Creating your brand.

Today in our lecture Mr.Rehan introduced a concept called “Personality Brand”. Its something that how we are unique from others. The concept is not a new thing to us but the term was new tough. How unique in the sense the way we work the way we dress the way we talk etc.

Referencing

As we are Staffordshire University students we have to follow the Harvard Referencing method when referring to sources. Now why we have to follow referencing? in academic writing, it is a must to state the sources of ideas and information. Such 'references’ allow readers to refer back to the sources for themselves so that they can distinguish our idea with others. According to Mr.Rehan there are five main reasons to providing reference;

1. Acknowledging the source, giving courtesy to the author of the source.
2. To avoid plagiarism.
3. If the reader wants to read the original source.
4. If you need to refer it in a later day it will be much easier to retrieve it back
5. It will be easy to prove the fact to the reader with known facts.

We can easily do this using Microsoft office word 2007 onward versions utilising the option Referencing. But first we must get the style installed to the PC. We can get the style from  http://bibword.codeplex.com/ then extract the file files to the local HDD then cop-past “HarvardExeter” .XSL file to the directory “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\Bibliography\Style” (in a 32bit operating system “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\Bibliography\Style”). So using this Utility we can easily cite a reference as well as to prepare the Referencing page.  

Research Skills

Todays lecture was about the research skills. After this lecture I actually understood what we are supposed to do in our reports and research that where given as our in-course assignments. As a Level one university student we are supposed to write a literature survey/review on our research topics. With this I got to know how to get good references from authentic sources.

For a good research we must ;

• Identify  the task, this means we must identify the key element and plan on it.
• Manage the peripherals, decide what is essential vital components.
• Evaluate the source, authenticity of the source and whether the author credible.

But Mr.Rehan said for a good research, literature review there must be at least 20 to 30 authentic research papers referred. Emerald Management eJournals, ScienceDirect are some of the best research paper databases said Mr.Rehan.  

What kind of a personality are you into

On 3rd of April Mr.Rehan gave us some activities, distributed some papers and told us to fill in. The Activity one was to assess our time management skills. According to this test a person should score 10 if he/she is a perfect time managing person, but I scored 12 which is more closer to good time managing personality but still I need to improve in my time managing skills.

The next exercise was to assess our time allocation for day-today activities. An average time managing personality should maintain a percentage of 65%-75%. but according to my calculation I stand in the range of 72%. Even tough I stand in between the margin still I need to improve my skill in time management.

After the Time Management Skills session Mr.Rehan started a session about team building skills. It was a really interesting session. Mr.Rehan asked Chaltha and Shadeek to select their own group of 8 students among us the most trustful people. Fortunately or unfortunately Chaltha selected me. Then our lecturer told each of the group member to grab a chair and go out. In the corridor of L4 he asked each team to make a ladder out of chairs and each member should contribute in it. We wher doing this and that and finally made a one but before us other opposing team made a one but they didn't go much up but Mihiri our illustrator of the ladder (or we can call her as the test subject) went more higher than them. With this exercise Mr.Rehan conclude the class and asked us to complete the online questioner on Beblin's Team Roles that he sent to us.

The online Questioner is about our team role, to determine weather I'm a team leader, a doer or an individual performer. In a one test it said that:

http://www.123test.com

According to the above test my role in a group would be "Chairman". Further it describes chairman as:

The chairman has a strong coordinating role. With an emphasis on procedures, the chairman will try to bring  and keep the team together. He or she is communicative and deals with the members of the team in a respectful and open-minded way.

I think up to some extent it defines me but not totally.

In the next test it says:

learning.londonmet.ac.uk

According to the above it says a "Challenger". Even tough it says I'm challenging I'm not sure about it.

try it yourself the above two tests

http://learning.londonmet.ac.uk/bssmquickstart/r_teamroles.htm#

http://www.123test.com/team-roles-test/ 

Time Managment

This weeks topic of discussion was about "Time Management". Do we really manage our time? its a serious question that we should ask-out from ourselves. From my point of view yea I may manage my time to some extent. According to Mr. Rehan the people who are punctual are likely to be more time managing. I agree with it because managing to be punctual means we should really manage our time to be punctual. Now being punctual is one part of time management.

The best way to manage time; 80:20 rule. Pareto's 80:20 rule tells us to focus on the 20 percent that matters. Of the things you do during your day, only 20 percent really matter. Those 20 percent produce 80 percent of your results. So that we need to identify those vital 20 per cent of our vital work and to prioritize them.

Working effectively can help in managing time. There are different kind of people in the seance who are performing well in the morning, some in the middle of the day or some in the night. So to work effectively we need to identify our potential what kind of a person.   

SQ4R

Survey

Question

Read

Recite

Relate(Write)

Review

SQ4R is a reading method, its efficient quick and time saving this is what Mr Rehan said.  

