April 30 – May 1
I was lucky enough to be given permission to attend the Lectora Conference held in Las Vegas April 30 and May 1, 2008. For those that do not know, Lectora is a leading software application used to develop e-learning modules and works with almost any LMS or direct to web publishing. Lectora is a product of Trivantis and I have to give huge Kudos to Traci Connor who was a major reason this conference was, in my opinion, a huge success! The two conference days were jam packed with educational seminars and break-out sessions designed to provide all levels of e-learning professionals, from newbie to the most savvy of designers, with something valuable to take home. While many of the sessions were really good, there are two that stand out for me and left me with that "wow" feeling I was looking for. Title: Turning Heads Not Pages Why did I like this presentation? Sorry guys – I didn't like the presentation based on the presentation skills however Brian, if you read this – you are the funniest thing when you roll your eyes! What I really liked about this was that the guys talked with the audience (not to us) and the information was really grounded. The major point of the presentation was that e-learning needs to grab the attention of the learner, and not just be like a book you read on the screen. The major required element for the training Brian and Gareth offer for PriceWaterhouseCoopers is in telling a story to engage the learner and keep them "inside" the training. The examples shown of some of the low, medium and high tech (and high budget) modules included a fantastic "choose your own adventure" theme which allowed you, the learner, to step into what it would be like to be a mobile professional, with interactive audio, hot-spot elements to assist you in understanding tools you would use in your day to day life, and the ability to make choices and experience the repercussions without suffering the scars associated with on the job failures. It's all part of the real learning process and provides real world experience without the negativity. Title: Graphic Design for eLearning Shannon, another conference participant and I had serious reservations at the beginning of the presentation. For those that have been using PowerPoint and WordArt since way back in the day – oh say 1995 – then you will understand when I say that the screen she first showed looked like it was created by someone who had just learned the background colour formatting tools and the WordArt tools. As instructors, Shannon and I both recognized the childish and unprofessional message this title slide showed, but of course we were set at ease right away when Diane vocalized exactly what we were both thinking! ICK! I will try to recreate a similar screen to what Diane used as the opener! The take-away from this session was an excellent little tip sheet on thinking about the visual appeal and to minimize the clutter. Yes, I am paraphrasing, but I truly believe that when you use a couple of the recommended tips, like her first, and I do believe the most powerful tip: That just screams don't clutter the page, keep is simple, sweetie! Just because you know how to use WordArt doesn't mean you should really use it. After instructing PowerPoint and Word for as many years as I have, one of the fun things we learn is how to use the tool – then I burst the bubble of fun and always tell the class that WordArt has special applications…and nothing is special enough to warrant using it! (of course I do still have some fun with text once in a while, but I tend to keep that simple too. Diane was an excellent speaker, and her tips on creating top notch visually pleasing courseware were excellent – she showed everything from using the new PowerPoint 2007 SmartArt (which I love) to working with graphics in Photoshop! It was an amazing and very informative session. The next Lectora User Conference is next year in San Diego – I plan to be there…not just for what you learn in the sessions, but also for the valuable networking opportunities, ideas generated and relationships formed.Presentation 1
Presented
by: Brian Doegen and Gareth Harris
Company: PriceWaterhouseCoopers
Presentation 2
Presented by: Diane Elkins
Company: Elkins, Alcorn, Ward & Partners
"Just because you can't, doesn't mean you should."
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Putting the I back in I.T.
