Vivian Nwaocha asked:


 

Advancements in e-Learning

  Examining some trends in e-learning will enable us understand why and how e-Learning will continue to be a driving force in business and industry, as well as in the arenas of education. This will help us anticipate education and knowledge on demand. With e-Learning, the possibilities for getting knowledge and information out to the learner at an accelerated pace is viable. This article gives an overview of the advances in e-learning.

  In the rapidly growing field of education, training and learning definitions and terminologies have changed. The industry has drifted from using such terms as “technology-supported learning, distance learning and distance education” to “online learning and Web-based training” to “e-learning.”

  Today, e-learning allows us to train and develop our workforce continuously, to capture, share, and manage knowledge and skills of the students and professionals who work in our organisations, colleges, and universities, and to get the right information to the right people, when and how they need it.

e-Learning Business Approach

  Organisations deploying e-learning for one set of business reasons are finding it to be an essential part of their operating strategy. Deployments of enterprise-wide e-Learning are used for increasing sales effectiveness, improving organisational competency, and building richer customer relationships.

 Integrated e-Learning Suites

  The e-learning universe is large and diverse, consisting of three major categories: content, technology, and services. In many cases, a comprehensive e-learning solution consists of components of each, integrated into e-Learning “suites” aimed at solving a particular business problem, such as sales or product training.

 

Blended Learning

  Advancement in e-Learning involves blended learning programmes, designed to integrate e-Learning with traditional training methods to increase overall effectiveness. Blended learning preserves the necessary consideration of how people learn, offers options for learning, improves learner retention, increases completion rates for learning programmes, and has been shown to produce measurable savings in learning offerings.

 Integrated Learning

  There is a tendency towards a seamless transition from one learning activity to another. The trend is towards the integration of these activities or delivery mechanisms. Look for seamless transitions from live group activities to individual exercises, from self-paced learning activities to live and back again, from activities in smaller groups to activities in a larger learning community and back again.

 Learning Management System (LMS)

  A few years ago, Learning Management Systems were said to be able to “do it all” for the internal workings of an organisation. The fact is that no one product can do it all, and it is not reasonable to assume one would be able to do so. True knowledge delivery solutions need to connect suppliers, business units within your organisation, and customers external to your organisation. The LMS is only part of any solution. The trend is to look at the bigger picture of knowledge delivery solutions that address enterprise-wide learning needs from the inside out.

Conclusion

  These five trends in e-learning are intended to provide you with a framework to consider the e-learning needs of your establishment. In the months and years to come, smart organisations will bring together executive decision makers from all parts of their company to understand the corporate needs for e-learning and make purchase and buying decisions based on an understanding of today’s business needs and tomorrow’s requirements for growth and evolution.



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Effective communication plays a major role in the world of outsourcing where folk with different nationalities, culture, and interests work in partnership to achieve their business goals. Even though it is now simple and convenient to talk to folk overseas, thanks to sophisticated technology, issues are still being encountered because communication best practices are usually neglected. This eventually obstructs BPO players to create and maintain long term outsourcing relationships.

In the first of four-part Best Practices Series 2009 released by Outsourcing Center titled’Four Communication Best Practices frequently neglected in Outsourcing Relationships’, fifty six buyers who took part in the study noted that communication issues arise from :

2. Agreeing ( or not ) on the significance of’noise’ or customer’s’s feedback/complaints

Service supplier’s failure to hear the buyer

The secret to having a successful outsourcing relationship is to reach a shared understanding of one another’s goals. To reach this, service suppliers and buyers must adhere to the four communication best practices that are frequently overlooked in outsourcing :

1. Service suppliers must take the’noise’ into account. They pay so much attention on meeting the requirements that they fail to look into what customers consider the deliverables, so it is the buyer who ends up dealing with customers’ beefs. Suppliers have to understand that’noise’ is important in building an outsourcing relationship.

two. Create a communication plan for the period after the transition phase. The relationship generally runs smoothly at the start of the project when both parties understand one another’s goals.

Outsourcing contract should be’crystal clear’. To avoid conflicts, there has to be no room for vagueness or enigma when it comes to the outsourcing contract.

Mutual trust must be established. Buyer and service supplier need to demonstrate that they truly listen and understand one another. For service suppliers, concentrate on the purchaser’s issues and make efforts to resolve them. The same goes to buyers. Communication entails 2 or more parties, and having mutual trust is important to conquer the problem.

this study is a clear indication that communication is more than just talking to the service buyer or supplier. It is about understanding each other’s issues and concerns and coming up with solutions which will work for both parties. Culture and interests may vary, but shared understanding of objectives must be established in order to develop an outsourcing relationship that’s both enduring and profitable to service buyer and provider. The main thing is for buyers and service suppliers to keep the best practices in communication in mind to avoid issues.



By: Tommie Pope

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KISHORE asked:


COMMUNICATE WITH CONFIDENCE

The ability to communicate is the primary factor that distinguishes human beings from animals. And it is the ability to communicate well that distinguishes one individual from another.

The fact, is that apart from the basic necessities, one needs to be equipped with habits for good communication skills, as this is what will make them a happy and successful social being.

In order to develop these habits, one needs to first acknowledge the fact that they need to improve communication skills from time to time. They need to take stock of the way they interact and the direction in which their work and personal relations are going. The only constant in life is change, and the more one accepts one’s strengths and works towards dealing with their shortcomings, especially in the area of communication skills, the better will be their interactions and the more their social popularity.

 

Today, effective communication skills has become a predominant factor even while recruiting employees. While interviewing candidates, most interviewers judge them on the basis of the way they communicate. They believe that skills can be improvised on the job; but ability to communicate well is important, as every employee becomes the representing face of the company

Good Communication Skills

The way one communicates does not only have an impact on their own profession and personal relations, but also an effect on others. Those who do not have appropriate communication skills are usually ignored or simply kept at bay. Where are those with good communication skills are looked upon and well respected. After all a good listener and a good orator are popular in their groups – professional and personal.

Teaching communication skills can be a rather daunting task, considering that almost every individual feels that they are very good communicators. In fact, most trainers prefer to be regarded as facilitators, who are able to bring to light the nuances that occur while communicating ineffectively, rather than pointing a direct finger and saying – You all cannot communicate well’. and when this occurs the participants are ready to delve deeper within and bring out the negative aspects of their communications and replace it with the corrective measures.

 

Here are some tips to good communication skills :

Maintain eye contact with the audience : This is vital as it keeps all those present involved in the conversation. It keeps them interested and on the alert, during the course of the conversation.

Body awareness : One needs to be aware of all that their body is conveying to them, as well as others. For instance, if there is anxiety rising during the course of a conversation then one feels thirsty and there maybe a slight body tremor. At that point one needs to pause and let someone else speak. A few deep breaths and some water works as the magic portion at this point.

 

One needs to be aware of how to effectively use hand gestures and the way they need to posture their body to convey their messages effectively. Sometimes it may happen that they verbally convey something, but their gestures and ****** expressions have another story to tell.

Convey your thoughts : It is important for one to courageously convey what they think. This is because when things are left unsaid, then what is being spoken is not as convincing as it should be. Then a lack of confidence develops.

 

 Improving Communication Skills

 

When one is required to communicate complicated ideas, one needs to first and foremost work on improving their skills in communicating. Firstly, one needs to overcome all language related barriers by first seeking how to learn English speaking. This is essential, because most people find it difficult to convey their thoughts, because of a strong influence of their national language, regional language and mother tongue.

Well, to overcome the language barrier, one can attend English speaking classes. But then thereafter one also needs to be aware of other nuances involved in improving communication skills. In fact, one needs to ensure that as when they communicate they should not be misunderstood, so as to ensure a free flow of thoughts and ideas, doing away with stumbling roadblocks.

One way of ensuring that one will not be misunderstood is to look into the use of ‘scope’. ‘Scope’, essentially refers to the words that combine with each other in order to create a ‘sense unit’, in a sentence. For instance, which nouns are covered by a particular verb or preposition. Often poor punctuation or poor sentence construction brings about ineffective communications.

There are varied grammatical devices that help to indicate ‘scope’. These devises can be perfected by constantly practicing grammar. In fact, no matter how eloquent a speaker or communicator one maybe, one should spend sometime, ever so often in practicing grammar exercises.

One can refer to the various English speaking books that will help them improve. In fact, parents can improve their own grammar skills by working on exercises with their children, making it a family activity, rather than a boring homework lesson

 

Practice makes a man perfect: One should practice speaking and listening skills as often as possible. In order to practice effective speaking skills one cane read passages from a book aloud, in front of a mirror, or simply perform a free speech in front of the mirror. And where listening is concerned, one can try transcribing from the radio or television, etc. this helps in honing sharper listening skills.



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Will Kenny asked:


Does your company management get excited about “best practices”? In theory, as all of the organization’s employees work at their jobs, some of them are bound to discover better ways of doing things. A smart organization will have a way to detect these better ideas and spread them throughout the organization.

This energizes executives. They see a continually improving organization, one in which the next boost in the productivity of one department or job function may come from another branch thousands of miles away, or from an entirely different department.

Unfortunately, many companies don’t apply best practices to collecting and spreading best practices! They botch the job again and again, alienating everyone who is supposed to apply the best practices along the way.

It’s easy to tell when that’s happening. When management announces training, or new policies, on a recently discovered “best practice,” do employees groan and start thinking about how to waste as little time as possible on this latest fad?

Are the front lines receptive, ready for an injection of ideas and new energy that will contribute to the company’s success? Or are they resistant, making your latest “best practices” initiative just one more energy drain, one more distraction from their “real” jobs?

If “best practices” don’t get much of a reception in your organization, don’t blame the employees! It’s more likely the system for transferring best practices from one region or department to others is not working very well.

