Photogenec Design

Forex Trading For All

2011-03-29T15:55:00.000-07:00

The Pastel Art of Mary Jean O'Connor

2010-02-25T13:56:00.000-08:00

Introducing The Pastel Art of Mary Jean O'Connor. This artist is well known within the Laguna Beach, California art community. A longtime member of the United States Pastel Association (USPA), Ms. O'Connor displays her work at popular exhibitions throughout Southern California. Instead of moving from frame to frame (as in a physical gallery), I created a moveable gallery within the one frame above. Simply click on this link and you'll be transported to a virtual showcase. Grab a glass of your favorite wine then dim the lights. We'll provide the gallery and the music: the perfect environment for viewing fine art.

Introducing Photographs on Photogenec

2010-02-07T11:34:00.000-08:00

Seems like a 'no'brainer', but until today our Photogenec Design website did not display any of my photo galleries. Friends, partners, clients, and other reasonable people have been 'subtly' suggesting I set up a section of my business site for photos. Enough said. Introducing Photographs on Photogenec. I'm still working out the design elements, but the first gallery is up. Please visit Prince Edward Island on Photogenec.

The massive Newfoundland in the picture above had already eaten 14 pumpkins that morning, so he was in no mood to consume his 15th. A good thing, because I really wanted a picture of him and his favorite breakfast. Out of the picture frame is a huge carafe of Espresso.

PEI is a beautiful vacation spot any time of the year. I journeyed there on a photography trip to capture the fall colours. Please view my gallery and let me know what you think.

Just kidding about the pumpkins. . .

Be Fluid With Your Productivity

2010-01-16T14:42:00.000-08:00

Wouldn't it be cool if you can turn a web application into a Macintosh application in about 30 seconds?

From the developer: Fluid lets you create a Site Specific Browser (SSB) out of any website or web application, effectively turning your favorite web apps into desktop apps.

Using Fluid to create an SSB out of your favorite website is simple. Enter the website's URL, provide a name, and optionally choose an icon. Click "Create", and within seconds your chosen website has been converted into a fully native Mac desktop application that appears in your Dock.

Photogenec makes it easy to get into Fluid. First, check out the Photogenec Design video that shows you the step-by-steps. . .Then fly over to the Fluid website , download the free tool, and take a quantum leap into productivity nirvana.

Todd Ditchendorf, developer of Fluid, offers up some tasty Fluid tips on his blog. Increase your Fluidity by becoming a Fluid expert.

Introducing 'Web Forms for Success'

2009-12-11T11:34:00.000-08:00

This detailed set of screencasts demonstrate the incredibly easy power of Softpress Systems’ Freeway Pro and BatchBlue Software’s Batchbook Social CRM - as they team up to provide a complete web forms system. The ‘casts start out with a humorous look at the challenges facing a new business owner as she begins to put together the perfect website. The tutorial segments show how Photogenec Design LLC uses both Freeway Pro and BatchBook to design and develop a comprehensive working web form system. The screencasts provide step-by-step, clear instructions for the design, construction, and implementation of a client-centered web forms program.

Any professional considering the development of their first web form system, or comtemplating upgrading their client management tools should watch these screencasts. View all seven segments in one complete screencast.

Introducing VisualMe: A Better Video Resume

2009-12-11T11:29:00.000-08:00

Photogenec Design LLC presents a more elegant, focused, and enlightened video resume. We call this concept ‘VideoMe’. In this short career documentary, we shy away from footage of our client walking in office buildings, library halls, beachside venues, and green parks. Instead, we get right to the heart of the matter: The Account of Experience. We deploy high quality stills, screencast techniques, actual resume data, and multimedia portfolios to create an emotional, factual drama. In this production concept, we chose backgrounds of light taupe and pinstripe gray. We matched the subject of the material and the tone of narration with an appropriate soundtrack. One of our production goals was to be able to construct a quality VideoMe in the shortest period of time.

LinkedIn and Facebook: A Jeckyl and Hyde Conundrum.

2009-12-11T11:27:00.000-08:00

Well, well, well. . .and a ‘hmmmm’ thrown in for good measure. Months ago we started to read articles, critiques, and the like warning perspective job applicants to be wary of contradictions between content on chatty Social Media pages, their multiple online resumes, and their dutiful applications. Recruiters and corporate HR managers were combing the social web for ‘the real story’ about their candidates. For example, an application may have displayed a perfect driving record, but Facebook talked about a recent bevy of speeding tickets. And Twitter revealed several tweets of the same. People sometimes forget that the internet is sort of a dressing room without doors.

Now we’re finding out that the recruiters and corporate HR managers are searching that same social web to source for open jobs. How ’bout that for a twist! In a recent article on Workforce.com: Discriminatory Twist in Networking Sites Puts Recruiters in Peril, issues surface when recruiters and corporate HR staff prowl sites like LinkedIn for perspective job candidates. Why?
According to latest data from Quantcast, only 5 percent of LinkedIn users are black and only 2 percent are Hispanic. Jessica Roe, managing partner at Bernick, Lifson, Greenstein, Greene & Liszt in Minneapolis says this: “Employers don’t want to pay recruiters, so they take the path of least resistance, but they have to look very carefully at the applicant pool and cast a much broader net. Recruiters are often swept up by the latest process. Minor decisions lead to major consequences.”

LinkedIn has – what?, 40,000,000 profiles. 2 percent Hispanic, 2 percent Black. Do the math.

