Christmas Presents For Parents Guide

Once you get to a certain age, finding Christmas presents for your family and peers becomes far more difficult. When you’re younger, most people have plenty of things they need – whether it’s kids wanting the latest toys or teenagers hoping for a new wardrobe. But as you and the people you know get older, you’ll increasingly find that most people have sorted out the essentials for themselves and this makes it much harder to find them presents they actually want. This is true more than ever when it comes to your parents.

When you’re a child all you need to give your parent for Christmas is a picture you drew yourself or some sweets you saved up to buy, but when you’re all grown up you’ll want to show your appreciation in new ways. If you’re an artistic person you’re slightly ahead of the game, as you’ll be able to give your parents art work no matter what age you are. But if you’re not particularly talented with a pencil, it’s a good idea to turn your attention elsewhere.

With the majority of parents of grown up children tend to have most of the normal bits and pieces they need, many people turn to practical gifts and gadgets as a way to fill the hole. While this can be a great choice if you’ve a real gadget lover in the family, it can be a hard balance to get right. There have been plenty of Christmas days spoiled over the years thanks to a gift wrapped ironing board or trouser press. Steer clear of such presents unless they directly relate to a hobby your parents enjoy or they are gifts you’d enjoy yourself. For example, a flat-screen TV is likely to go down far better than a toaster.

If you’re keen to find presents that won’t end up sitting on a shelf in the hall cupboard, then choosing food or drink can be a great option. Make sure you chose wisely however, as Christmas is a time for enjoying special dishes and treats anyway and you don’t want to buy your folks a bottle of booze or fancy box of chocolates that they’ve already bought to celebrate the occasion themselves. What’s more, you need to be careful that they don’t start sharing their new gift with the whole family -especially if your premium snacks were particularly expensive.

One gift you can be sure your parents won’t be able to ignore or give away is a few nights in a nice hotel. Instead of filling up their house with more bits and pieces, why not consider booking a short break as a Christmas gift that is sure to be a real treat? The price of such a gift can easily be scaled to suit your budget and their tastes, with weekend breaks readily available everywhere from a family hotel in Blackpool to a boutique hotel in Edinburgh.

Whatever kind of present you choose for your parents this year, be sure to pay attention to their reaction when they open it – that way you can take note and be certain you’re one step ahead when it comes to next year.

Designing E-Learning: It Is Much More Than a PowerPoint Presentation

E-Learning is now more than an emerging trend, it is the preferred way of learning for industries worldwide. Forward looking organizations are serious about training and L&D managers keep looking into the needs of the learners to create learner-centric e-learning solutions. To keep up with the increasing need, they also often employ e-learning services from external resources to cater to the ever changing and dynamic learner needs.

To make e-learning truly effective, it needs to be developed keeping the nature of technology-aided delivery in mind. So designing an e-learning course should not follow the same strategies as designing a PowerPoint Presentation. If the same strategies are followed to create custom e-learning, the result is bland and uninteresting. Furthermore, it fails the first and foremost objective of training – it fails to engage the learner and as a result fails to perform his or her job within expected standards. The solution is to treat e-learning development separately and create strategies that align to the strengths of self-paced learning.

In the absence of an instructor, custom e-learning courses cannot just have one word ‘pointers’ with no explanations. Even if there are space constraints, e-learning designers have to make sure that each point is well explained to aid novice learners. An impactful way of doing this is to utilize audio to describe concepts in detail without taking up too much screen space. While the visual impact of the screen remains intact with minimalistic text, audio provides suitable descriptors to help learners understand better.

To further aid the individual needs of the learners, the option of turning off the audio can be provided for expert learner who do not need explanations of the introductory concepts. To provide learner re-enforcements and a chance to revise the topics taught through the e-course, the audio script can also be provided as a downloadable resource. The learners can later refer to it to re-enforce learning as per their needs.

Images are a powerful way of communication in an e-course. But here too, keep in mind that only appropriate images should be utilized and enough space should be provided in each screen to create visual ‘relief’.

Diagrams and Tables are also useful in reducing the text in an e-course – and can be liberally added to e-learning just like a PowerPoint presentation. But the difference is that diagrams and tables have to suitably labeled or explained to create the intended impact on the learner. Complicated diagrams or detailed graphs can share a lot of information. But this information can also confuse or startle the learners – especially if they are new to the subject.

In addition, detailed documents can be provided along with all e-courses that can be used as a job-aid as well as easy reference from time to time. This provides the learners the opportunity to study the subject in detail – as per their own need and pace.

E-courses should also be accompanied by a detailed ‘Help’ file -that aids the learner go through the course without any hitch. At any point if they are stuck or want to take a detour in the course, the help document should give them the required information then and there. Many learners are not accustomed to the technology-aided platform and e-learning developers should keep that in mind and create provisions for them.
E-Learning is an impactful way of delivering training in the corporate sector. But it is impactful only when its strengths as well as weaknesses are suitably studied and understood. Treat e-learning like it is and reap its many benefits.

Keeping Your Voice Strong While Presenting

Sometimes when you’re presenting, introducing yourself or answering questions in front of a group, your voice trails off at the end of the sentence. Your audience can’t understand the last part of your sentence and you may sound nervous and unprepared. Here are four tips for keeping your voice strong throughout your presentation:

1. Breathe
When you take short, shallow breaths, there is not enough oxygen to fuel your voice through the end of the sentence. You literally run out of air by the end of the sentence. To prevent this from happening, take full, deep breaths which will energize your voice.

2. Pause More
You won’t have enough air to race through several long sentences delivered end-to-end. Pausing during or between sentences will give you a chance to catch your breath and your audience a change to digest what you’ve just said. It also helps you emphasize important words or phrases. Pausing will feel awkward at first, but with practice, you will get more comfortable.

3. Use a Microphone
If there is a microphone available, use it. The microphone will make it easier for you to project your voice. As I stated in another article, “How to Use a Microphone Like a Pro,” you should practice the mechanics of using a microphone so you can do it successfully.

4. Be Confident
Sometimes your voice may trail off because you are not confident about what you are saying or how you are saying it. Work on overcoming any fear you have of presenting in general and then focus specifically on your anxiety about presenting this topic to this audience at this time. If you still don’t feel confident, act as if you do – and it will help you feel more confident.

Keeping your voice strong throughout your entire presentation will help you deliver your message to your audience with energy and confidence.