And that’s probably because you forgot the basics:

1. You didn’t really start with a best practice! Maybe good initial results within one region aren’t really due to the new practice, and won’t hold up. If you rush to judgment based on early, incomplete data, you’ll have everybody else adopting the new practice just about the time you discover that it doesn’t work.

2. You tend to get all your great ideas from just a few regions or divisions. The rest of the company gets tired of always implementing suggestions from the favored few, and they’ll automatically resist the next ideas that they know come from your favorite market, department, or vice-president!

3. You were too optimistic about how widely you could extend the practice. Sometimes the principles that work well in one division or region don’t work in another. You need to seriously examine the “local” conditions of a given region or department before you assume the new practice can be productive there.

4. You turned a “bottom up” approach into a highly authoritarian “top down” approach. Management churns out “best practice” orders without attempting to get any buy-in from the employees who will apply them. And sometimes they “improve” the original practices to the point where they don’t even work in the region or department that invented them in the first place!

5. You didn’t make careful, well-designed employee communications the centerpiece of your efforts to spread the best practice. The biggest reason that best practices don’t take root is poor communication. You expected employees to embrace the idea without proper positioning, explanation, and follow through. You didn’t sell the ideas, and present the rewards and benefits that the new practices would bring to the employees (not just to the company).

There is a cure for most of these problems: patience. Few of these newly discovered best practices are so remarkable that they will transform your organization’s fortunes overnight. You can afford the time to thoroughly understand these practices, truly measure how well they work, and to communicate them effectively to other employees.

Best practices can contribute to your success — but only if you apply the best possible practices for collecting, communicating, and nurturing them throughout your company.

(c) copyright 2007 Will Kenny



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Ryan Pearson asked:


actor for you to have more happiness in your life is to work to improve your communication skills. By improving your communication skills, you will more effectively receive what you want in life.

The reason why most people have unsatisfactory results in their life, is because they have poor communication skills. People get frustrated when they don’t get what they want,and often times don’t realize it is because they did not communicate clearly, what it is they wanted.

Poor results come from poor communication, not only in personal communication, but also in metaphysical communication. Many times people do not get exactly what they want in life because their communication to the Universe or the Higher Power and to themselves is unclear.

You must be very clear on exactly what it is you want when communicating with another person, The Universe, or yourself.

I know you may be thinking, what do I mean with yourself. A lot of times we are wishy washy with what we want. We tell ourselves “I kind of want this,but I also kind of want that.” or “I guess that would be alright.”. We need to be very specific with ourselves of exactly what it is we want. We cannot express clearly, to someone else, what we want if we are unclear, about what we want, ourselves.

First we will discuss how to communicate with your Higher Power to get what you want, then we will discuss how to communicate with other people. I am using the term “Higher Power” or “Universe” because I do not want to offend any one’s religious beliefs. You can replace the term Higher Power with God or whatever name you believe the creative source to be called. The principles for communication will be the same.

To manifest what you want in life, from a metaphysical standpoint, I would highly encourage you to sit quietly with a pen and paper, and write exactly what it is that you want to create in your life. Write what you want in great detail. The more detailed you are, the better. Remember, this is about being extremely clear about what it is that you want.

After you have written what it is that you want, I would highly suggest that you read what you wrote one to three times a day out loud. This will benefit you in two ways. First, it will help your mind get extremely clear and focused on exactly what you want. Your mind being clear will help you stay focused, take proper action and communicate to others in a more clear, concise and effective manner. The second benefit is, the two most powerful ways to communicate with the Universe, to manifest, is through writing and speaking. Writing creates the most energy, with speaking creating the second most energy. Writing and speaking to the Universe are your two most powerful ways to create what you want.

Now let’s talk about our everyday communication with other people. There are many elements that go into positive effective communication. There is verbal and nonverbal communication.

The words that we use only make up 7% of our communication. The other 93% is voice tone and body language. What that means is, before you have even said a word, you have already said a lot.

It is very important to practice paying attention to your body language and voice tone. It is important to be aware of your voice tone, when you speak. Have you ever had someone ask you for something in a whiny sounding voice; or how about in a very demanding tone of voice? Think back to when someone has approached you with either of these voice tones. Did you really want to give them what they were asking for? Probably not, you were probably pretty turned off by their approach. Focus on having a friendly confident tone.

Body language is huge! So many people are giving the wrong signals and they don’t even realize it. Your words and voice tone may be saying one thing, but your body is saying something very different. The non verbal speaks louder than the verbal, always. The person that you are communicating with will most often not even realize that they are being effected by your body language, however they are, it happens on a subconscious level.

Pay attention to your body language. First of all make sure you are standing up straight with your shoulders back. Good posture communicates confidence. Everyone is attracted to a person who is truly confident. You are much more likely to have someone say yes to you, when you exude self confidence, than if you do not. Another tip is to avoid standing with your arms folded in front of you. Arms folded communicates that you are stand offish and blocking the other person from getting through to you. It also communicates disinterest.

