Reflection of What I Gained From the Training the Trainer Course

Here is what I took away from my learning experience on the Training the Trainer course I attended over three days back in September 2011.

I experienced the importance of what I have learnt to call edutainment, which is combining education and entertainment to facilitate learning. This is not just for children but adults who can also lose focus in a learning environment. Three months on from the training I am still able to remember the training which was delivered in a game or was entertaining fashion. However I can only vaguely recall the subject matter being taught delivered by co-attendees of the course, which was monotones and lacking in energy.

I also understand the merit in a good trainer putting the hard work in at the designing stage. This will in turn reduce the amount of work to be done at the time of delivering the training. For example if good group work sessions are designed well on the day of delivering training, the trainer is then able to sit with each group and use this time to observe and possibly an opportunity for a formative assessment.  

To conclude, I have learnt to design the training well, which includes making it an enjoyable experience, entertaining and letting student’s have more discussion time and less teacher talk time.

Tweaking my blog and websites

As part of my current project I'm tweaking all my blogs and my two websites to me inter linked to each other. I found a great video to help with this. Hope it helps others wanting to do the same.

Review: Samsung Galaxy Note (ICT)

I've been using a  Dell Streak smart phone for over a year. And loved it. I'm a heavy blogger with minor youtube uploads.

My major gripe with the Dell Streak was the camera shutter speed. It was way to slow. I tried finding a software fix, but no joy. The pictures where poor, and the video quality poor also.
The Galaxy Note is great for blogging on the go, take a picture, write my blog entry and upload.
Same for youtube videos. Just need to play with the on board video editing software some more, then I'll be able to do the lot on the Galaxy Note.

Here's one of the first videos I took on a very cold Dec 2011 morning

Here are some pictures taken on the same day- (ones dated 2011.12.03)

As for the pen usage, I think I'll watch a few youtube videos on how people are using their Galaxy Notes for some inspiration.

To conclude I love it, and it's outdone the Dell Streak by a country mile.
Hopefully I'll update at a later date on how it gets on with what I throw at it.

Review: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey (book)

Great Starting Place for Personal Development/ Self Help,

This is a great book to start your self development journey. I say this as it sets a very clear structure on deciding what it is you need to work on, and then the techniques.

The first 3 habits are to make you independent. The next 3 make you work effectively as a team player, and the 7th is to keep you growing.

The reason I prefer this as a starting place, and also as a annual / bi-annual redesign is that fact that while allot of books/ media in the self development world just attempt to hype you with motivating stories etc. This is a very logical and systematic way of designing a productive/ effective life.

Note: I said life, not just business or profession. As getting ones life in order and having a fulfilling balanced life is very important, something this book also covers.

I have brought this book as a gift for my brother, sister, wife and anyone I mentor.

Badshah Rating: 5/5

Book: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey in Amazon.co.uk

My Review of 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey  in Amazon.co.uk

Connecting with Others in Regards to Personal Development

Just finished work and on route to grabbing a quick bite before I head to BJJ class when I bump into Tony A. He'd just finished a time management days worth of training. So we stood out in the cold and just connected. Simple.

From what I could feel from the conversation Tony A has been bitten by the personal development bug. So I recommended to him a great book - The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey