The Best Free Training

Topic:  All things digital. As Leo says, “If it’s got a chip in it, we’ll talk about it!”
Format:  Aggressively-updated tech-oriented news features, interviews, and caller question/answer sessions. Available EVERYWHERE… including live radio broadcasts (up to 3 hours) via many local AM stations & XM Satellite Radio ch. 166, recorded podcasts, live and recorded netcasts, iTunes distributions, and much more.
Reviewer/email: Mike G – greers_pm@yahoo.com

About Leo Laporte, My Favorite Tech Trainer

Leo Laporte is a silky-voiced, plain-spoken tech wizard who systematically (and with humor!) explains, educates, and probes the minds of experts on all topics relating to those tech gadgets, digital power tools, computers and home entertainment systems we all use. What’s more, during broadcasts of his Tech Guy show, Leo is usually backed up by a chat room of more than 1,000 techies and self-proclaimed geeks who Leo says “act as my extended brain.” Working in real time to fill in any gaps in Leo’s knowledge, these folks chime in and clarify, amplify, or (less often) provide alternatives to Leo’s answers. The result is that virtually no tech question ever goes unanswered!

In the past decade or so, regular visits to Leo’s world have taken me from a mere writer/user of tech tools to the local, first-level tech guru my family and friends call when they need help making their tech stuff work.

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Below is a list of my 12 favorite posts from 2011. These were either 1) fun to research & write, or 2) particularly useful discoveries that I was eager to share. Some of these were both! See what you think. I look forward to your Comments.

• Alison’s Diploma in Health Studies
• Free Mental & Spiritual Makeover
• Part 1: PhilosophersNotes Sampler
• Part 2: Inspired Project Teams Podcasts
• Fender Online Guitar Lessons
• Basic Study Skills
• Free Drawing Lessons at Drawspace.com (3 years later…)
• SBA Training: How to Start Your Own Business
• HP Learning Center’s Classes for IT Professionals
• Meditation Tools for Kids
• Interactive Biology: Making Biology Fun
• Diploma in Multimedia Development (107 Lessons!)
• Stanford’s iPhone and iPad Apps Development Course Free from iTunes
• Oak Training’s Presentation Skills Training: A Complete, Packaged, One-Day Session

Topic: How to make effective group presentations & facilitate group learning & interaction
Format:  Download (zip file) with complete Facilitator & Student materials to support a 1-day training session [free registration is required]
Reviewer/email: Mike G – greers_pm@yahoo.com

This free course (available for a limited time only) is one of the most comprehensive, well-designed freebies I’ve ever reviewed! The large zip file download includes professionally-designed and beautifully produced PDFs, Word documents, and PowerPoint slides.  

(Above: Facilitator Guide & Slides from Presentation Skills Training)

Specifically, you get everything you need to teach the course, including a 29-page Facilitator’s Guide, 37-slide PowerPoint set, 96-page Participant Manual (with loads of recommended reading references), reference PDFs, Pre- & Post-Course Test, After-class Action Plan, and much more!  And if you don’t want to teach the course, then the Participant Manual, with its exercises and challenging questions, can stand alone as your self-study guide.

Below are detailed outlines of the course and the 96-page Participant Manual, as well as complete info on how to get the course.

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Topic: Speaking & Reading English (particularly for non-English speakers)
Format:  Narrated online screen demonstrations & website tours  [free registration is required]
Reviewer/email: Mike G – greers_pm@yahoo.com

Are you trying to learn English as a second language? Are you a teacher of English as a second language?

Then this quick (1 – 2 hour) freebie from Alison will demonstrate how you can take advantage of two amazing web resources to improve your learning or teaching of English: Breaking News English and English Central.

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Topic:  iPhone & iPad app development
Format:  Course downloads available from Apple’s iTunes
Reviewer/email: Mike G – greers_pm@yahoo.com

Have you ever wondered how difficult it is to create an iPhone or iPad app?  Or do you have a great idea for a “killer app” that just might make you rich… if you could only figure out how to build it? Well here’s your chance to get your app-development questions answered and act on your app-inventing dreams!  

Stanford University, in a collaboration with Apple & iTunes U, is offering their latest iPhone and iPads apps course FREE to the world on iTunes! So if you’ve got the time, they’ll help you build the skills… and your first iPhone/iPad app!

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Topic:  Project Management
Format:  Online chapters, with videos and links to additional resources
Reviewer/email: Mike G – greers_pm@yahoo.com

Looking for a gentle introduction to software project management? This is a good place to start!

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Topic:  Multimedia development (i.e., How to develop professional looking videos, visual effects, audios & soundtracks, motion graphics, and animations)
Format:  107 (Yes, 107!!) Online, self-paced, self-study lessons w/narrated video demos, assessment, certificate, etc. (free email registration required)
Reviewer/email: Mike G – greers_pm@yahoo.com

This rigorous course will teach you how to create and edit multimedia content use Adobe Photoshop, Windows Movie Maker, Adobe Flash, Audacity (audio recorder/editor), Director MX and Adobe After Effects.

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