Eye contact is so important, because of so many reasons. I will just cover a few reasons here. For one thing, it shows strong self confidence. It also allows you to have a strong connection with the person you are communicating with. A lot of people do not trust a person that avoids eye contact and building trust is the number one component to effective communication. Eye contact can be hard for some people. If you are someone who has difficulty with maintaining eye contact, begin practicing now. It begins with awareness, then practice, then mastery. One of the most important skills that you can practice and master is maintaining good eye contact.

Next comes the words that we use. Even though words are only 7% of our communication, they are still extremely important and require conscious awareness to use them effectively. There is so much to cover, when it comes to the words we use. I will share some resources for you to study on your own, that will help you with everything that we just covered. First let’s cover what I believe to be one of the most important things to be aware of when it comes to the words you use.

Most people’s main focus when they communicate is on themselves. They use the word “I” over and over again. Understanding that most people’s main interest is themselves can be a very valuable tool for you. One of your greatest tools to be a great communicator is to stop using the word “I”, “Me” and “My” so often and start using the word “You”, “Your” and “Yours” much more often. People love to talk about themselves, and if you let them do it, you will be their most favorite person in the whole world, because most of the people they talk to are talking about themselves most of the time.

Another important thing to realize is that people love the sound of their own name. Use a persons name often during a conversation with them. They will be putty in your hands.

Remember, God gave us two ears and one mouth so talk less and listen more. And really listen, a lot of times when another person is speaking we are caught up in our head thinking about how we are going to respond or just waiting for our turn to speak. Listen with you complete focus and attention on what they are saying then trust that you will be able to respond organically. The best communicators are the best listeners, not the best talkers.

To really master these skills and take your communication to a whole new level, I would highly recommend that you begin to study NLP. NLP stands for Neuro Linguistic Programming. By mastering NLP, you will become a master of influence. NLP will cover the best way to use your words, how to build powerful rapport, how to read other people and so much more.

Here are a couple of tips on how to build powerful rapport. First when talking to someone on the phone or in person, match their speaking style. It is a good idea to match the voice tone and speaking speed of the person that you are talking to.

Another powerful tool is to mirror the body language of the person you are communicating with. Don’t mimic them, just subtly mirror them. When you do this you are sending them a subliminal message that you are just like them.

Remember, no matter where your communication skills currently are, you can always be better. To be a better communicator it just takes self awareness, the desire to be better and practice.



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DR.R.SRINIVASAN asked:


INTRODUCTION:

Everybody and everything around us keep on conveying something. This transmission by X can become a communication only when Y responds to it. This is parallel to the Radio and T.V. Stations joyful programmes and our reception of them only after switching on the Radio or Television in our homes. The sheer functioning-condition of the glowing and getting units single-handedly is not adequate. Communication does not take place even if one of the ends is ‘dead’ or fails to act in response. The units have to be synchronized in the same wave length.

For e.g., In a satellite or cell phone the transmitted messages are not received if they are not oriented in the right direction or if the location of the earth stations or the booster stations are beyond the wave-reaching distance. In the same way, what is conveyed by x to y becomes a message only when one of them reaches down and the other reaches out-like two persons stretching and shaking their hands simultaneously. In other words, Communication is very much like Kumar booking a box from Coimbatore, its transport by a lorry and Gopi receiving it in Chennai. The receipt of the box and its contents in good condition depends upon several factors. They are…

1. The contents should be good.

2. The box should be sturdy enough to bear the stress during loading, transmission and unloading.

3 Kumar should have packed the contents well.

4. The fleet operators should have handled it properly.

5. The box should reach the destination in time.

6. Gopi should wait for its arrival and collect it immediately.

            In the same way, communication between individuals is achieved adequately only if most of the factors associated with it are adopted, at least, by the communicator.

Factors Facilitating communication:        

•The speaker and the listener being face to face.

•Their being neighbors, acquaintances, friends or relatives.

•Good knowledge of the subject or topic of talk.

•The context, the place, purpose, time etc.

•Men are infinitely more powerful and resourceful than mechanical gadgets.

•Successful communication can take place even if the inviduals at one end are not capable of adapting and updating themselves.

•It is very much like changing the direction of the cell phone or increasing the potency of the booster units.

Communicative Competency – CC:

Communicative competency generally refers to the aptitude to make use of the words, language precisely, properly and athletically. All-time-greats like Shakespeare and Kambar could never have known us. The actors in the cinemas do not know who the viewers are. They cannot meet all those who read or view their productions. The newspaper publishers also address only a faceless audience. The case with most speakers is also the same. A president or a chief minister addressing a large gathering can see only those at vision’s distance. They cannot also know what each one among the audience need and expect.

Yet, some have become the most read authors / best sellers or crowd-pullers because of their communicative competency. Quite a few of then are sought and admired not only by their contemporaries, but also by future generations. They and their works become classics. What differentiates these masters and billions and billions of us who also speak and write is the level of competency in using a medium. The difference, however, is only in degree not in kind. Every one of us can increase the level of CC.