Once upon a time, when I was a network, computer and software consultant for an insurance database program, I realized that the Information Technology profession was lacking something. At the time I didn't really know what IT was, but I knew that I could find IT and do something with IT. That's exactly what I did. For me, what was missing was the "I" in IT: INFORMATION. I found that when other consultants or resident tech staff were working on issues and problems, they were very secretive, almost like you had to have a special membership card to be involved in any discussion about computers, the internet, networking and all other things IT related. Many of my customers were paying very large bills to these IT professionals to create excellent, stable work environments, to upgrade hardware/software and to keep things running on a daily basis, but almost every customer was unable to provide me with any information on the projects occurring in their own front yards! I was quite taken aback by that. For me, while I appreciate business owners recognizing when they do not have the expertise to work on something that they hand it over to someone who does, but what I don't get is how they blindly give their whole IT Infrastructure over to someone else and then feel as though they are at the mercy of the IT guy or gal to do what needs to be done. The business owner seldom takes it upon themselves to become knowledgeable about what is happening with a project or where the project stands. I wanted to give information – not knowledge – to my clients, and therefore kept them informed of all types of things I was working on, when I had issues, when something was delayed and why, so that not only did I feel I was accountable to someone for the work I was charging for, but so that my client could also recognize the value I was bringing to their organization. It didn't take much to create an email message at the end of a session or if I was in the office for the day to provide updates on the half day and at end of day. A side benefit of this was that my clients generally left me alone to do what I did best. They didn't hover and ask me questions, they didn't pester (unless the server was down for maintenance and they needed their email YESTERDAY because they just might get an email telling them they hit the big-client jackpot!) they had faith that if I had a problem I would solve it or go to them and let them know. I gave INFORMATION to my clients and in return, I got more respect and more business. So, let's put the "I" back in IT and start giving our customer's a little more information. Let them know that what you are doing is important and that they are valued. It doesn't matter if you are an independent or a corporate IT staffer…it never hurts to share information…you just need to know when to draw the line.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Launch of IT PRO TORONTO A “Virtual” Success
After a few bumps in the road (we are really sorry – the location is Nexient - 30 Eglinton Ave. West – the tall glass building in the plaza with the Emerald Chinese Restaurant – 2nd floor!!!!) the launch of the IT PRO Toronto group was a success. I suggest parking in the back, behind Tim Horton's and enter the building from the double glass doors. Mitch Garvis, esteemed President of IT PRO Toronto provided an entertaining overview of Virtualization. Some really great goodies (AKA SWAG) was had by some very lucky folks…and our room sponsor, Nexient Learning offered up some discounts to professional development courses they have coming out for the new family or server products! As our inaugural meeting we were very pleased with the participation from the local IT Pro community. We had lots of excellent discussion during the presentation and it continued afterward with a coffee talk at the Second Cup across the road. I unfortunately couldn't stay for the chat, but hope to be able to next time! And speaking of next time…our next meeting is April 15 with a wonderful discussion on Unified Communications. Please register online for the event…we look forward to seeing you then!
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Effective Training is like an Effective Meeting
We've all read articles or listened to experts discuss how to have effective meetings…and as trainers, many of us have been inundated with materials on facilitating effective training sessions. There are many parallels that can be drawn between tips for effective meeting management and tips for effective training delivery. I came across an About.com 3-part article titled Effective Meetings Produce Results: Tips for Meeting Management and it made me aware that these same tips and guidelines apply to the delivery of effective training – no matter what the content. I have pulled the main tips from the first part of the article and discuss how they apply to training. TIPS: Plan For some trainers, their job is information centric, meaning they lecture and provide information and then test the knowledge of the material presented. Other trainers prefer courses that are learner centric – everything they do in the session is designed to allow the learner to get the most practical application of the lessons or skills being delivered – which they may not get by reading, digesting