MindMapping for Learning

Mind-mapping is a great way to get organized. It is an even better way to organize learning materials. I found a really cool template on the Mindjet website. This template is designed to be used by students but the closer I looked at the more I realised an instructor/teacher could adapt it into a lesson plan pretty easily as well. For students though I think one of the biggest aids this would provide is help in creating research papers and written assignments. MindManager has some really great tools for exporting to Microsoft Word. By the time you use RSS feeds in MindManager and use it to track your research and notes from lectures you can have a tool that is practically doing the work for you.

Everything you ever wanted to know about free software but were afraid to ask... (well almost)

Often I get the opportunity to help small non-profit groups to deal with computing problems they are having. One of the biggest problems I see is that they have spent all of the money they had for computing on software when they could have use a free alternative. One example of this is with Office software. Those folks over there at that MS do offer some great discount programs for medium sized non-profits but when it comes to a smaller organization like your typical church congregation or animal shelter, the options with them are fewer. Especially in instances like this, alternative (open source) software options can be a great choice. If you are working with the homeless it is a shame to spend 200-300$ on software that you could have essentially gotten for free. That money can make a big difference in a non-profit.
In most cases file types are not an issue here. Many of the free titles will work with the files created by many of those other guys apps. Below are some categories of software and suggested options for getting free programs:

• Office Productivity Tools

• Openoffice.org (entire office suite)
  
• AbiWord (Word processing suite)

• Virus and Malware Tools

• ClamWin Antivirus (antivirus scanning tool)
• AVG Grisoft antivirus (thanks for the heads up Andrew)
• AdAware (malware scanning tool, not open source but free to home user)

• Operating Systems

• Ubuntu Linux
  

I will try to add more suggestions to this list in the near future. Happy computing!

Millenium Development Goals - Tracking Tool

You may or may not be aware of the MDG program that has been developed by the UN/ It is a list of 8 goals that we as a global community must accomplish in order to eradicate poverty by the year 2015. I just added a permanent link to my blog for the new Google Earth tracking tool for MDG. I just tried it out and it is very cool.

Bullet Points and the Art of Presentation Maintenance

Ok this is a bit of a rant but I hope it is a helpful one. It seems there are generally three categories of presentations:

1. Those that have an excessive amount of information in them

2. Those that do not have enough information or it is not appropriate information

3. Those that are a good balance of slide content, speaker value and time

What is the point of having slides that go along with your message if the slides just repeat what you are saying? Worse yet are the 0nes that pre-peat what you are about to say so that you sound like you are just reading them to everybody? Bullet points are great when someone has taken the time to distill the message down to a couple of memorable takeaways. The most memorable takeaway will always be a picture. If you do not have a couple of takeaways your presentation will sound like one long list of unorganized information. So before you deliver a presentation with slides that each have 3 neat little bullet points on them and some animation scheme that is more interesting that your information ask yourself these questions:

Ø Would this information have been better received if I delivered via an intranet site, e-mail or bulletin board?

Ø What value am I adding to this information by delivering it in person?

Ø Should this message be delivered by someone else (am I the authoritative source on this subject)?

Ø How much of this information do people actually need?

Ø Is this information appropriate for everybody in the audience?

Ø How will I know I accomplished what I set about to communicate? (How can I measure the impact?)

E-mail Effectiveness Tips From TrainingNerd

Here are three things I have learned that can make e-mail more effective:

1) Make the subject line work for you

a. Make sure that you include the action you are requesting and the main topic (or subject) of the message in your subject line. After a person reads the subject line, they should know exactly what the message is about and whether they will need to respond or follow up. It is kind of like people are asking themselves, "Will I get fired if I ignore this message."

b. For example, if you need to send people information regarding a new policy you could have a subject line like this: "FYI: New Corporate Sick Leave Policy" (keep in mind "FYI" may not translate into other cultures).

c. Alternatively, if I need to get information from someone about his or her progress on a project I could use a subject line such as, "Response Requested: Code Review Project Status."

d. Unlearn the idea that the subject line is called the subject line, in your mind think of it as the expectations line. This is your one chance to set the expectations you have for the recipient.

2) Make your message as short and clear as possible

a. When you are trying to gather information or ask questions, a shorter message with fewer topics will be easier to understand.

b. If possible, communicate only one idea in each e-mail, this makes each of your questions or issues a separate action item. Think GTD.

c. If you are sending information such as a policy to a large group of people, it is best if your e-mail is only a summary of the information that points the recipient to the source such as a corporate policy website. Make sure the message indicates the most appropriate method to ask questions, this will keep your inbox from being flooded.

d. Ask yourself if e-mail is the most appropriate way to accomplish the task, there may be some better method.

e. Get a friend to proof any message you are sending to more than 5 people.

3) Send the message only to the appropriate people

a. Unnecessary e-mail wastes time and money. This also demonstrates how important it can be to spell check your message and check it for clarity before you hit the send button. A 5-minute e-mail to only a 500 employee staff equates to over a 41-hour chunk of company time for your message. Imagine if you forgot to include an important attachment or some key piece of information and you silly mistake turns it into a 6-minute message, there goes another 8-hours of company time.

Do not reproduce without citing this source, thank you.

Missing Formula Bar in Excel 2003

Today one of my users found that her formula bar had disappeared when they were using Excel 2003. I am not sure how exactly this happened but the fix for this issue is easy.

All you have to do is to go to Tools>Options then under the first tab called, “View” there is a check box near the top that says “Formula Bar.” Just make sure the box is checked then click, “Ok.”

Pecha-Kucha Presentations

Just today someone here at work introduced me to the idea of 20x20 PowerPoint presentations. They sent me a link to Daniel Pink's Blog and an entry he made regarding this. He actually gives an example tht is pretty good. he talks about emotionally intelligent signage. Anyhow, a 20x20 presentation is 20 slides that each display for 20 seconds. This comes out to a total of 6 miutes and 40 seconds of information. The slides advance themselves and the presenter must only use the time alloted. This got me thinking about the white space of a presentation, the dead air. It seems to me that we need to get better at using this. , by we I mean me. A great example of the use of white space is in Rob Bells Nooma video entitled "Noise" (the preview only shows some of what I am talking about). The other thing that this gets me thinking about is the typical use of title slides. With the 20x20 idea you need to make better use of a title slide and actually have it convey information.