Category Archives: educational apps

AVPT Supporting the Global Entrepreneur Week November 2013 after being awarded a High Impact Badge in 2012

Posted on August 16, 2013 | 7 comments

AVPT  is back for more after being awarded A High Impact Badge of Honour by the Global Entrepreneur Week in 2012

AVPT awarded High Impact Badge of Honour by Global Entrepreneur Week 2012

This year we have set up a range of 3hr ‘Jump Start’ your business bootcamp in support of the Global Entrepreneur Week starting on the 18th – 24th  November 2013

3 hour business startup bootcamp 2012

Last year 361 organisations ran activities in 2012 that met the

High Impact criteria set by Global Entrepreneurship Week – AVPT along with other High Impact providers was congratulated this week and awarded their high impact badge of honour.

Global Entrepreneurship Week is the world’s largest campaign to promote entrepreneurship, taking place in 115 countries.  In 2012, the campaign took place 12-18 November and Academy of Vocational and Professional Training supported the week by launching a 3 hour Business Startup Bootcamp which was attended by a group of candidates who enroled on the GEW website.

In the UK, the campaign is hosted by Youth Business International, a global network of initiatives that help young entrepreneurs to start their own business, in partnership with Barclays.

The theme for 2012 was: Pass it On!  AVPT supported Global Entrepreneurship Week UK to pass on the practical help & support needed by early start-ups and individuals who are considering taking the plunge. GEW’s aim was to create a collaborative, local and practical week which enables people to learn more about the wealth of support that is available to entrepreneurs in the UK.

Through the week, they wanted to: Encourage those people who are not yet entrepreneurs to think about starting up their own business Improve entrepreneurship skills for aspiring entrepreneurs and start-ups Help people to access practical support – locally, regionally and nationally We did this by passing on: skills, contacts, knowledge, confidence and resources.

Ruth Onuoho who attended the 3 hour bootcamp wrote on her feedback form: “That they should bring their brother, mother, sister, everyone! I would tell them to bring a dictaphone, note pad and pen and use it until their hands bleed” Abigail Shillingford also wrote: “Informative and professional and the business advice is different and more resourceful than the local government or high street agencies”. Antony Berry said ” “The bootcamp provided a masterclass in the ways to think about yourself & your business.

In the UK, the campaign is hosted by Youth Business International, a global network of initiatives that help young entrepreneurs to start their own business, in partnership with Barclays.

At this years campaign they  believe that a large national campaign to promote entrepreneurship is a vital part of making the UK more entrepreneurial, to encourage more people to start up their own business.

GEWUK’s aim is to create a collaborative, local and practical week which enables people to learn more about the wealth of support that is available to entrepreneurs in the UK. 20% of UK adults have heard of Global Entrepreneurship Week and it remains by some margin the nation’s largest entrepreneurship-focused campaign.

Very practical advice given”. Find out about our forthcoming events by visiting our http://gewuk-jumpstart-3hour-business-bootcamp.eventbrite.co.uk/

http://www.academy-of-vocational-and-professional-training.com Global Life Long Learning 0203 551 2621

AVPTGLOBAL almost 400 courses all globally accredited

AVPTGLOBAL almost 400 courses all globally accredited

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BYOD! The change is here.

Posted on July 24, 2013 | 2 comments

Bring Your Own Device

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Tim T Dingle BSc (Hons) MIBiol PGCE MBA Chief Development Officer at the Academy of Vocational and Professional Training.

AVPT Global is issuing a technological tsunami alert; feel the force of a very real wave of BYOD / BYOT and new mobile learning and learn how to avoid being swamped.

Here at AVPT Global we like to bring you some advanced news and perhaps a serious warning of impending change. I have worked in the education sector for 25 years and seen many changes in technology during that time. There is a clear and present need to improve the soft skills and learning of individuals- whether at School, University or in business. Already at AVPT we are using the latest technology to improve training and it is clear that mobile learning is massive. I came across the term bring your own device (BYOD) in a recent workshop for employers. It means the policy of permitting employees to bring personally owned mobile devices (laptops, tablets, and smart phones) to their workplace and use those devices to access company information and applications. The term bring your own technology (BYOT) is being used more frequently in an educational context. It is a part of a supplementary school technology resourcing model, where the home and the school collaborate in arranging for use their own digital technology to be extended into the classroom to assist their teaching and learning and the organisation of their schooling.

The BYOD / BYOT ‘tsunami’ is rapidly coming over the horizon for educational institutions and businesses. BYOD is making significant inroads in the business world already with about 75% of employees in high growth markets such as Brazil and Russia and 44% in developed markets already using their own technology at work. In most cases, businesses simply can’t block the trend.

We believe that BYOD may help employees be more productive and become genuine Life Long Learners. It can and should increase employee morale and convenience by using their own devices and makes the company look like a flexible and attractive employer.  Many feel that BYOD can even be a means to attract new staff (and we all know how hard it is to get the right person on board): 44% of job seekers now view an organisation more positively if it supports their device.

AVPTGLOBAL almost 400 courses all globally accredited

AVPTGLOBAL almost 400 courses all globally accredited

We have found at AVPT that if businesses are to survive they will need to be proactive and really note and respond to the trends.  They will need to shape the largely inevitable development to the best advantage or try to surpass the deeds of King Canute and prevent the wave from swamping their institutions. Perhaps not surprisingly at this very early stage many of the early BYOT moves are making this mistake, are naïve, simplistic and preoccupied with the relatively mundane, showing little appreciation of what BYOT could entail.

We believe at AVPT global that there are least six global megatrends coming together that will impact on all businesses, schools, institutions to some form of BYOT. These megatrends relate to the normalised use of personal digital devices in every facet of life, the burgeoning digital and educative capacity of the student’s homes, cloud computing, parent digital empowerment, government’s increasing inability to fund state of the art personal technology for all and the inexorable evolution of schooling from its insular paper-based mode to one that is more digital and networked.

Fundamental to BYOT is that personal choice of the technology by the individual (whether in School, Higher Education and Business). While businesses /schools might and probably should provide advice, the final choice should rest with the individual. The will give an enhanced facility for the personalisation of learning in and outside the business and educational premises. That is the secret of the success of online mobile learners. In our online Learning Management System that can be used by the owner of device, at home, work or on the move (found out VTF are driving this change).The individuals are having their ownership of the technology and the information respected and absorbed.

Get qualified whilst on the move with AVPT

Get qualified whilst on the move with AVPT

So the future that BYOD / BYOT is creating will cause a profound educational change. It has immense potential that will assist change in the nature of schooling, teaching, learning and the relationship with homes and work. However, to realise this potential there has to be really strong leadership in education and businesses management. It has to change thinking and begin to understand what is needed terms of the power of mobile learning. Leaders have to take charge of the process, understand the possibilities and appreciate what is required for sustained success and development. At AVPT we see leaders training who are training to be proactive, learning about the forces impelling institutions to some form of BYOT. We see the need to appreciate the real potential for society in educational, social, economic, technical, administrative and political terms.

At the Academy of Vocational and Professional Training we believe these are still very early days with BYOT / BYOD. There isn’t much out there being written about these changes to mobile learning except in some pioneers in the field. The focus of most business and institutions is technical with little thought given the wider educational or financial implications. The greatest challenge with BYOT / BYOD will be human. The technical aspect is easy- and always will be. The key is to understand the historic significance of this development and to recognise that we are moving to a new model of mobile learning, teaching and institutional resourcing where everyone collaborates, facilitates and genuine accepts these changes.

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The Third Gulf Education Conference Hosted Many Educational Ministers From Around the World in London

Posted on July 2, 2013 | Leave a comment
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AVPT at Gulf Educational Conference 2013

The Third Gulf Education Conference Hosted Many Educational Ministers From Around the World in London

 

by Arub Masoodi BA (Hons)
Public Relations (Social Media Focus) Intern, AVPT Global Ltd

Diane Shawe CEO & her team were exhibitors at this prestigious event where ministers and the heads of department met to discuss rethinking higher education in a global and digital age.
The conference took place on 19th and 20th June at the fabulous Millennium Gloucester Hotel in London.

The Gulf Education Conference, now in its third year, is an unrivaled occasion for leaders of education to meet and exchange ideas to further develop and enhance education around the world. The Conference allows a platform to collaborate on a global scale with leaders in education from the Gulf, Mena, UK & US in attendance while also creating a platform to address weak spots and key problem areas in order to implement better plans for improvement. Leaders of education such as, H.E. Ali Adeeb, Minister of Higher Education & Scientific Research Iraq, and Anjum Malik, cofounder Alhambra US Chamber Director, Global Marketing, GIEL University of Texas Austin, were in attendance.

AVPT attracted high levels of interest in their soft skills course when several ministers felt more attention was needed to develop these skills in their country.
Enquiries came flooding in from the Embassy of the Republic of Iraq, the American University in Cairo, the British Embassy in Doha and the Logic Institute CEO Husain Fateel who wants to create a joint venture with AVPT Global. AVPT attracted over 30 enquiries that are now being followed up.

AVPT, along with ministers of education, Chancellors and heads of corporation were able to engage directly with one another and discuss the future of education while collaborating on ideas and extending links to better global education.  

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Money has no feelings

Posted on July 1, 2013 | 3 comments

50 pound notesHow you can massively improve your chances of success.

By Tim T Dingle BSc (Hons) MIBiol PGCE MBA Chief Development Officer at AVPT Global.

I am sure you think about money every day. Right? Maybe it occupies your mind a lot? Does it even keep you awake at night? Well try thinking about the fact that the currency we exchange is nothing more than a piece printed-paper (cotton). It has no feelings at all. It doesn’t really have any value at all except the value that’s been assigned to it. Why would we want to measure our personal worth against printed-paper that has no value? This is the fallacy that millions of people have bought into. If you are an entrepreneur or a business owner serious think about doing a course to get this right now. You need to alter your perception right now.

You only need to look at the effect money has on the way we view ourselves. To some degree, our sense of self-worth and security tends to rise and fall with our income. Do you find that happening to you? Well regardless of how we reason it intellectually, the truth is, we always feel better when finances are not an issue. Imagine if the whole value exchange system had been built on something like buttons. “Oh, I’ve got more red buttons than you so that means that I am a more valuable person.” The whole concept is so absurd, it’s laughable; and yet, in reality, a handful of buttons are probably worth more than a pound coin.

A long time ago, currency was intended to represent a commodity like gold (The Gold Standard) but is that still true? Absolutely not, as there is no commodity to back it up – the Bank of England just prints up currency and put it into circulation. They call it Quantitative Easing these days or QE. The whole economic picture is just a very clever illusion which we all appear to buy (literally) into. So if it’s an illusion that we are all involved in, so what can we do? How can we come to terms with money?

For most people unless you have inherited wealth, we need some financial security in our lives. Sadly, the way we’ve been programmed to attract money is probably not the best way to satisfy that need. From early childhood we are told that money makes the world go around. Do you remember, as a child asking your parent, “Please can I have a pound?” They would question and ask the dreaded why? “I need it to get one of these.” So immediately, we learn to recognise that everything we want in life has a price tag on it. It’s all about the money, money. Well maybe improving self-esteem would help?

As we get older we start to link our worth with our hourly or monthly wage. As a result, our sense of personal value gets all wrapped up in what we are able to earn per hour or per month. Notice how this conditioning process unfolded. Initially, money had value because it represented what we could buy with it. Then it took on a personality of its own. You see, we all need money so we can pay the rent and put food on the table. The need is real and without adequate finances things can get very uncomfortable. Is it any wonder that it is almost impossible to avoid forming an emotional attachment with that worthless printed paper?

What happens to those emotions when the economy is floundering and personal assets start evaporating? Our sense of security can easily turn into panic and leave us incapable of making sensible decisions. That’s a lot of leverage for paper with no intrinsic value. Independent of the economy or our personal financial status, a balanced perspective can go a long way toward neutralizing the emotional influence of money. Maintaining the right mind-set will not only help us to get through tough financial times, it will also help us prosper in the future. Let’s try looking at this whole monetary issue from a more empowering point of view. We can do this by ignoring the negative press and addressing our personal relationship with money.

Have faith in your own business ideas and take control of your financial future. If you come up with a sound business idea, create a business plan and act on it promptly. Don’t allow limiting beliefs about your abilities to create income stifle your creativity.

Giving is a powerful way to attract what you need, and generosity opens the flow of abundance. I’m not saying you should give away your last shiny pound coin. But a mind-set based on hoarding is a sure way to create scarcity. Remember, there are many ways to give outside the realm of finances. Could you give of your time or experience to help others? What about training to help other by becoming a Virtual Tutor to guide students to success?

Quote by Darwin rapid-technology-social-changeAn obsessive view of money can make an unhealthy response, like greed and dishonesty. This can be true whether a person has a lot or a little. When money has that kind of power in a person’s life, they become its slave.
When we view money as just a tool, and don’t allow ourselves to get emotionally attached to it, we are in control. Remember, it’s just printed paper with no intrinsic value whatsoever. You, on the other hand, are extremely valuable.

Here at The Academy of Vocational and Professional Training we believe that the more you actively share your unique value with the world, the greater your sense of self-worth will become.

AVPTGLOBAL almost 400 courses all globally accredited

AVPTGLOBAL almost 400 courses all globally accredited

 

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12 Benefits of Mobile Learning

Posted on June 22, 2013 | 6 comments
Next generation of mobile learning

Learning on the move with
http://www.avptglobal.com

Rapid technology change is here to stay.

article by Diane Shawe M.Ed  CEO Academy of Vocational and Professional Training.

No sense in trying to change the way the world wants to learn. Access to broadband, smartphone, the growth of the mobile tablet has changed the face of how we access knowledge.

But rather than simply program designers and consumers–or even ecological threats–this kind of change also introduces significant threats  or should we say opportunities to education. Throughout the Industrialised delivery of education, there is likely very little that can be actively done to reduce the perceived threats by many faculty heads, especially as the advancement is firstly driven by economic issues. But we can begin to understand them better and view them as opportunities.

Watch the Hard Facts behind Soft Skills by Professor James Heckman

As learning practices and technology tools change, mobile learning itself will continue to evolve. For 2013, the focus is on a variety of challenges, from how learners access content to how the idea of a “curriculum” is defined.

The rapid growth of Technology like tablets, smartphones, apps, and access to broadband internet are lubricating the shift to mobile learning, but a truly asynchronous mobile learning environment goes beyond the tools for learning to the lives and communities valued by each individual learner.

PA9C1822
Training for the jobs yet to be created

It is only within these communities that the native context of each learner can be fully understood. Here, in these communities that are both local and digital, a ”need to learn” is born, knowledge accrues incrementally, progress resonates naturally, and a full picture of each learner as a human being fully emerges as we embark on the true essence of Life Long Learning.

1. Access – Aids voluntary and active learning

A mobile learning environment is about access to content, peers, experts, portfolio artifacts, credible sources, and previous thinking on relevant topics. It can be actuated via a smartphone or tablet, laptop or in-person, but access is constant–which in turn shifts a unique burden to learn on the shoulders of the student.

2. Metrics – Performance of Knowledge

As mobile learning is a blend of the digital and physical, diverse metrics (i.e., measures) of understanding and “performance of knowledge” will be available. It is important that mobile learning supplies and validate that learning has taken place.

3. Cloud – Increased collaboration

The cloud is the enabler of “smart” mobility. With access to the cloud, all data sources and project materials are constantly available, allowing for previously inaccessible levels and styles of revision and collaboration. This also reduces the burden of data storage in the immediate device enabling speed of access to be maintained. Also no complex disaster recovery procedures.

4. Transparent

Transparency is the natural by product of connectivity, mobility, and collaboration. As planning, thinking, performance, evaluation and reflection are both mobile and digital, they gain an immediate audience with both local and global communities through social media platforms from twitter to facebook, linkedin to Pinterest.

5. Play – Learning by doing

Play is one of the primary characteristics of authentic, progressive learning, both a cause and effect of an engaged mind. In a mobile learning environment learners are encountering a dynamic and often unplanned set of data, domains, and collaborators, changing the tone of learning from academic and compliant to personal and playful means that soft skills training is becoming even more apparent.

6. Asynchronous Learning

Among the most powerful principles of mobile learning is asynchronous access. This unbolts an educational environment from a school floor and allows it to move anywhere, anytime in pursuit of truly entrepreneurial learning. It also enables a learning experience that is increasingly personalised: just in time, just enough, just for me reducing the length of time one can qualify.

7. Self-Actuated

With asynchronous access to content, peers, and experts comes the potential for self-actuation. Here, learners plan topic, sequence, audience, and application via facilitation of teachers who now act as experts of resource and assessment.

8. Divergent Thinking

With mobility comes diversity. As learning environments change constantly, that fluidity becomes a norm that provides a stream of new ideas, unexpected challenges, and constant opportunities for revision and application of thinking. Audiences are diverse, thinking is diverse, as are the environments data is being gleaned from by both the student and the teacher.

9. Curation – Evidence storage and Management

Apps and mobile devices can not only support curation, but can do so better than even the most efficient teacher might hope to do. By design, these technologies adapt to learners, store files, compare and evaluate, publish thinking, and connect learners, making curation a matter of process rather than ability.

10. Blending the Learning Styles

A mobile learning environment will always represent a much better path to the whole concept of blended learning. –physical movement, personal communication, Learning styles and digital interaction.

11. Always-On – Classroom never full

AppleAVPTGlobalLogo516Always-on 24hr learning is self-actuated, spontaneous, iterative, and recursive. There is a persistent need for information access, cognitive reflection, and interdependent function through mobile devices. It is also embedded in communities capable of intimate and natural interaction with students.

12. Authentic Learning

All of the previous 11 principles yield an authenticity to learning that is impossible to reproduce in a classroom using the industrialised teaching methods. They ultimately converge to enable experiences that are truly personalised changing the way we think about learning and teaching.

AVPTGLOBAL almost 400 courses all globally accredited
AVPTGLOBAL almost 400 courses all globally accredited

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Diane Shawe launches Switch Momentum Summer TrainingBootcamp for teenagers

Posted on June 11, 2013 | 7 comments
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Switch Momentum 5 Week Summer Program

Switch on your Momentum!

By Arub Masoodi BA (Hons)
Public Relations Intern, Academy of Vocational and Professional Training LTD

Switch Momentum Summer Program

AVPT has started a unique 5 week summer program for youth that is unemployed or simply bored at home. The purpose is to equip teenagers and young adults with important soft skills and motivate them towards employment.

For those who don’t know, soft skills are attributes that enrich a person’s individual interactions and job skills. Skills like public speaking, project management, time management, and critical thinking are among the many important skills offered.

There is a serious crime problem among the youth today creating a situation where many teenagers and young adults are prisoners in their own home due to fear of falling victim to gang related crimes in their neighbourhood or fear of being pressured to join a gang.

Diane Shawe, CEO and Founder of AVPT Global saw an opportunity to be an advocate for these youths and offered company resources, staff and courses free of charge in order to inspire, motivate and empower young adults with courses covering a wide range of vital skills. Their financial background or neighbourhood of residence has no bearing on whether they can sign up for switch momentum or on what they can achieve.

Certified motivational speakers and soft skill facilitators are present to teach our summer courses. Soft skills for a job or business start up such as critical thinking, problem solving, creating a dynamic job portfolio, business start-up boot camp, budgeting and money, and courses to energize the mind such as confidence building, public speaking are among the several courses offered in the program.

There are prizes and give-aways offered as well. Among them:

1) Scholarship Den: Pitch a business or community project idea to win £2000 worth of soft-skills courses and funding.

2) Switch Momentum 2014 marketing campaign contest: pitch marketing ideas for next year’s summer program to win the latest technology.

3) An interview to win an exclusive internships and apprenticeships.

This fabulous summer program will be offered from our prestigious office on New Broad Street, just moments away from Liverpool Street Station. We’ve got the passion, but we also need your help and support. It doesn’t matter how you choose to help us, but any help will do so please do so!

For the summer program, we need:

  • Give-aways such as business books vouchers, shirt retailers vouchers, note pads and pens
  • To raise £20k to pay for room hire, travel expenses, course material, video equipment hire
  • Guest speakers & travel expenses
  • Food, snacks and beverages
  • Printing, promotions and prizes

Switch Momentum Course List
To find out more, please see Switch Momentum\SM sponsorship proposal May 2013.pdf or email cleo@acee.org.uk directly.

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Switch on your Momentum! Program Begins 29th July 2013

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Academy of Vocational and Professional Training signs a Five Year Contract with Deputy Vice Chancellor of Cambodian Mekong University

Posted on June 10, 2013 | 375 comments
Diane Shawe and Dr. Philip Dews

Diane Shawe and Dr.Philip Dews

To deliver Softskills training to it’s students throughout Cambodia

25th May 2013, Diane Shawe, United Kingdom

Dr. Philip Dews, the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Cambodian Mekong University  signed a 5 year exclusive contract with Diane Shawe the founder and CEO of Academy of Vocational & Professional Training (AVPTGLOBAL), the leader in delivering of over 300 soft skills globally accredited courses.

The agreement was signed by Dr. Philip Dews, the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Cambodian Mekong University and Diane Shawe the founder and CEO of Academy of Vocational & Professional Training, at their offices in the City of London, UK.

With the new contract in place, through the CHE college and Cambodia Mekong University student can apply online to study with AVPT’s UK Virtual Tutor Facilitators who will support them during the course they have registered to undertake.

With a population of over 15 million and a anticipated growth rate of 8%, over 50 of Cambodia’s population is under the age of 18 and even those who have already attained a degree do not have the necessary soft skills to meet the needs of a variety of employers.

This lack of skills will prove a particular challenge as the country is expanding rapidly as a tourist destination and yet does not have the hospitality courses necessary to train the number of staff large enough to satisfy the demand.

The Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen is aware of this situation and has declared that the educational institutes must find ways to support the development of the variety of skills required in the tourism sector.

Dr. Dews said: “Inspired by the Prime Ministers vision, I discovered AVPT whilst researching for UK  soft skill training providers. [whilst in Cambodia] I then did my due diligence of the organisation itself online. When I came to the UK, I arranged a meeting with Diane Shawe and had the opportunity to be shown the unique learning management system and some of the course materials. I am confident that I have found the solution for the soft skills training for the Cambodia population.”

AVPT delivers a wide range of soft skills courses through it’s cutting edge learning management system which work fluently and securely with various mobile devices.

Diane Shawe said: “We are passionate about education and how technology can play a part in helping to upskill people around the world.  When Dr. Dews shared the problem they wanted to rectify in Cambodia, I knew we could help.  What most people, employers, entrepreneurs and even some educational institutions do not have today is the time, the necessary resources and the infrastructure they need to support and deliver a cost effective broad selection of soft skill courses, but we have already created them.  AVPT have streamlined the process and make learning quicker because we have made the investment to design, research, write, and create the system which is student (user) centric and time sensitive.  All our courses can be completed in days not years.”

Diane also believes that: “Our online courses transcend multiple barriers to learning, because they can be scalable which consequently reduces the cost of acquisition of knowledge per person.  The knowledge gained is also measurable, which encourages the student to progress and allows their online tutor VTF (or workshop leader) to provide the flexible support system most beneficial for motivation.  And additionally online training is environmentally friendly and adds to the accessible and inclusive nature of the courses.”

Dr. Dews also confirmed that the CHE will want to cement this long term commitment by sending its first group of 200 students to the UK for workshop training very soon.  This will be a reward for some of the thousands of students in the college giving them the chance to study here and experience British culture in advance of greeting tourists in their own country.  Such large numbers of students coming to the UK will help Cambodia cater for the huge demand within their hospitality sector as several large resorts open this summer.

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The Currency of Digital Learning

Posted on June 10, 2013 | 3 comments
Using technology for life long learning

Using technology for life long learning

How do we digitally learn?  How do you learn effectively in a workshop? What is the currency of digital learning?

By Tim T Dingle BSc (Hons) MIBiol PGCE MBA

Chief Development Officer at  the Academy of Vocational and Professional Training.

When you want to acquire a new skill or apply some new knowledge, do you learn by passively sitting and listening to an expert lecture for 90 minutes without a break and 150 Power point slides? What do you actually retain that enhances the value and the currency of your learning. The currency is defined  as something of value, or something that represents value: knowledge, gold, respect, or social media following, all represent different kinds of currency. In 2013 it could be that the currencies in digital and workshop learning are changing.

Learning is evolving and not simply by the tools that actuate it. The process of adopting new learning domains and materials (many digital) has exposed the need for new skills. It is debatable whether or not such skills need to be expressly taught, or if they’re simply the residue of intense, well-designed learning experiences. Whether or not they are old learning (content) with a new coat of paint, or genuinely represent a paradigm shift in learning priorities, it is difficult to doubt their constant application in a 21st century world that is super fast connected, digital, omni-social and multi-faceted.

No longer is it considered sufficient to teach children to simply read and write, and fill in the middle with discrete facts about history, mathematics, and scientific processes. There are new skills that transcend content areas, in this way functioning as natural pathways out of old thinking: creativity, problem-solving and collaboration. One can problem-solve across and within topics formerly thought of as science and history and moving between them both moves them beyond academia, and back to the real world. This is possible because flexible cognitive and creative capacities are not rigid.

The brain science literature suggests that workshop learners understand and remember more when they talk about what they are learning.  However, there are some people who attend workshop and training seem to have information wash over them and are uncomfortable with talking or moving.   So, to get improved retention and learning in both digital and workshops:

1.  Do something physical when you learn: incorporate some sort of movement or body activity every 20 minutes, on line or face-to-face.

2.   Walk and talk, walk and learn: I do this a lot in half-day or full-day trainings.   Participants might do an exercise, but the results are on the wall for a debrief. Using a tablet for true learning as you move.

3.  Flip Chart Products: This is where participants will write specific responses on labelled charts on the wall at designated times.    It can be an answer to a question, a question learners still have, a summary statement, an opinion about the content, facts they want to remember, or how they plan to use the content.  Then stick it on the wall. It works with digital media as well- plaster the wall with paper!

With the proper technologies and thoughtful new methodologies, courses can become content infinite. When the learning goals supersede the content areas, things begin to change. As the currencies in digital learning evolve, they necessarily evolve the learning with them.

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Are you tired of being everybody’s dartboard?

Posted on May 15, 2013 | 65 comments
dart-board main

Learn how to stop getting darts thrown at you everyday

So how do you stay calm, composed and maintain your self-esteem when everyone around you is fire fighting?

