INSPIONS Inc

“Understanding a technology is only a starting point. Applying it in the right context is what matters”

This has been our core belief and guiding principle and also one of the distinct values we provide in our Training programs. Most other training programs excel at teaching ‘what is’ and ‘how to use’ technology.   Our Programs go beyond and put participants directly in the context of real world application scenarios and help them choose a strategy, concept or a technique out of all available options and given a set of unique constraints of a project. We teach key techniques and considerations that will help to evaluate an approach, not just from technical point of view, but also from the business value point of view.  So the focus has always been not just to learn but to apply.

However, most of this content like case studies, brainstorming sessions, evaluation techniques and guidelines is  currently deeply integrated with the rest of the curriculum in a course.  Every participant must attend the full program to leverage this knowledge, even though they may be well conversant with the ‘what’ and ‘how to use’ of the technology already. 

Over the last couple of months, we have been extracting these case studies, brainstorming sessions, evaluation techniques and guidelines in order to create a course on its own, to address this need for Experienced developers. Today we are happy to announce the name of this  new program, ‘Contextual .NET’, a program for the experienced .NET Developers.  The course will go live in the first week of October.  I will publish more details of the program: detailed content, duration, location and fee in the next couple of days.

Get ready to get contextual.  Apply technology you already know in a way that really matters, to the business.

Not just technology, but what matters.

Just watched Lifecycle of a Wireframe by Nick Finck on Active Player. Wonderful session.

Dive deep into the process used to create wireframes, a key deliverable for user experience designers. Hear about the principles that guide this process, how to create great wireframes (all the way down to the nitty-gritty page or screen level), and how to identify and deliver solutions that meet your clients’ business goals and solve their problems. Walk away with a better understanding of what delivering awesome wireframes entails – from methodology, to process, to delivery – and how to do it yourself. If you’re an information architect, interaction designer, visual designer, or regular old user experience-curious creature: this one’s for you.

Source : Lifecycle of a Wireframe from MIX 2010 ( Feed ) via Active Player

While we can just start with a white paper and pencil to get started with wire-frames, We could also create great wireframes right in MS Power Point itself. You may download this  MS Power Point template for creating wonderful wireframes in Power Point.

"Unleash Your Career" is one of our premier sessions where IT professionals come and explore various career opportunities and carve out a blue print to achieve their dreams.

On 10th of April 2010, we had our first ever online version of “Unleash Your Career” program on Supercool School. We did stream some of our sessions live on the internet earlier, but those sessions were held in a class room environment with some students attending those sessions in person. So, This was our first fully ONLINE session.

The program was a great success and we have received lots of great feedback. But not without a few surprises and challenges. To start with, presenting just by sitting in front of a computer with nobody around felt little strange and scary for a while. But we know we would make it through. And we did. We have organized about 90 hours of training so far fully (and just) online and going strong.

It has been quite a ride so far. Thought, we would write about our experiences teaching online as it may help others thinking of teaching online.  Here is our first video talking about three challenges and surprises from the first session.

In the upcoming posts and/or videos, will share how we worked around some of those challenges and learned our way through in organizing online training effectively.

“Unleash Your Career”, was our first ever program on Supercool School, and officially our first ‘exclusively online’ program. We did stream some of our sessions live on the internet, but those sessions were held in a class room environment with some students attending those sessions in person. This was our first fully ONLINE session. We were both excited and anxious on how it would go. But it went quite well. We have also received great feedback about the session.

But, who could judge the quality of your performance better than yourself. So, once the session was over we sat for a review. We watched the whole recording ourselves. We immediately noticed it wasn’t up to our own expectations. We watched it twice just to make sure.  It was in fact quite terrible by our own standards. We made a note of few things that we could immediately improve while some needs a bit more practice and getting used to.

Since then, we have been working on our shortcomings and getting better day by day with each session. Though we believe, there is not much you can learn by just reading this (but a whole lot just by actually doing it), we would like to share a few challenges or hurdles in teaching online, that we noticed.

• No visual cues from participants, left us guessing about how well audience were receiving the presentation.
• Power point presentations proved to be quite rigid. It was quite difficult to let ideas flow and in more than one way forced us to kiss good bye to improvisation.
• It was a whole lot difficult to draw something on digital white board than we ever thought, an absolute thought breaker.
• The only way you can project your passion or enthusiasm in teaching is by projecting all that in your voice. Not an easy task, leave alone effectiveness.
• You can’t move freely. for that matter, if you don’t have a wireless microphone, you are literally stuck to your chair. You may loose body language, most importantly your gestures that convey so much meaning in a class room environment.

In later posts, we will share how a few changes we made in the setup have been helping us to do it much better than our first session and getting much better session by session.

Have you ever got curious what is Microsoft .NET is all about? Are you looking to jump start your career in IT? Or Are you already in IT and looking for a break to advance your Career? Or just want to know what is HOT in the Job market today?

Come, Join us at INSPIONS University, now a Supercool School to Unleash Your Career, by exploring various opportunities in the Market place and to carve out a blue print to achieve your dreams.

"Unleash Your Career" is our Annual premier event where Dreams come true for IT Professionals. In this .NET Edition Explore and Discover various Career Opportunities around Microsoft .NET Technologies. Learn about Technologies, Job Markets and what skills Businesses are looking for. And leave with a blue print on how to achieve your Career aspirations with Microsoft .NET Technologies.

Ask YOUR own questions. Also get answers to questions like

• How is job Market today? Where? What? and How?
• I am just a student. What is the best way to approach the Job Market?
• I already work on xxxx. Why should I switch to .NET?
• I already work on xxxx. How can I switch to .NET technologies?
• .NET 1.1/2.0/3.5 and now 4.0? How can I keep up?
• Should I learn C# or VB?
• ASP.NET, WPF or Silverlight? What pays more?
• NUnit or xUnit? What is HOT in the market?
• Is AJAX still relevant in the market?
• I heard a lot about Sharepoint. What it takes to master it?
• What is the best paid Technology today?
• I want to become an Architect? How do I go about it?
• SQL or Oracle? What gets a better job?

and a whole lot more.

Join Us Online On Saturday, 10th April, 2010 at 11AM. Its FREE.

Reserve Your Seat Now

• Signup for INSPIONS University and Join the class or
• Email us at unle...@inspions.com or
• Give us a call at 214-736-7435

By registering at INSPIONS University you can access all upcoming seminars, tutorials and .NET sessions LIVE as well as on demand.

See you there.