Learning

Dec 23 2008   5:44AM GMT

We Must Read More for Making Good Design

Posted by: William Peterson
Technology, Learning, Design, Book, Tips, Business presentations, presentation, Instructional Design

I realize that sort of information browsing online is not enough to learn any subjects throughoutly. So I move to reading more professional books like returning the college. Everyone likes better design in its presentation, so we must learn some elementary skills from books at first. And I was recommended to read Timothy Samara’s guidance to enhance my abilities of instructional design.

Here’re two recent books about tips and rules for design starter to make good to better design. Keep these ideas in mind when designing your next presentation or website, poster, and you’ll get excellent design achievement soon.

Timothy Samara is a graphic designer and educator based in New York City, where he divides his time between consulting, writing, and teaching at the School of Visual Arts, Parsons School of Design, NYU, and Purchase College. He is the author of several books for Rockport Publishers, including Making and Breaking the Grid, Typography Workbook, Publication Design Workbook, Type Style Finder and Design Elements.

William Peterson
Presentation Veteran

Nov 22 2008   11:22AM GMT

IBM White Paper: The Value of Training and the High Cost of Doing Nothing

Posted by: William Peterson
IBM, Training, CIO, IT professional, Enterprise, Learning, Review, Business, community, Solutions, Business presentations, White Paper, Businss Training

Never doubt that IBM’s training is the best business training I’ve ever seen. Recently, IBM published an interesting white paper called “The Value of Training” by consultant David Leaser. It notes that, a company will lose 10 to 30% of its capabilities per year. By year three, an organization has retained only 41% of it original capabilities, dwindling to 24% by year six. Right, that’s the point: it costs more than a better training, if we still do nothing.

When most companies are facing the terrible financial crisis, they cut the budget. Less business trip, less internal expenses, but significantly the staff training should not be ignored.

William Peterson
Presentation Veteran

Nov 9 2008   12:25PM GMT

The Way We Use: Google Docs in Office and Classroom

Posted by: William Peterson
Web, Office, Technology, Learning, Google Docs, Review, Business, Online Apps, Web Presentation, Google Presentation

Honestly I’m not promoting Google Docs for Google as an affiliate, the “Google Docs” in this article could be any kinds of online office applications, such as Zoho, ThinkFree, etc. Google Docs is just the might-be popular one as I know. And here I’m expressing my personal experiences about that.

Google Docs Make Office More Productive

I usually open those attached Word or Excel documents in my Gmail with Google Docs. That’s the best convenient and safe method I think to review these documents at the first impression. And then recently, more and more co-workers of mine like to share some documents via Google Docs to complete them with collaboration. It’s really save time and energy to do so. And the best part is, we can resume the work anytime anywhere if we get Internet to access Google Docs.

Google Docs Makes Classroom More Interesting

As not a teacher, I’m not sure more uses of Google Docs in classroom, but some teachers ever told me the Google Docs way to enrich the class is so friendly and it can be accepted by more students easily than the ways with LMS (Learning Management System). Certainly Google Docs cannot replace LMS, but for most documents, presentations sharing, it’s easy to get a class closer. There’s an good example presentation by Tom Barrett:

Eleven Interesting Ways to use Google Docs in the Classroom
http://docs.google.com/Present?docid=dhn2vcv5_8323t58h3ft

William Peterson
Presentation Veteran

Oct 1 2008   10:29AM GMT

Adobe Flash on iPhone/iPod Touch, Another Advancement for Mobile Business

Posted by: William Peterson
Web, iPhone, Apple, Mobile, RIA, Rich Media, Web 2.0, Technology, Learning, Adobe, Flash, Review, Business, Corporate, Online Apps, Flash Video, Solutions, iPod Touch

Since Adobe Flash Lite in Windows Mobile platform smartphone is greatly common, and a lot of people benefit from mobile Flash applications with interactive rich media such as Mobile Learning, why the popular Apple iPhone still can’t support kinda Flash plugin for Safari or standalone Flash container for the hottest Flash streaming such as YouTube?

Yesterday Adobe at Flash on the Beach 08 Conference (FOTB) said the company is actively developing a port of its Flash animation plugin for the iPhone and iPod Touch, but Apple’s mobile operation system is a “closed platform” and so is out of Adobe’s control. Adobe indicated that it will not use Flash Lite but a better approach to faster iPhone processor and graphics chip.

Apple definitely will approve the great deal I think. And finally we get what we expect of familiar Flash-based interactive applications on mobile devices as exact two-win. I promise, the enhancement of Flash will extended iPhone as the mobile business center. Certainly Adobe Flash for iPhone/iPod Touch will optimize the experiences on Web.

William Peterson
Presentation Veteran

Sep 14 2008   11:26AM GMT

Look upon the Never Rivalry: Pushing Silverlight to Flash Presentation

Posted by: William Peterson
Web, YouTube, IT professional, RIA, Rich Media, Enterprise, Web 2.0, Technology, Learning, Adobe, Silverlight, Microsoft, Flash, Review, Business, community, Corporate, Online Apps, Flash Video, Webcam, Web Presentation, Business presentations

The NBC’s Olympic Games in Silverlight boomed Microsoft’s rich media technologies a lot, but it still stands outside the stage where Adobe Flash dances. Microsoft is not the god, neither is Adobe. Actually Silverlight did well in many specifications as newly developed kit for the Web, while Flash seemed old and out of some emerging developments. To fight the mainstream, let’s look around what Silverlight.

In the developer Niraj Swaminarayan’s Silverligh vs. Flash - An Analysis Report, we can see that some parts are not that crucial for most Web developers. So I take my hands to the opinion that, the so-called rivalry is really not that important like lots of observers said. YouTube can be a Silverlight based video sharing community as well as Flash offers.

I’m concerning about the impact on my favorite Webcasting industry where the Silverlight platform could not step in currently. If Silverlight lives better and better as expected, what’s the critical issues we’ll face when replacing with Silverlight? The IT infrastractures for a business do not require the value of emerging technologies. That’s why Windows Vista could not become the mainstream with its 2 years’ experiences. Certainly it’s not a bad idea to take Silverlight presentation in the future.

William Peterson
Presentation Veteran

Sep 6 2008   7:43AM GMT

The Mashup Show in Social Web Presentations 2.0

Posted by: William Peterson
Web, IT professional, RIA, Rich Media, Web 2.0, Technology, PowerPoint, Learning, Review, Business, community, Online Apps, Webcam, Web Presentation, Slidecast, SlideShare, Business presentations

Yep, you can see that I’m really hooked by that kinda video presentation services in the Social Web 2.0 times. Hot star Ominisio married Google, and old Zentation continued his beta as semi-pro. They don’t just bet on the mashup of video and slides, as they really want to engage a stage of our social Web. More than sharing all on Web apps, the mashup culture is one big point in Web 2.0 community life. So as to my personal interests in presentations, I can’t ignore the dying of PowerPoint and the power of Web 2.0. The module of Ominisio shock’d me on the development of presentations. Now the traditional presentation gradually become a part of the lifetime show, not only among slides and words.

Above all, I admit that the video content enrich’d the plain slides as expantory, but some skills are necessary as the catchwords “Content is King”. To show the best presentation, we need exceptional ideas, and some practice knowledge about Instructional Design. That’s the real mashup in the better Social Web Presentation 2.0. We learn from others in social community, so the winner presentations from SlideShare’s recent The World’s Best Presentation Contest could be good examples.

William Peterson
Presentation Veteran

Sep 4 2008   12:09PM GMT

Bad or Not: The Pre-Release Business Trick on Google’s Chrome Browser

Posted by: William Peterson
Browsers, Web, Google, IT professional, Web 2.0, Comic, Learning, Review, Google Apps, Web Presentation, Google Chrome, Business presentations

Everyone is talking about Google’s Chrome yesterday and today. I waited, downloaded, and tried the nice gadget webkit, but I really don’t understand why Google make such business tricks from the browser itself to the pre-release comic. Whatever the Google webkit was bad or not in practice, I realized that the whole show was a definitely successful case as business presentation: the new model from industrial top player.