Survey	Before you read survey the chapter. The title, headings, and subheadings. Captions under pictures, charts, graphs or maps. Summary.
Question	Turn the main headings/topic sentences into questions: How Why What where when who and read the questions at the end of the chapter if there are any.
Read	Read with the definite purpose of finding the answer(s) to your question.
Recite	When you have finished reading the section, briefly recite the answer(s) to your question.  Mark the direct answer(s) to the question.
Relate (Write)	Divide your page in half – write your question in left column and the answer(s) in the left column in abbreviated form. When you have completed the section relating to your question, go back and skim and mark other relevant details as well as making marginal notations.
Review	Look over your notes and check your memory for the content by reciting the answer(s).

$ 86, 400

Mr. Rehan asked us what we will do if our bank account gets $ 86 400 daily but we have to spend all of that in a one day still we cant keep any assets or investments if so from the following day onwards the cycle would be terminated.

we came up with different ideas like going to Hawaii and doing all the games an eating all food but it takes more than 12 hrs to go there so that was out. one idea was gambling in Los Vegas but still if we win we cant keep that money even.

What did he really mean from this its time we get 86 400 seconds per day.

24 Hours per Day

X

60 min per hour

X

60 second per min

=

86,400 seconds

Moral; we must no waste a single second in our life.

 

Procrastination

"Procrastination" is something we are very well used to, its one of our lifestyle. We (specially me) spend my time in Facebook, You Tube, messaging to my friends (probably not a girlfriend because still I haven't got a one ;) :P ), postponding things what I have to do right at the moment. Now today what Mr.Rehan said was stop procrastination and start what we are suppose to do and how important it when it come to our studies.

He showed  us this video of Procrastination.

Motto

 

Everyone should have to have a motto. When it comes to my case I've got several,

• "Great achievements are with great sacrifices"
• "Love the nature in-return the nature will love you" 

In order to achieve a goal you need to do some serious sacrifices that's  my point of view. And about the nature  I'm kind of a Nature lover so if you care for the nature the nature will automatically look after you, my argument here is if u pollute the environment in return the bad effects are also on you.   

Recycle

 Mr. Rehan asked last week asked us to create something which is useful out of trash. then to identify its properties and its users. Now for this what I planed was to make a Pen Holder out of a card-board box which I was going to throw. 

20th March 2012

Today we had to present our creations. seriously there where many creative ideas, they where really great the effort they have made to make it. I'm really poor in remembering names so I cant says exactly the persons name but that 'Kingfisher' collage art done by that girl it was simply awesome. Even that wall hanger was mind-blowing I really like it :). 

     

"Skills" some has got really good skills

I'm suppose to write a blog post every day when we have LFS, but  i couldn't do it :( This time Mr. Rehan gave us an activity

"Think about something you do well, a difficulty you overcame, or a personal achievement, no matter how small.  Write down all the elements that go into something you have done well

–What did you do to create the conditions that led to success?

–Which skills, attitudes and qualities did you exhibit? Did you practice?

–Did you urge yourself on in a particular way?

–Did you find people to help? Or did you just believe you could do it? "

I was thinking about it really hard noting comes to my mind :/ but Mr. Rehan said write-down something doesn't mater how small it is. Then my light bulb lit :P.
When  was at school my friend used me to call me 'the tech guy' its because I was really good at fixing computers and considerably good in computer literacy. I think this is a personal achievement, even one of my A/L tutor (Mr. sanjeewa Dharmawardhana) asked me to prepaid his tuts series after my A/L exams.

To get this achievement I mastered my skill working hard, believing that in myself that I can do this. I think this is my strength and need to work more to polish my skills.

     

Perfection vs. Imperfection

Today it was a really interesting day at the class. We made rockets out of paper and set it around the class. Our lecturer Mr. Syhid Rehan said to send the rocket as to hit the white-board standing at the back of the class room. So we sent them some went and hit the projector slide and some really went closer to the whit board and crashed, but some just went side ways and even some didn't fly. My rocket went near to the board and crashed its little bit of disappointment tough. With this activity what Mr. Rehan wanted to convey about the structure of life. 

Do we really want to work on our weaknesses or do we have to work on our Strengths??? it was the question he raised. Or do we have to work on both? for this question my answer was we should work on our 'strengths' rather the weaknesses, if we workout with our strengths those will develop and make us more perfect in that area but if we try to improve our weaknesses giving full attention to it we might loose our Strengths making us more weaker and weaker.

The most highlighted topic of the day was  'Can Imperfection make Perfection?'. What is Imperfection its really means? according to Oxford Dictionary it is a fault, blemish, or undesirable feature. How can we really measure Imperfection? whats the benchmark to compare with? its really an unanswered question to me. I think its relative. It depends on person to person attitude is what matters in this kind of things.

TO BE CONTINUED!!!!     

Self-reflective Protfolis

Mr.Syed Rehan lecture of Learning for Success a module in the first year degree program asked us to do an assignment on Self-Reflective Portfolio reflecting Personal goals, reflections and strategies for success. so in-order to do so I needed to do a research on self-reflective portfolio.

“A portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work that exhibits to the students and/or others the student’s efforts, progress, or achievement in a given area.  This collection must include: student’s participation in the selection; the criteria for selection; the criteria for judging merit; and evidence of self-reflection or self-assessment.”(http://www.nwrel.org)

According to the "Northwest Regional Educational Laboratories" a portfolio means a collection of students investigations and research on topics what he has learned.