It is often considered fewer than three broad heads;

•Grammatical Competency

•Sociological Competency and

•Strategic Competency

Grammatical Competency (GC)

           GC is largely associated with the written form of a language. It is the ability to use the words and the structures of a language accurately.

• Let us consider two sentences in Tamil and English

•(Subject)         (Object)           (Verb)              – SOV

•Arjunan  defeated Duriyodhanan

•(Subject)         (Verb)              (Object)           – SVO

•He                  ran                   very fast

•(Subject)         (Verb)              (Adverb)          – SVA

•(Subject)         (Adverb)          (Verb)              – SAV

 

From the above sentences we come to know that

In both Tamil and English the ‘subject’ comes first.

In English the ‘verb’ follows the ‘subject’ immediately, in Tamil it comes only at the end.

Usually, the ‘object’ and ‘adverb’ succeed the verb in English. In Tamil they preced

Sociological Competency (So-C):

            So-C is largely associated with the spoken form (our talk) of a language. It is the ability to interpret and produce sentences appropriately. We come to know when to use what type of sentence while interacting with a particular person, at a particular place and at a particular time.

•i)        ”Pen”  – to a friend.

            If he were my chum, I wouldn’t even wait for him to give it. I myself pick it from his pocket.

•ii)        “Can I have your pen” – to an acquaintance.

            I am sure he would lend his pen. Yet I don’t pick it myself.

            I wait for him to give it.

 

iii) “Would you please lend your pen for a minute” – to  a stranger.

            I am not sure whether he would offer it. I am prepared for a negative response also.

iv)        “Get me the pen” – to an attendant.

     I might just want him to bring the pen or express my displeasure that he had not been diligent to check whether my pen is on my working – table.

v)         “Where is the pen”? – To my wife / son.

            I don’t want to know the place where the pen is. I am perhaps angry that someone had taken it and forgotten to keep it back.

            This difference in our use of words is not confined to a few situations, place, time or person.

            It is observable in all our communications.

            To take one more instance, let us suppose somebody sounds me (enquires) about the eligibility of one Mr. X before deciding to appoint him as one of the directors in a company.

I say “X is good” if I wish to recommend.

If I choose to be non-committal. I say “X is not bad”.

If the very mention of Mr. X reminds me of his extra ordinary

Qualities

I say “What a wonderful person!”.

If I have not at all come across the enquired – about person.

I give expression to my inability to give any opinion by just

asking.

“Mr.?”

Strategic Competency st.c)

•This covers both writing and speaking

•The problems can be at different ends-the medium, the communicator the communicatee , the context, the content etc

•St.c is not just an application skill, as using a theorem to solve a rider. It is an adoption-cum-adaptation skill.

•When a particular word or usage is not recallable we should not fumble or appear idiotic

  For Instance, While talking about X, if I am not able to recall the word Astronaut I should be able to say immediately that Mr. X is a pilot who operates a space vehicle .st.c is not just code-switching, like the transliteration of English words in Tamil alphabet (E.g.. Bus-     Table –    or digital coding of sounds).Knowledge of definitions, Synonyms and one-word substitutes are of great help in such contexts.

 

The Greater need for CC

As the interacting time between individuals is getting reduced due to the increasing competition in every walk of life, our competency or in competency in communication can push us up or seal our fate.

•Even a minor scantiness or inadequacy in our CC can, at times, result in the waste of several years’ efforts. It is very much like a little snag causing the delay or failure of a space mission; the space-craft may even burn out or the entire scheme may have to be abandoned.

•Life-pattern has, today, changed so much, that even conversation which plays an important role in attaining CC has got reduced and almost stopped-even among the members of the same family.

Competency in Listening

•Orienting our hearing is listening.

•Men are much more than the other creatures in their response to and use of sounds. They are not cats or parrots.

•When a sound gets produced, it is heard by all. But men hear as well as “listen” only if they choose to.

•We are not also cassettes which record something in a sound-proof glass-chamber.

•Nor, do we obey the orders of the operator who copies some song or speech.

•Our hearing – listening – recording patterns are very individualistic and peculiar.

•Hearing is involuntary; listening is a voluntary activity. Listening to more and different persons’ talk is the best foundation for developing the other linguistic skills.

•Competency is listening is very necessary for learners in schools and colleges, reporters, subordinates taking orders from their superiors, especially over phone.

•To some, like lawyers, judges, psychiatrists and consultants “Listening” is the most important of all the language skills.

 

Situations demanding C in Listening

•Radio-Broadcasts; News; discussions on topical issues; lesson-lectures for correspondence course students; views on important events; short dramas; announcements; messages; live descriptions of festivities; running commentaries of popular games.

•Railway station / Bus stand Announcements.

•Mobile Announcing- govt; police; traders; meet-organizers.

•Speeches in political / religious Rallies.