I suspect if a recruiter or an HR staffer uses a balanced approach (multiple postings, multiple access venues, etc.) to find, collect, and review applicants – minorities are generally good to go. But if there is a tipping toward services like LinkedIn? What then?

So, folks. . .what do you think?

What is Your Learning Style?

2009-12-11T11:25:00.000-08:00

We’ve all heard stories about high school dropouts who become multi-millionaires. What’s up with that? Well, Learning Styles are probably ‘what’s up with that’. Drop-out millionaires most likely did not have patience or simply could not cope with the types of learning styles offered them in school. Experts usually agree there are three styles:

[1] Listening
[2] Seeing
[3] Experiencing

For example, officer worker #1 is told not to use the freight elevator simply because it may be more convenient. He listens, understands, and obeys. That would be an example of a Listening Learning Style. Office worker #2 watches his supervisor catch his buddy use the freight elevator. The buddy has done this several times. The buddy is fired. This would be an example of a Seeing Learning Style. Office worker #3 decides to test his supervisor’s warning and uses the freight elevator himself. Exposed, he is ushered into the supervisor’s office and given a written warning. This then would be considered an example of an Experiencing Learning Style.

You might want to amble to Vark.com and take their Learning Styles questionnaire: What Learning Style Do You Subscribe To?
Okay, so here’s the meat of it: is a learning style deeply entrenched in your DNA or can external forces affect it, change it? I would vote for the latter. I used to be a book learner. I would gobble up product documentation and user manuals like Goobers and Raisinettes. My office walls were lined with 700 page user manuals on HTTP, Adobe Illustrator, Macintosh OS, etc. For me now, those listening, reading days are gone. I’ve metamorphosed into a visual (seeing) learner.

Visual learning is as close to actual doing as education can get. You might opt for Experiencing, but that style is all about trial and error with no coach around to set you straight. Life would be close to perfect if every furniture kit from IKEA came with a step-by-step instructional video. Maybe now you’re starting to get my point.

I’m a big fan of Lynda.com and ScreencastsOnLine.com – two popular hangouts for visual learners. At Lynda.com, I can take a four hour comprehensive class – broken up into 5 – 7 minute technical bites. Thirty minutes into the online session, I’m already productive. At ScreencastsOnLine.com, I can review ‘casts on the latest Macintosh technologies in just minutes.

Why is it that many teens need to listen to music or the television in order to study? It’s generational. Go ahead and complete their trinity by giving them visual training. There’s not one textbook publisher that does not have some type of online visual learning project on the boards. Recently a new product, Screenr (Articulate Global, Inc.) let’s Twitter users send short video bursts to friends and family. Students can now use Jing to record parts of lectures online.

Kids with this type of visual learning background will soon be knocking at your company for jobs and careers. If you don’t have the types of training programs they like, these new workers will either fall behind or leave. And they may eventually become multi-millionaires for some other company.

So what is your learning style?

Online Training Works Better Then Classroom Training.

2009-12-11T11:20:00.000-08:00

The original article was written by Steve Lohr, New York Times, August 19. 2009

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/study-finds-that-online-education-beats-the-classroom/?em
A recent 93-page report on online education, conducted by SRI International for the Department of Education, has a starchy academic title, but a most intriguing conclusion: “On average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction.”

The report examined the comparative research on online versus traditional classroom teaching from 1996 to 2008. Some of it was in K-12 settings, but most of the comparative studies were done in colleges and adult continuing-education programs of various kinds, from medical training to the military.

Over the 12-year span, the report found 99 studies in which there were quantitative comparisons of online and classroom performance for the same courses. The analysis for the Department of Education found that, on average, students doing some or all of the course online would rank in the 59th percentile in tested performance, compared with the average classroom student scoring in the 50th percentile. That is a modest but statistically meaningful difference.

“The study’s major significance lies in demonstrating that online learning today is not just better than nothing — it actually tends to be better than conventional instruction,” said Barbara Means, the study’s lead author and an educational psychologist at SRI International.

This hardly means that we’ll be saying good-bye to classrooms. But the report does suggest that online education could be set to expand sharply over the next few years, as evidence mounts of its value.

Until fairly recently, online education amounted to little more than electronic versions of the old-line correspondence courses. That has really changed with arrival of Web-based video, instant messaging and collaboration tools.

The real promise of online education, experts say, is providing learning experiences that are more tailored to individual students than is possible in classrooms. That enables more “learning by doing,” which many students find more engaging and useful.
“We are at an inflection point in online education,” said Philip R. Regier, the dean of Arizona State University’s Online and Extended Campus program.

The biggest near-term growth, Mr. Regier predicts, will be in continuing education programs. Today, Arizona State has 5,000 students in its continuing education programs, both through in-person classes and online. In three to five years, he estimates, that number could triple, with nearly all the growth coming online.

But Mr. Regier also thinks online education will continue to make further inroads in transforming college campuses as well. Universities — and many K-12 schools — now widely use online learning management systems, like Blackboard or the open-source Moodle. But that is mostly for posting assignments, reading lists, and class schedules and hosting some Web discussion boards.

Mr. Regier sees things evolving fairly rapidly, accelerated by the increasing use of social networking technology. More and more, students will help and teach each other, he said. For example, it will be assumed that college students know the basics of calculus, and the classroom time will focus on applying the math to real-world problems — perhaps in exploring the physics of climate change or modeling trends in stock prices, he said.

“The technology will be used to create learning communities among students in new ways,” Mr. Regier said. “People are correct when they say online education will take things out the classroom. But they are wrong, I think, when they assume it will make learning an independent, personal activity. Learning has to occur in a community.”