Article by Diane Shawe MEd

Here are six tips you may wish to consider as a starting point.

Imagine yourself standing around as a Dart Board.

Now take a look around and see who has most recently thrown their dart at you.  What would you actually do if you saw a dart coming towards you? Would you just stand there and take the hit, run for cover or protect yourself whilst your on the move? Without protection these dart will destroy your self-esteem and pull you down.  So which dart pins should you avoid?

Dart Pin 1: Negative Work Environment

Beware of “dog eat dog” theory where everyone else is fighting just to get ahead. This is where non-appreciative people usually thrive. No one will appreciate your contributions even if you miss lunch and dinner, and stay up late. Most of the time you get to work too much without getting help from people concerned.  Stay out of this, it will ruin your self-esteem. Competition is at stake anywhere. Be healthy enough to compete, but in a healthy competition that is.

Dart Pin 2: Other People’s Behaviour

Bulldozers, gossipmongers, whiners, backstabbers, snipers, people walking wounded, controllers, naggers, complainers, exploders, patronisers, jealousy… all these kinds of people will pose bad vibes for your self-esteem, as well as to your self-improvement scheme.

Dart Pin 3: Stale or Stagnant Environment

You can’t be a green bug on a brown field. Changes challenge our paradigms. It tests our flexibility, adaptability and alters the way we think. Change can either inspire, motivate or be stressful when we resist but, only for a while. It is said that a change is as good as a rest, it will help you find ways to improve your self.  The world has changed right in front of our eyes, we must be susceptible to it.

Dart Pin 4: Past Experience

It’s okay to cry and say “ouch!” when we experience pain. But don’t let pain transform itself into fear, spite or vengeance. It might grab you by the tail and swing you around. Treat each painful experience, failure and mistake as a lesson. Stop and reflect and see what message you have been given or taught.  Decide how you can best use that experience to help you grow.

Dart Pin 5: Negative Biosphere

Look at what you’re looking at, absorbing and ingesting daily. Self-reflection.  Don’t wrap yourself up with all the negativeness of the world. In building self-esteem, you must learn how to make the best out of most situations.  How to separate who and what you are and how to repair and protect your self-esteem.  If you cut yourself, you would normally seek to clean the wound, cover it with a plaster until it heals, check it and then when it is much better remove the plaster.  If it’s a serious cut you would normally seek professional help.  Seek out the tools that can help lift you out of a negative mind set.

Dart Pin 6: Fait accompli

It’s not always your fault.  It does not always happen to you.  The way you are and your behavioral traits is said to be a mixture of your inherited traits (genetics), your upbringing (learnt), and your environmental surroundings such as your family, spouse, your job, the economy or your circle of friends. You have your own identity. If your father was a failure, it doesn’t mean you have to believe that your going to be a failure too. Learn from other people’s experience, so you can avoid or recognise mistakes and old patterns in advance.

In life, it’s hard to stay tough or unscathed especially when things and people around you keep pulling you down. Constantly firefighting without the right tools means you could continuously become burnt out.

There are three tools you need to keep polished:

lady with cup of tea

Nothing like a good dose of positive attitude

a) Your attitude,

b) Your behaviour

c) Your way of thinking.

Building self-esteem means we take responsibility for who we are, what we have and what we do. We become clear about our mission, values  all of which aids self-discipline.  You can start right away by thinking more positively, look for more things to be appreciative about and never miss an opportunity to compliment either yourself or others.

Building your self-esteem is essential for confidence and success and it all begins with you. Of all the judgments you make in life, none is as important as the one you make about yourself. Without some measure of self-worth life can be enormously painful. If you want to discover some simple techniques that will dramatically change how you feel about yourself such as how to recognise the importance of learning self-acceptance and nurturing your sense of self, take a look at our On Demand Course Directory and how you can start your own Private Tutors Business or create your own Directory. Click here for more information.

How to create a digital on demand course library

 

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Is Mobile Technology re-wiring the brains of our Children?

Posted on May 7, 2013 | 1 comment

Overload or Growth?

Overload or Growth?

Or is there hope in a BRAIN project funded by the President of the USA?

Well you do hear people say that mobile technology and smart tech is rewiring their brains brain, making a new breed of digital natives and even brain washing our children. The facts are that they will spend 11.5 hours a day using smart technology; whether that’s computers, tablets, television, mobile phones, or video games (and in my experience usually more than one at a time). That is a big chunk of their 15 or 16 waking hours. The media tend to exploit these facts and combine them with pseudo-science with outlandish claims of ‘brain rewiring’ and potential harm. I have heard this uttered in alarm, (usually by those concerned that children’s ability to learn and pay attention) and stated as a ‘good thing’ by others, convinced that a generation of digital natives has developed incredible powers of absorbing and applying information.