and regurgitating loads of material. Whether learner centric or information centric sessions are your speciality it is important to PLAN. Planning provides the trainer with a guide for topics, material, examples and exercises that may be included in the session to help assist the learners in understanding concepts. Notice I said "Guide"? Just like a good meeting, a guide (agenda) allows you to stay on track but still allow a bit of flexibility to include attendee's comments, concerns, discussion and ideas outside of the major focus (utilizing our classroom management tools to keep as much control as possible). Need Most trainers understand that if there is no need, there is no training session. Effective meetings are held only when there is a requirement to do so…if there is no new information to share with a group, why take time out of each person's day to meet? Prior to any meetings there should be a needs assessment done – can the information be shared via memo or email or is there really a need to meet? Trainers know that a needs analysis is a crucial component to any successful training session. If there is no need for the education, there is no need for a training session. Defining the need also helps determine the direction the session will take and will thereby directly impact the PLAN. Appropriate Participation There is nothing worse than attending a meeting that has nothing to do with you, your job, your department, your clients etc. I have gotten into the habit of clarifying with meeting callers to determine if, in fact I am truly required at the meeting, what is the impact if I am not at the meeting, is my input required etc. I would not, for instance, expect to be called into a sales manager's meeting unless there is a need for training advice or discussion on sales training. If I am expected to participate in a meeting but have only one or two things to discuss, I try to request that any portion of the meeting pertaining to me, training or my department, be scheduled at the beginning of the agenda so that I can get on with other things. How do trainers ensure appropriate participation? By reviewing the Needs Analysis and performing Skills Assessments. Do we want an Excel expert to participate in a basic Excel class unless we want them to be bored and leave the session telling everyone else what a waste of time it was? By ensuring the proper team members participate in appropriate sessions, we are better able to guide the success of our learners. Yes, a skills assessment takes time, your time as the trainer and the valuable time of the staff members, but failure to ensure the correct audience is in the correct session will result in a much lower ROTI (return on training investment) and we don't want that now do we? Distribute and Review It's a great idea for meeting facilitators to send out the agenda in advance of the meeting. It shows the following: Notice those are the first three items on our list? Once a needs assessment is completed, a course outline (agenda) will be created to assist with the planning phase of the training session. With this course outline distributed in advance, we can ensure that expectations for the session are clearly defined and provide us with a measure for the success of our training session. This is also a great opportunity to get the participants actively involved in learning prior to the session. If you assign case studies that must be read prior to the session, distributing the study with the course outline helps the trainer be more effective because there is now only a need to quickly review the case study prior to inviting discussion. The same applies in a meeting. I prefer to have all the information to read prior to the meeting so that I can formulate my questions and facilitate a more efficient meeting by addressing those questions/concerns if I have all the information before. This also results in fewer meetings. Why you ask? Well – let's say we have a meeting to discuss something new. At the meeting we are given 25 pages of documentation on a new tool. It wouldn't be a good use of the meeting time to read through the materials and try to come up with questions so we'd end up having another meeting to discuss our questions/concerns/comments after we have had a chance to review. Doesn't it make sense to provide the information first and have only ONE meeting to discuss the content? Sure it does…unless of course you like attending meetings. Meeting Minutes as take-a-ways or course handouts like manuals, cheat sheets, tips and tricks are excellent reminders of what was covered in the training session and are fantastic tools for post session/meeting refreshers. I have, for quite some time, thought of my training sessions as meetings to ensure I run my training as efficiently as possible while still keeping the end goal of student success in mind. I plan for each and every training session no matter how many times I have instructed that session. I ensure there is a need and assess the people who will be attending. Finally, I follow up with post lesson materials, reviews and testing so that I am better able to assess the success of the training session. It is my belief that my success as a trainer is attributed to using the above skills to effectively manage my "meetings".