We can imagine that how many users read the comic book before the official release to know a little more about the veiled gadget. For business, the show has completely influence the future users. We usually think that presentation is built on the systemic introduction with words and images. Comic the way perfectly combines the words and images as presentation to pull the idea on the stage simply and effectively. I deeply appreciate Google’s efforts on providing such great product and creative launching.

William Peterson
Presentation Veteran

Aug 30 2008   12:25AM GMT

Kick Off the Keynote: Brief Launch, Rich Presentation

Posted by: William Peterson
IT professional, Technology, PowerPoint, Learning, Keynote, Business, community, PowerPoint 2007, Tips, Solutions, Web Presentation, Business presentations

Okay that a lot of my friends ever complained that their audience were so unprofessional when they addressed something logical and theoretical. The fact is, your presentation is so good, without the best approach to audience’s logic.

Like Mark Twain said, “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” If we’re not the presentation expert, or need presentations to keep walking, we might ignore the true feelings from potential audience when planning the keynote. long or short is not the important elements in the planning. When the part with complicated theory comes, just enrich the experiences, such as playing relaxing background music, or throwing out the key sentences like thundering.

Your presentation can be as long as it should be, but it can not be poorly developed without brief launching and rich contents. The starting part couldn’t be tedious, as well as the main contents couldn’t be too simple without your professional insight. There’s no requirement to make everyone a presentation expert, so that’s why I usually recommend such improvements on PowerPoint 2007 to level up our efficiency at work.

We don’t blame the logic of audience, because everyone can master presentations like a pro.

My Past Posts about PowerPoint 2007:
Quick Tips to Enhance Your Presentation in PowerPoint 2007
The Presentation Outlook: Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 Review with Recommendations

William Peterson
Presentation Veteran

Aug 25 2008   11:08AM GMT

To Make Perfect PowerPoint Presentation for Business Success, You Need a Good Template

Posted by: William Peterson
IT professional, PowerPoint, Learning, Keynote, Microsoft, Business, PowerPoint 2007, Corporate, Business presentations

Why we need business presentation? Of course for the business success. And now essentially speaking, I recommend the helper for your business presentation, the good resources of PowerPoint templates to build your next success. It’s the sharing of my favorites, not advertising.

PowerPoint Templates from Indezine
Yes, believe this PowerPoint MVP, as I introduced him before (refer to New Presentation Technology in Review: Thank MVP Geetesh on FlashPPT). His free PowerPoint templates won’t let you down in any occasions. It’s so great, and everyone will love this best-ever big treasure.

Presentation Helper’s Resource
A sweet presentation helper from UK. Its selected PowerPoint templates are really elegant for the business uses; you and your audience will rapidly like the presentation made with them. More than that, any essential presentation skills and keynote tips have the same help for everyone.

Are these PowerPoint templates really what I’m looking for? Definitely yes. Whatever any conferences or business tradeshows, the content of presentations is the king to catch any attendances foward to your topic. Good templates make the first step to the success. It’s not killing your creativeness. It creates more on your business.

William Peterson
Presentation Veteran

Aug 11 2008   3:38AM GMT

Your Office at Work: Fresh Resource Center inside Microsoft Office

Posted by: William Peterson
CIO, Office, Technology, Learning, Microsoft, Business, Tips, Office Live, Business presentations

Not only you, I’m engaged to Microsoft’s Office at Work, which is far more than some hints and tips for those office applications. Because the contents there are really helpful in our daily office life. We can not miss those great ideas to stuff:

• A popular article from Office Hours on ninja tricks you can perform
• An introduction to readability stats
• A review of phishing and other email warnings
• Updated Excel tips (the most popular program folks are looking for hints on this page)
• Most e-mailed templates (based on email this link data)
• A link to our own comic, Office OFFline
• Plus keeping last month’s most popular article, PowerPoint without bullets

The best part here is, you’ll find the resources you want to see on different prospects, such as Office at Home, Office at School, Office at a Small Business.

William Peterson
Presentation Veteran