Indeed 4 years ago President Obama officially announced in 2013 that 100 million dollars in funding for arguably the most ambitious neuroscience initiative ever proposed. The project has the catchy name of Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neuro-technologies, or BRAIN, and aims to reconstruct the activity of every single neuron as they fire simultaneously in different brain circuits, or perhaps even whole brains. If you have seen Iron Man 3 there is marvellous moment when the evil Aldrich Killian (played by Guy Pearce) shows the beautiful Gwyneth Paltrow inside his brain in real time; a must see moment. The next great project, as Obama called it, could help neuroscientists understand the origins of cognition, perception, and other brain activities, which may lead to new, more effective treatments for conditions like autism or mood disorders and could help veterans suffering from brain injuries. It also might just help people realise why they need to choose a great course and real focus.

neuroscience and nerve system neuroscience brainSo what are facts about neuroscience and mobile smart technology? Can we learn effectively using smart devices? Well, when our minds are engaged in a simple or complex task, the information relevant to that task is held in our STM or short-term memory. According to the late but great psychologist, George Miller, this mental holding space can only contain four to seven pieces of information at a time. To be retained it needs to be transferred to the LTM (long term memory). We can only move information from short-term to long-term memory using our attention; we have to be paying attention to, and thinking about, a fact or a concept in order for it to be encoded in memory.

To encode properly you need to eliminate distractions, which are often caused by multitasking events. Young people report frequent media multitasking (texting, emailing, surfing the web, Twitter and Facebook) while also doing homework. Their belief is they can do it effectively, but research shows otherwise. In fact, research demonstrates that individuals who multitask the most are actually the worst at it. Whether we’re learning with a tablet, smart device or a book, it’s best to give it our best attention.

The rapid evolution of mobile technology has placed quite a burden on our concentration. The day is constantly being challenged by external sources. Even the most pressing of matters can be interrupted at any moment by a familiar buzzing in the pocket. This gives a friendly nudge to pay attention that the brain responds to and many find virtually impossible to resist; alarmingly even while driving. These all too frequent interruptions, coupled with growing expectations for immediate responses (emails responded to at 2am), will challenge our cognitive control system at its very core.

The cognitive control system is our ability to focus on accomplishing a task in the context of competing demands. You might want to look at a course that explains this in more depth. This special ability is what has allowed humans to achieve remarkable achievements, from developing languages and building complex societies.

It doesn’t matter that we think children are growing up digital natives and somehow addicted to technology. It simply doesn’t change how we come to understand new information. Basic understanding happens when we process new information in terms of its meaning, rather than its surface features. Understanding happens when we connect new information to what we know already.

It seems that the competing noise and multitasking distractions, will have a more significant negative impact for those with undeveloped or impaired focus and cognitive control. Those that easily lose focus such as children and us older adults, or in the presence of neurological or psychiatric conditions like ADHD or Alzheimer’s disease. There is no doubt that we have to be careful about the influence of unending data streams of interference on our minds. We need to make more informed decisions about how best to interact with the technologies around learners and how we use the technology positively every day. Perhaps the BRAIN project will guide us on new ways being effective learners.

The lesson seems to be that when we are engaged in something that requires high quality attention (like one of our excellent express courses in critical thinking we should conduct ourselves in a manner that is most appropriate for how our brains function: in the absolute focus mode.
So it seems that despite all the real concerns, technology is not rewiring young people’s brains or brain washing them. Indeed mobile smart technology must and can be harnessed to improve our minds. This will come as a relief to some and a disappointment to others. This new brain research will shed light on our understanding, our attention and focus systems and better memory that can now be applied to a new generation of humans, not so different from the ones who came before.

Mindfeed ebooks by Diane Shawe

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 Shawe’s eBooks are available on Amazon right now at: https://www.amazon.com/Diane-Shawe/e/B0052WG8V6

About the Author

Diane Shawe is an author, speaker, trainer, mentor, consultant and entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience. She has personally trained over 2800 people around the world in a variety of fields and has published a number of works. She has contributed to over 100 Kiva Entrepreneur’s around the world.

She was also one of the producers of a Day time Ladies Talk Show in 2015 and Host of one of the UK’s best loved Annual Hair Extensions Awards.

Diane also enjoys oil painting, sailing and clay pigeon shooting. She focuses on topics that she is passionate about in her writing and has attracted over 36,000 followers on her popular blog.

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