Monday, March 3, 2008
3 Tips to Make E-Learning ‘Stick’
As adults, trying to learn something new whether it is upgrading our skills for our current job, or building our skills to take a step on to something new, we need to make what we learn stick. I envy my daughter – she really is a sponge. I wish I had appreciated the ability I had to learn new concepts when I was young. Instead, as I get older and spend many hours of my own personal time upgrading skills, learning something new and developing materials for people just like me, I have found three tips that help me. You know this already – we've seen it as part of the "green" initiatives in our communities. How can this help? 1. Reduce As adults, we are easily distracted by things going on around us. How many times have I been reading a book and found I've read the same paragraph 5 times because the phone rings, the dog wants out, dinner needs to be made, a child wants a snack or can't find something they had ten minutes before. If I reduce the amount of distractions around me, I'm more able to immerse myself in the task. I turn off the television, or find a quiet corner of the house in which to work, I have a little sticky note that says DO NOT DISTURB or MOM IS STUDYING and place it on the closed door. I also give my family a little notice when I need quiet time…"I need 25 minutes to do what needs to be done. Please look after the dog, and answer the phone on the first ring. Thanks." I will also detail what I will be doing more so I have a measure when I am finished, that way, when I leave my quiet space and get back to real-life, I can tell my family my accomplishments. "I got those 30 pages read. Thanks for letting me have that time." 2. Reuse You probably wonder where the "reuse" comes into play. I have old papers that I don't need anymore. I've folded them in half and cut the papers to create little notepads. I then use these little notepads to make my study notes. I also use sticky notes and place sticky notes on each page with statements that sum up the main idea or thoughts on a page or list out the main points I need to remember. I REUSE these papers to help me pull all the information together – if I have two or three days between study opportunities, I will REUSE the sticky notes and papers to refresh my memory on what I tackled in the previous two or three sessions. This way, I am setting a long term reminder in my little noggin by re-reading the items on the sticky notes and committing to memory some of the terms and concepts. 3. Recycle In my experience, if I am able to take what I've learned and translate it so that I am able to tell someone else what I learned and they UNDERSTAND – I have successfully recycled my information for someone else's use. It can be anything from an email to a friend or colleague, a blog entry, a short story, a telephone conversation – anything that allows you to retell in your own words that which you have just learned. My daughter and I have quite grownup discussions about technology, the future of technology and careers. Much of that has to do with me translating what I'm learning and attempting to recycle that information. It can be as simple as "hey, did you know that when an adult learns something new, they have to share the information with their kids?" That leaves the door open for my girl to look at me with that my mom is so weird but I'll listen anyway because somewhere in that lame attempt to talk to me she is likely going to say something that will make me laugh look and inevitably I do. As an instructor to adults, I continue to recommend that every night (or whenever possible) find a quiet place (or a noisy one if that is what works for you) to reduce the amount of unacceptable distractions, review your notes from the previous chapters and begin to create reusable notes for the next section of content. The next day, or the next class session, I would ask the adult learners to share what they are learning – in their own words. Being able to collect your thoughts and ideas, work with a way of repeating the information and being able to translate and share the information with someone else are keys to the success of the 2008 adult learner. Give it a try.
When is Writing Hardest For ME?
I've mentioned before how much I love to write. Writing is a wonderful release for me, an escape from the everyday, ordinary plain old life I lead. It gives me the freedom to express what my mind is thinking without too much fear of backlash. I sometimes use my writing as a sounding board, preparing my words for a tough situation or helping me develop ideas for a presentation or talk. Writing let's me be funny or serious, silly or factual, depending on the topic. I find it pretty easy to write blog entries. If I could just get around the time constraints, I'm sure I would have many, MANY more entries to share, but there are only 24 hours in a day, and I like to find some time to be with my family, eat, sleep, play and yes, even work. I don't have a problem writing about something: I do have a slight issue today. Of course I'm writing and I'm writing about something interesting to me…but it isn't what I'm supposed to be writing. My boss popped by and asked me to write something for the next issue of our corporate newsletter. I was so excited – Hoooray! I get to write something for work, I get to write something meaningful that at least 2000 other people will read, and if I'm lucky be excited about, and I get paid for doing it… Trouble is I can't seem to concentrate on what I'm supposed to be writing about. The topic is something near and dear to my heart – education in the workplace. And I get to write about the great technologies we are working with and what e-Learning is as well as how it will affect the workforce and what great topics we'll offer as training modules. For me, it seems, writing is the hardest when I'm given a topic and asked to write about it rather than have a topic in my noggin begging to be let lose… I do believe that all this writing today has given me a brainwave for the article so I can meet my Wednesday deadline. Solution??? Pretend it's a blog entry.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Heroes Do Happen Here
