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A Few Unique And Original Xmas Present Ideas

With Xmas coming up, people around the UK are beginning to consider what they can buy each other for a present. However, it can be hard to think of original ideas every year, and some people feel a considerable amount of pressure to ensure the gifts they purchase are up to standard. Instead of leaving everything to the last moment, it is always advisable to begin deciding what to buy as soon as you can, and making your purchases early to avoid the Xmas rush. Here are a few unique and unusual present ideas, to enable you to get a head start with your Christmas purchases.

For the lover of animals in your life, you could give them a gift that is truly unique – the chance to adopt a polar bear! The pack contains a certificate of adoption, a soft polar bear, photo, fact sheets, and newsletter, and will help support the WWF in their important work to help save this beautiful species.

A bottle of personalised malt whisky and set of glasses would make a fantastic present for a scotch connoisseur, or anyone else who likes a little tipple during the Xmas period! Alternatively, for a wine lover, you could give a Laithwaites wine tasting evening for 2 people, offering a laid back experience and the chance to try up to 25 different types of wine.

For a really extravagant, one off thrill seekers experience, surely there would be nothing better than the opportunity to race a REAL Formula One grand prix car, to make this Xmas really unforgettable. The lucky recipient will receive a full days experience, which includes personal tuition in a variety of race specification vehicles, culminating in a drive in an actual grand prix car.

Alternatively, a Segway race experience for two, or dumper truck racing experience, could make for an equally unique, but rather more cost effective choice.

If you are wanting to buy a gift for a pregnant loved one, a Mum-To-Be Photoshoot could make for a fantastic indulgent gift, with trained photographers available at a variety of places across the UK to create a special memory.

Chinese Flying Lanterns, also known as ‘wishing lanterns’ are quickly becoming more and more popular, and it is no wonder why. Seeing them climb slowly into the night time sky, glowing mysteriously for approximately 20 minutes, is an astonishing and wondrous experience, making these a fantastic way to celebrate a special occasion.

Wondering what to buy for a chocolate lover? A Thorntons chocolate hamper would surely be a wonderful present, comprising milk, dark and white chocolates with fudge, toffee and nougat. You wouldn’t go wrong with this amazing gift made by the definitive chocolate maker. A cheaper but equally special alternative would be a Thorntons ‘Favourites’ Hamper, which gives great value.

A grow your own Manchester United football pitch would be the perfect gift to give to a football fan, which contains everything needed to grow a replica football pitch, and includes the same seeds that are used on the Old Trafford football pitch!.

With touch screen phones becoming more and more common, sometimes it is frustrating when it is cold to find that they do not function if you are wearing gloves! The solution is a pair of specially designed touchscreen gloves, which would be a great present for anyone with an iPhone or similar device.

Last but not least, if you were considering giving a designer fragrance as a gift, why not buy a design your own fragrance experience instead? This offers you the opportunity to design, name and wear your very own fragrance, just like the stars!

Hopefully you should now have a few more ideas about what Christmas presents to buy for your friends and relatives, to make this year really memorable. Happy shopping!

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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.

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7 Great Personalised Birthday Present Ideas

Are you stuck for good birthday present ideas? This happens all the time because we never know what the person has or hasn’t got already. Here are seven (7) great birthday present ideas that you can be pretty sure they probably don’t have:

  1. Digital picture frames. These have only been recently been introduced in the last year or so and are starting to gain in popularity. You can download the pictures for them and all of their family and friends so they are on it already when you give. If you are at a party, take some pictures then and put them on. Great way to personalize them.
  2. Personalized plates. This one is more for the younger person (or older person). Your own one of a kind present with your choice of background, font, font colour & symbol in the middle if one is desired. Kids seem to really appreciate this one as it gives them a sense of ownership.
  3. Custom jigsaw puzzles. They are made from your own snapshots, personalized holiday greetings, children’s name puzzles and more! As one of our birthday gift ideas, this one is interactive and keep the gift receiver busy for a while.
  4. Name a star. Have you ever heard of anyone getting a star named after them? There are Star Registries that sells gift packages that sell certificates for the person you are dedicating them to by date and telescopic coordinates of the star. One of the more romantic birthday present ideas.
  5. Customised toys – this is the way of the future in toys. Toys like; Styled by Me Barbie, Create Your Own Steiff Bear, Elmo Knows Your Name and Make Your Own Maclaren stroller. For all these toys you can personalize just the way you like.
  6. Personalised sneakers – you can design and personalize more than 100 shoes by choosing from hundreds of colours and styles for laces, soles, thread and shoe fabric combinations. You can even put your own name or saying on the back of the shoe. One of the most popular sites to do this on is Nike.
  7. Custom Figurines – as birthday present ideas these are great. Using your photo for reference, a professional sculpture will create a custom caricature figurine in your likeness. The figurines are about 5 inches tall and are made of a fine polymer clay resin that are sculpted with tiny tools. They are then hand painted with expert finesse to make them look like you. One of the really fun birthday present ideas.

Hopefully one of these birthday present ideas will inspire you to find something that’s suited to the person you’re buying for. If not, you can always resort to a cheesy gift voucher – oh wait, you can get those customised too!

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