•Special lectures / addresses – by experts / VIPs.

•Oral transmission of religious scriptures and literature – Vedas, hymns.

•Telephone messages.

•Oral instructions before exams.

•Information offered at Reception counters.

Competency in speaking

Only those speakers who are conscious of the non-speaking listener and attempt to offer the information which the latter may want or appear to want can become competent and popular speakers. A competent speaker makes everyone around feel at home. Even those opposed to him or his views turn to be willing listeners. In addition to the linguistic materials (words) at his command a good speaker makes the optimum use of the nonverbal factors-also-tonal changes, Physical postures and ****** expressions-to achieve what he had attempted to.

Situations Demanding C in Speaking

•Traveling in a Bus, Train, etc.

•Enquiries about seat reservations, market trend etc.

•Conversing with peers.

•Seeking Clarifications from teachers.

•Meeting government officials.

•In-person reporting to the superiors.

•Subject confined paper presentation.

•Addressing a public gathering

•Introducing a Chief – guest.

•Making even the strangers feel at home.

•Creating a market for something new.

•Inviting V.I. Ps in person.

•Stating our physical condition (ailment) to a doctor.

•Briefing our case to a lawyer.

•Presenting our arguments before a judge.

•Describing our findings in a seminar.

•Introducing the elite to the chief – guest.

•Welcome address.

•Propose Thanks. 

Competency in Reading

            Competency in Reading is the ability to go through a printed/written text mentally or vocally in such a way that the content is understood by the reader he or the others,

 

For e.g.. “Beware of dogs” can mean several of the following – one or all at the same time.

•It informs the presence of dogs on the other side of the gate.

•It indicates that the dogs within are trained to pounce on strangers.

•It warns the people outside not to enter without calling the people inside.

•It helps us know the mind of the inmates, their desire to protect their property, their doubts about security, their view about the general society etc.

The words in the above notice are only three. But they can have 3, 13, 30 or even

number of significance.

Steps in the ladder of Reading:

From guided reading to independent reading;

•From oral reading to silent reading;

•From slow reading to reading at an increasingly faster pace;

•From reading only descriptive or narrative books to reading information-packed works;

•From reading only the prescribed books to reading other works on the same subject;

•From a narrow reading in only one subject to  a wider reading in increasing number of fields;

•From the reading of suggested books to the voluntary reading of many more;

•From fun-reading to functional reading for a purpose.

•From reading the pictorially illustrated books to reading the non-illustrated ones;

•From reading books on identifiable “concretes” to the reading of books on abstract “vague”

•From reading the available to reading the selected books;

•From cover to cover reading to selective reading.

•From reading to know the obvious to get at what is left untold;

•From simple reading to reflective reading;

•From reflective reading to critical reading;

•From critical reading to evaluative reading etc;

            The facts below prove that most of us are yet to achieve sufficient proficiency in reading

•Borrowing books from the libraries is almost nil.

•Bookshops store more “guides” than original works.

•Book-buying has almost ceased.

•What little is bought is also mostly of the recreational variety, suitable only for young children who are to be gradually weaned from viewing mere visuals only.

•The number of books prescribed for the language courses have gone down.

•The study of books under the non-detailed section is also being given up.

•Teachers don’t fight shy of taking the “guides” to classrooms or make them the basis for the notes they give.

•Most students in colleges do not buy or read even the prescribed text books. 

Situations demanding C in Reading

1. Newspapers

2. Magazines               

3. Reference Books

4. Legends in picnic spots; pilgrim centers.

5. Announcements in institution’s notice-boards.

6. Unedited copies of speeches

7. “Literature” about a particular drug.

8. Do’s and don’ts in the use of a gadget-cooker, camera etc.

9. Annual reports of companies / firms.

10. Plus-minus points of shares in deposit seeking forms.

11. Govt orders; court orders; regd. Notices; property documents.

12. Contract agreements.

Competency in Writing

•Competency in writing is the ability to write sentences grammatically, appropriately, differently, effectively etc., It is often believed that the need for writing has decreased with the coming of computers. The truth, however, is the reverse of it; the need to write has only increased.

Writing skills- Step by step

•“Develop the hints”- question guides us to build on a foundation.

•“For or against” –question give us freedom to take any side.

•“Discuss” – question develops our potential to consider the merits/ demerits of something.

•“Substantiate” – question helps to confine ourselves to one side, even if we do not know it.

•“précis- writing”, summarizing-question shows that way to condense and edit.

•In the beginning the skill is gained only with the guidance of a teacher . But our dependence should decrease and stop at the earliest. we should learn to prune our writing by ourselves.

•This is very crucial because more and more are trying to be popular mainly through writing in mass media-papers and journals.

 Situations demanding competency   in Writing

•Booking ticket in bus, train or plane.

•Application for a course or job.

•Preparing bio-data.

•Request for something / facilities.

•Complaints about difficulties faced.

•Writing to unknown officials, persons ( govt. traders etc).