I was so excited to be involved in the Heroes Happen Here event that took place February 27, 2008 at the Direct Energy Building in downtown Toronto. Microsoft puts on a great event – and this particular launch of the Server 2008 products was no different. I volunteered at the event in the User Group area. It was the official launch not only of Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008, but also the debut of the new IT Pro Toronto community group! This event was my third time connecting with the IT Pro community in the User Group area, and I would do it again without hesitating. Joining me at the booth were Russell – who I spent the majority of the day with, and Simone and Dom. Russell and I were so busy speaking to both the IT Pro and Developer attendees that we didn't have a chance to attend the breakout sessions we wanted, but I've been assured that I will have access to the content at some time down the road! It's a good thing too because I know I missed some fantastic discussions. The first meeting for the Hip New user group is Tuesday March 18 – from 6pm to 9pm. You can get details (eventually) at www.itprotoronto.ca. The topic is Virtualization. To those who stopped to chat with us we appreciate your time, and we really do want to see you out at the IT Pro event in March. If you were not able to attend the event, I will post links to the content when I receive them. ABOUT THE COMMUNITY I am a real advocate for the IT Pro community, and I was very excited to be involved in a discussion on Tuesday night at a community event prior to the launch focusing on the future of the IT Pro's career. I was honoured to be asked to facilitate one of the many discussion corners. My group had an open floor discussion on why IT Pros are leaving their careers, what needs to be done to assist IT Pros in retaining their careers, and what we can do to help the future IT Pros decide on a course of action and career in IT and actually go for it! There was lots of chatter about potential changes to the education system, how technology focused companies could donate their technologies to educational facilities like colleges and universities so that students can learn on what is new and upcoming rather than what is old, outdated and soon to be put to rest. Other conversation focused on the need for sponsorship, cooperative opportunities and mentoring not only for the new kids on the block, but also for those fossils that have for one reason or another been pigeonholed into working with a technology that eventually will not be of value to either them or their employers. In all my years (4) of working with IT Professionals in a group environment, I have NEVER seen so much communication and discussion – which continued even after the breakout sessions were over! It was wonderful. Now I'm off to type up my notes on the event and pass them along to the TechNet team to share the ideas and comments generated during the sessions. When the tour comes to your community – get involved – have your say – get heard!
Friday, February 22, 2008
Time for a New Phone!
Can you sense the excitement? It's time to look at a new phone. My Blackberry has suffered many abuses. I've dropped it OVER and OVER again from varying heights. I've spilled yogurt on it, and it fell into my peanut butter toast and it's been subjected to hand sanitizer to stop the spread of my (and other people's) cold viruses. It has served me well and I love it, the problem is, the keys stick when I type messages, and I swear it is having a mental health day today because it has reset itself FOUR – yes F-O-U-R times. The reset process is a long and frustrating one, because all you see on the screen is a rotating hourglass. Oh Joy! There it goes again – and no my problems are not related to any RIM outages! It is hardware related. And of course, I want to lower my bills from the horrific $90.00 a month to something a little more manageable – since I am no longer using the device for it's original intended purpose (work) I think I should look at reducing my data plan while I'm at it (currently unlimited no longer offered by my carrier). So I have the happy task of researching and testing phones. My friend Connie has a new phone. She's had it for almost a week now and I'm not really sure if she loves it or not, but it certainly is a lovely little Windows Mobile 6 device (complete with pocket office!!!!). Her phone is the HTC Touch. It is a touch screen and has all the cool features a phone should have without being classed as a SmartPhone. Did you know that as soon as a device is classed as a SmartPhone, telecom companies can charge an increased fee for data services (mostly because of the push email feature)? I recently found out that my friend Barnaby Jeans also has one and he likes it. My problem is I am so used to the QWERTY keypad setup on my blackberry, I'm not sure I want to go back to the touch pad, use a steno to draw my letters like I did when I owned my palm pilot (which by the way people stopped using only a couple months after I bought mine!). So I'm also looking at the HTC Touch 6800. It has a slide out keypad in the QWERTY style – but because it does, it is classed as a SmartPhone and therefore is automatically going to cost me a minimum of $25 a month for data plus my phone pack. I'll keep you posted on my new phone adventures.
