Peronal Development Table

Personal  Development Need	Development Activity	Target Date for Completion	Measure of Success
Set up and Maintain blog	I will create and maintain my blog with relevant information	31st Jan	Pass the unit
Be able to communicate effectively in writing	Write to the correct audience and use the correct spelling and grammar. Also keep all information in the blog relavent	31s Jan	Pass p5
Create a clear tutorial of how to create a blog	I will create a simple section in my blog to show other users how to setup their own blog.	31st Jan	Pass P6
Error Correction	I will check my blog for any spelling or formatting mistakes and fix them to maintain a high standard of writing	20th Feb	Pass M3

Progress Report
2nd Dec: I have created and began to upload content to my blog.
8th Dec: I have checked all content of the blog so far to check for any errors.
18th Jan: I have taken measures to insure that the standard of writing on my blog is high and that there are no spelling mistakes or formatting errors.

31st Jan: I have conducted one final sweep of the blog to ensure that all of the objectives are completed to a high standard.

Error correction

It is important to maintain correct spelling and formating when you are writing your blog. A high standard of writing will make it easier for others to read your blog.
Above you can see an example of a spelling mistake, as well as a formatting error, on my blog. Little mistakes like this can be easily missed.

Setting up a Blog



Once you have made your account you will see this screen, from you you must click on new blog



Having selected to make a new blog you can now name it, choose its adress and select a theme



Make sure you name your blog and give it an adress people will be able to remember, so dont make it somthing like myblog2921858/blogspot.com

You have now made your blog, from here you can make posts and view the statistics of your blog

Here is the statistics page, this can tell you how many people view your blog



This is when you open the blog, you can edit and make posts from here



M3-Learning styles

Having a good awareness of how you learn best will help significantly because you can tailor your learning to suit you best. If you don't know your own learning style there are several websites with tests which can tell you which style may be best for you. 
The tree most common learning styles are:

Visual
If you are a visual learner it will be best for you to make your learning more visual by using visual aids like diagrams and pictures.

Kinaesthetic
This learning style generally means that you will have best results from actually performing a physical task, you will have best results watching a practical task and then actually doing that task your self.

Auditory
This learning style means that you will benefit from listening to and talking about what you are trying to learn, listening to lectures and even putting things into song.

Just because a test tells you that you are one of the above styles it does not mean that is the only way you can learn, the theory that a person can only use one of these styles has actually been completely disproved in 2009 by the association of psychological science, however focusing most of your revision/learning on one of these styles depending on what you are doing can help a lot. You should experiment with various different methods and see which gives you the best results.

P2 / P3 - Communication

Within any business good communication is key to having a productive work force, especially within an ICT business where team work is essential to completing a task.

Verbal Communication

Clear speech: Speaking in a clear and normal accent is important to make others understand you, it is also good practise to adapt your language to your audience, for example if you are talking to someone who doesn't know much about ICT you should avoid jargon and technical language, however if you are talking to an expert you should avoid patronising them.

Eye contact: As well as obvious points like clear speech, maintaining eye contact is very important to show confidence as well as respect.

Body language: When talking to someone it is important to convey confidence, for example if you are slouching with your arms crossed you appear worried and defensive. However if you stand with a open frame and your head up along you portray confidence.

Be friendly and happy: Another very important thing to consider is simply being happy and having a good state of mind and attitude. Talking to someone who is happy and open minded is a much more pleasant and easy experience than talking to someone who is unhappy. 

Communication barriers (P3/M1)

Some examples of communication barriers and how they can be overcame are:

Language barrier: A big problem with ICT projects is language, with the internet many projects have teams that are spread out across the world, many open source projects are like this. The problem can be solved using on-line translators such as Google translate, in a higher budget project it is also possible to actually have a translation team who specialise in the task to help maintain good communication across language barriers.

Distance: Related to the previous barrier, communication can be an issue if its over a large distance. These problems can be resolved with software like Skype to communicate and hold conference calls and software like dropbox to share files between different teams. Other software systems can be used to ensure that different teams know exactly what is going on in different locations with regards to progress.

Lack of confidence: Another example is lack of confidence, use the communication guide lines above to feel more confident. You can also find more advice on various websites.

Punctuality: When you are working with a team meetings are important, whether they are in person or via a conference call, arriving on time and being attentive is vital. If you are not there you can't communicate! The only real way to avoid issues like this is to ensure that you have trust worthy and reliable staff on the team.

Technical language: If you are working with someone who doesn't have as much technical knowledge as you it is important that you adapt your language so that they will understand it. Training programs can be used to give team members the skills that they will need for the project.

P1 - Employment attributes

When it comes to getting a job or even placements in further education related to ICT you need to consider the following attributes:

Honesty - Employers value honesty and dependable employees.
Dedication - Showing dedication is a good way to get a job as well as keeping a job. If you are dedicated you will generally produce a higher standard of work as well as a higher level of motivation.
Reliability - It's important to be punctual, once again being punctual is essential to keeping your job.
Flexibility - A good quality is flexibility, being able to work different times and adapt to different roles will give you a wider selection of possible jobs.
Motivated -  Being motivated to do your best is a brilliant quality in an employee, It works well for the business since you produce more/ better products. It is also good for you since you will obviously enjoy your job much more if you are motivated.
Technical skills - To be employed in ICT its obvious that you need the technical skills for the job
common sense - This is an obvious one, the ability to use your initiative and make good choices is very important.