•Advertisements for a product.

•Reporting for a media.

•Publish to a faceless audience.

Other Skills

•Note-making skill is the ability to comprehend the “listened to” or “the read” consider their relative significance and jot down the important points briefly – all simultaneously.

•Reproducing / reporting/ transmitting skill is the ability to write the noted-down points in sentence- form in an interesting, convincing and comprehensible way.

•Descriptive skill is the ability to state all the features of X to provide as complete a picture of it as possible.

•Narrative skill is the ability to recount generally in a chronological order the events that had occurred over a long period.

•Paraphrasing skill is the ability to reformulate reword or reshape the structure usually of a written work.

•Metaphrasing skill is the ability to rewrite in a different form / genre.

•Formulating skill is the ability to concretize – give a shape to something which is subjective or abstract

•Organizing skill is the ability to bring into one fold the limitless information which has to be cognized the learner.

•Creative skill is the ability to evolve something from one’s own thought, perception or imagination.

•Composition skill is a combination of   writing, formulation and creative skills.

•Comprehension skill is the ability to grass something quickly on one’s own.

•Discrimination skill is the ability to distinguish and choose X as the most valuable amongst a lot.

•Interpretation skill is the ability to understand and elucidate what is hidden , obscure or difficult to most.

•Presentation is the skill to introduce something in an easy and comprehensible manner.

•Translation furthers the ability of L1 speaker to converse or correspond with L2 speaker.

 Teaching and learning CC

Teaching and Learning communicative competency is a recovery operation and a salvaging exercise. We are not imparting or gaining something new. We only rejuvenate to a dormant potential.

The innate CC of man, particularly of children and the young which appears almost lost due to the interfering conditions at home,  schools, colleges and out in the streets has to be given only a new life.

Our CC is not dead. It is only in hibernation. But this hibernation duration has been too long .Yet all is not lost.

The efforts of the teacher and the student will have to be combined and complementary.

 Conclusion

A teacher is, in the beginning of his career, only a more-information-stored-disc. His learning gets confirmed only when he starts teaching. The teacher realizes that teaching should ensure that the students grasp what he wants them to know. In other words, teaching is a communication at its best. The difference between a great teacher and a not-so-good teacher is basically a difference in their competency to communicate. The greater the CC of the teacher, the greater is his contribution to the rise of a better and better feature generation. Communicative competency take part as an essential role in underneath civilization and in making  us citizens of the world. That alone can make our (humanity’s) dream, of establishing a non-visa-requiring-world, a reality.

 

 



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pptarticle asked:


Affordable and accessible, e-Learning is seizing a large portion of learning activities both in schools and in corporations. And the rapid growth of Internet and multimedia technologies including PowerPoint, flash, video and DVD, contributes a great to e-Learning in making it available to a multitude of learners with ease and flexibility. Among the most popular e-Learning technologies, PowerPoint-based tools are taking great popularity in formal academic and industry education. Here we sum up 5 tips (herein as 5 Es as each begins with Letter E) that should be kept in mind when making an e-Learning PowerPoint presentation. The 5 necessaries for an E-Learning presentation are listed below:

1. Engaging

“Engaging” is to the content. Your e-Learning PowerPoint presentation must include engaging content capable of capturing the learners at the very first time. Avoid dulling your presentation by the so-called Death by PowerPoint, i.e. you should organize the whole story in a reasonable way – clear and brief rather than random and tedious. If it is a course presentation on Science, for example, you can use key phrases or words or graphics instead of complete long sentences to describe the topic, limit the number of slides to the most concise extent, put each title on the top of every slide for quick navigation, contrast different texts by a shift of colors, and apply animations and transitions sparingly to title messages (not to the text part) of the presentation.

A presentation with several dynamic effects can catch their eyes better than a plain one consisting only static pictures and texts, but too many effects will degrade it to a distraction. So think carefully before adding in a thrilling sound or movie clip to your e-Learning presentation.

2. Evocative

“Evocative” means that the messages in your e-Learning presentation can evoke a positive response when conveyed to the learners. What you convey is what they are right in need. To make that, you must take a survey to ensure the topic you are going to talk by the presentation makes sense, and must plan how to present it in a way that appeals to the learners.

Suggestions: rehearse the presentation until perfect before you deliver it. You can practice it in a rehearsal room as if the learners were there, or ask someone as audience to give you his/her advice.

3. Efficient

“Efficient” here is to the delivery of your e-Learning presentation. You made a wonderful learning item, but it failed to reach the target learners because they couldn’t open the PowerPoint presentation. That is a lack of efficiency. As we know, files generated by PowerPoint are often too clumsy and fragile to carry via the Internet. To make it an easy access to the learners, you can upload the e-Learning presentation to the Web (an authorized website or your blog) for sharing online, or burn it to DVD as endurable disc handouts using software like Moyea PPT to DVD Burner.