Microsoft’s Goal – Interoperability
I just read a press release regarding the impending changes to Microsoft's technology and business practices as it relates to developers, partners, customers and competitors. "Specifically, Microsoft is implementing four new interoperability principles and corresponding actions across its high-volume business products: (1) ensuring open connections; (2) promoting data portability; (3) enhancing support for industry standards; and (4) fostering more open engagement with customers and the industry, including open source communities." This stems from the European judgement passed in September 2007. Take a look at the Microsoft Interoperability Site.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
New IT Pro Group Meet and Greet at HHH Launch
It's official! I will be assisting with the newly "reformed" IT Pro group getting together for the Mississauga-Toronto (GTA) users. My first official duty will be to meet and greet and spread the word about the Toronto IT Pro group and encourage people to sign up for the monthly meeting announcements. Our first venue is the Heroes Happen Here event in Toronto on Wednesday February 27, 2008. We will be wearing our community shirts so please feel free to introduce yourself and chat with me, Mitch Garvis and many of the other people volunteering their time and expertise to assist in getting the IT Pro group up and running smoothly. We look forward to seeing you at the event.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
It’s Spring When…
It is a sure sign of spring when the crocuses bloom…and my crocus is a lovely deep purple. Spring? You ask, checking the calendar no doubt to confirm that it is in fact still February. Crocuses blooming? You ponder as you look outside and realize the ground is still frozen and covered in snow. That's right – I always know it is getting close to the spring season because fundraising for all my favourite charities begins in spring…ok well they begin in February, but it makes me feel as though spring is not far away. The beauty of seeing something wonderful growing in a sunny window on the coldest day in February makes me feel as though there really is light at the end of this very weird-weather-tunnel as known as "winter". I feel a sense of anticipation and hope that the snow will soon stop, the dirt and grime of winter washed away in the spring showers. This all leads me to a brief discussion of my favourite charities. I am currently registered as a walker and team member of Hutch's Heroes. This is the second year that we are participating in the MS Super Cities Walk, a world wide fund raiser for the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada. (If you would like to donate to this walk we would appreciate it. You can check out my pledge page, see a story about how MS is affecting my life and access a link to my team site from here. For my friends and family that have joined our team and have supported us – we THANK YOU!) I also support the CNIB with their fundraising of crocuses, and I always buy daffodils and donate to the Canadian Cancer Society and the Weekend to End Breast Cancer as well as the JDRF- Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund. All of these events happen in and around the same time – the end of winter through spring. I watched the first of my CNIB crocus bulbs flower today – it truly is an amazing sight to watch it grow and I feel as though every hour I can look up and see it has grown a little more, spread it's petals a little wider and the purple colour becomes just a little more rich. I'm also filled with a small sense of satisfaction that I have done even a little (my crocus plants cost me $10.00 – not a lot really I gave up two lattes to help fund research for the visually impaired – really I don't need the lattes anyway!) So with thoughts turning to spring, I hope you will think about supporting a cause or charity that affects you or someone you know. It's a big scary world, but we really can make a difference!
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
When Templates Will Do
I have a need for something very specific for a project I am working on. I've been trying to figure out how to create the "form" I need, determine which program would be best suited to my need and then decide exactly what I need to put into my selected document to capture the maximum amount of information in the most efficient way but also so that I am able to use the captured information EASILY at a later date. Am I really asking too much of myself…to be able to analyze my needs and create that form? I didn't think so until I actually sat down to do the work. It was then that I realized I want too much – and when I want, I feel that sense of need and then of course, not unlike most people who feel a strong need, I bordered on a sense of entitlement. The item I had in mind had to have a breakdown for the Phases of the projected I am working on. It also needed to be a bit of a project manager where I could keep track of estimated completion dates, tasks and assignments. To top it all off, it had to be one page and have a yearly calendar on it. AND I just HAD to have all the features I was looking for without using Microsoft Project. While I admit to being a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my forms, documents and template, I also recognize that I do, upon occasion, lack motivation to do things for myself when there is no immediate sense of gratification. (read that as "I won't get as much out of it as the hours I put in" just in case you needed a Jac translation) I decided that instead of putting in a lot of work for this I'd check out the templates and see what I could come up with to use for this particular problem. Well – wasn't I surprised to find that in Microsoft Word 2007 (go figure!) there is a fantastic template that completely met my needs – the Event Schedule Planner included all the elements I wanted with the exception of the task list. Taking a look at the screen shot (my first try here with this so I hope it turns out ok) I replaced the Project Phase section on the right (not colourful fields) and added the task list there. So now I have everything I need! And it was as easy as a template. I spent less than three minutes looking for the template and another five or so minutes changing it to suite my needs. That was a huge savings in my eyes and actually made me more productive at work because I "cheated" and used an existing template to make my life a whole lot easier. The good thing is that templates are available for so many more things than they used to be – and so many more people are sharing templates they create with the world at the Microsoft Office online site. Give it a try and see if you can save time – or if you have a great template, maybe you can help out another user and save them time.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
The Passion to Blog
I love to blog. I love to share my thoughts, ideas, feelings, tips and tricks with others – and I love to do it in writing. I love to write. I enjoy it and hope that some of my readers enjoy it too. Because of my passion for blogging, education and technology, I often come across items of interest that I believe would be great to share with others. Last spring I purchased a book called Blog Schmog by Robert (Bob) Bly, a copy writer I enjoy reading when I have the time. His book is and excellent foray into the realm of blogging from a corporate perspective…do we really need a blog? In reading much of his stuff…I often wonder if he's so down on blogs, why does he have one, but I love his style and he really does have many thought-provoking things to say about all things writing, not just "blogging." On another note: I'm going to try something new.
I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.
It covers:
- The best blogging techniques.
- How to get traffic to your blog.
- How to turn your blog into money.
I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Follow the Leader
I have great admiration and respect for my friend and colleague Don Spencer who has a wonderful Blog that I highly recommend. Because of a visit to his blog, I felt a little like I just MUST keep up with the Joneses…in this case Don. He uses a tool called Snap Shots to put little pop up windows of screen shots associated with links he puts into his blogs. I thought this was just so cool – I had to do it to. Here is an excerpt from the Snap Shots site that on what they are and how they work. Remember – this is only a cool tool I thought might be handy to give my readers an idea of what a site looks like before deciding to follow my links. You may choose to use Snap Shots or not – below are the very user friendly instructions on working with Snap Shots on my site and any other site that uses this neat little tool. Introducing Snap Shots from Snap.com I just installed a nice little tool on this site called Snap Shots that enhances links with visual previews of the destination site, interactive excerpts of Wikipedia articles, MySpace profiles, IMDb profiles and Amazon products, display inline videos, RSS, MP3s, photos, stock charts and more. Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while other times it lets you "look ahead," before deciding if you want to follow a link or not. Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Study Groups Do Work!
I know that I wrote about the WWITPRO study groups previously, but I wanted to let you know that getting together, getting focused and sharing with others really can work to help successfully pass Microsoft certification exams. I heard from Steve P., one of the participants of the MCDST study group that not only did he pass the first 70-271 exam last fall after the study group finished, but he also just passed the 70-272 exam. Here is an excerpt from his email: "A little preparation which included the excellent study group experience and all members of the group can do it. (pass)" Steve also asked that I pass along a link to some excellent preparation materials from the Microsoft website. He suggests taking the FREE Clinic 2263: Exam Preparation for the MCDST Certification and highly recommends the second shot offer that allows you some insurance just in case you don't successfully pass the first time. Congratulations Steve! You are now a MCDST! I'm glad you participated and look forward to hearing how everyone else made out!
Movin' on Over
Those that visit will notice that I am starting to merge over the information from my Smarttechconsulting.com/blog site - with the closing of that chapter in my life, I wanted to retain the blogs and posts, and have them all in one location.
For ease of use I also decided to Close down my tipsfromatechchick blog...so I'll merge those over as well.
Enjoy catching up and discovering new things with me as I continue my journey of cramming as much education and information into my little brain!
Cheers all!