4. Enjoyable

“Enjoyable” indicates the e-Learning experience by your presentation. E-Learning itself is a convenient and flexible learning method, self-paced and available almost 24×7, without boundary of time and space. E-learning stuff on a PowerPoint presentation, however, is not a nice layout for learning community on the Web. If you want an interactive impact of your e-Learning presentation, then why not convert it to one of the most popular media formats throughout the Internet – flash video? That is a good way to show a complete look of your presentation online, since a direct link of PowerPoint to the Web may fail to retain all the dynamic effects like embedded sounds, movie clips as well as animations and transitions. Tools that can help transfer your e-Learning presentation to flash video include Moyea PPT4Web Converter, capable of creating a PowerPoint-based FLV file supportable by Adobe Flash Player and many other flash players.

Then, it becomes a cinch for you to put and share the hitless e-Learning PPT video at a learning community, or your teaching blog. Your students and other target learners can enjoy it more by a free exchange of ideas as comments on the slick PowerPoint video.

5. Easy

“Easy” refers to two: the messages of your e-Learning presentation are easy to understand, while the content is easy to get. To put it straight, you should on the one hand compose the learning stuff, especially those with deep thoughts, in a simple manner that doesn’t confuse a learner. On the other hand, make accessible copies of the presentation, via a CD-ROM, DVD, video or PDF, for later reuse by yourself and for the benefit of those involved who request a review of it. Tool that can help you burn an e-Learning presentation to DVD and video: Moyea PPT to DVD Burner.





E-Learning, the green method of learning, does brings us great convenience and opportunity these years. Bear in your mind the 5 Es – Engaging, Evocative, Efficient, Enjoyable and Easy as mentioned above to make an successful e-Learning course based on presentation.



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Tutoring Services asked:


According to the Sloan Consortium, which monitors online education in K-12 schools in the United States, online learning is on the rise. According to their report, “the overall number of K-12 students engaged in online courses in 2007-2008, is estimated at 1,030,000. This represents a 47% increase since 2005-2006”.

That’s a big jump, by any standards, but hardly surprising. The internet has become a place to do many things but above all it remains the place where people turn for information. With ever-faster broadband available to more and more people and innovations in web technologies marching on, it’s not longer just about looking up that information, as you would with a book. Static pages are old hat. With the interactive possibilities of Web 2.0 the possibilities for using the internet in innovative ways in education are multiplying exponentially.

That’s great news for students everywhere. It’s also great news for anyone with the knowledge to pass on their skills, by becoming an online tutor. Online tutor jobs are an ideal solution for educators of all kinds to help others and make a living (or supplement their existing income) in financially challenging times. As long as people want and need to learn, jobs for tutors will always be available.

If you’re considering applying for online tutor jobs, the main requirements are excellent knowledge of your subject and the ability to communicate that knowledge effectively. But there’s a bit more to it. Just because there are plenty of tutor jobs available doesn’t mean you can just set up shop. Anyone considering applying for online tutoring jobs needs to get a grip on the medium and its potentials.

Online learning is obviously not quite the same as traditional teaching, even though tutors can interact with students in real time, perhaps using video. The first years of online education were based on replicating traditional, instructor-led teaching practices. Often learning was based on modules or educational packages that learners worked through in their own time, before hooking up with instructors for assessment, feedback and guidance.

With Web 2.0, e-learning is all about making the most of the interactive possibilities available. Its about learners using the possibilities that computers offer for simulating environments that permit practical learning. Online learning communities stimulate learning through participation, through webinars, forums and sharing of experiences. Computers offer ways of making learning engaging and fun. Some educational institutions have even set up virtual classrooms on Second Life!

If you are planning to get yourself online tutoring jobs, it’s worth noting that the best tutors are those who understand how online learning works and how the internet has the capacity to enhance the educational experience. An online tutoring job isn’t only about teaching others. For most online tutors it will be a learning process in itself, as technology changes teaching strategies and we learn more about how online learning can outstrip traditional pedagogical methods. One thing is for certain. Those who master the medium will tell you that online tutoring is a rewarding one.



Create a video blog

Content can attract shoppers to your site. But to generate a continuous flow of repeat visitors, you need to provide access to an interactive community.

Community is just as important as content when planning an eCommerce site. If done right, community features on your site will increase the number of page-views per visit, giving you opportunities to offer merchandise to your shoppers.

Community features can be used to encourage customers to return to your site. Establishing a Learning Community can help shoppers develop expertise through the interaction with other shoppers who visit your site. Asking questions, discussing problems, raising issues, and the general camaraderie that develops in an interactive community breeds a kind of loyalty that is beneficial to the success of your Web store. And loyalty breeds repeat visits.

Communities can build your business. Think about it, the more times a shopper visits your site the more familiar they are with it. The more familiar they are the more comfortable they might get making a purchase from you instead of some unknown merchant. Communities are sticky. Visitors tend to spend longer periods of time at your site than before. The stickier they are the more loyal they get. Loyalty builds trust and trust is the currency of business.



By: Douglas Adams

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