Read an article in the Sep/Oct AAT magazine about E-learning.  Unsurprisingly it seems to anticipate a big move to on line learning for accountancy.  More surprising is that it still sees the cost of computers as an obstacle; can there really be many aspiring accountants who do not have access to a computer?

I certainly find my self making more use of computer based training and webinars for my CPD.

Speed Reading - Study Skills from MindTools.com

While researching a potential new role, found this very useful article on speed reading (only takes a minute or 2 if you speed read it).

Speed Reading - Study Skills from MindTools.com:

'via Blog this'

Blogger or Evernote - which is best for recording CPD?

Evernote continues to improve and become more central to my life with clipping from the web, emails and paper so easy and excellent tagging and search facilities.  It is possible to make Evernotebooks partly or completely public and to tag them, but what still gives Blogger the edge for sharing CPD is the following:

• Sharing a link to a page on the blog then allows the reader to browse the rest of the blog (a link on Evernote goes to either the page only or the whole note book only so cannot be specific then general)
• Blogger is set up for allowing comments, Evernote has no way that I know of, where the content can be protected but comments allowed

Conclusion: Evernote is brilliant for many things but for a blog, the Blogger app is still better.

To see my other posts about Evernote, click here.

NLP - Neuro-linguistic Programming

I read an article in the AAT magazine (the link is here but only works for me due to copyright).

Main points seemed to be it could be used for the following:

• 'Anchoring' to positive feelings eg associate sinple repeatable gestures with positive feelings to help a salesman remember success before going into a negotiation to give more confidence
• Being aware that feelings are linked to actions so watch body language to help understand what people are feeling

Creating a table of contents for notes in Evernote

This short video shows how to create a table of contents (or list of short cuts) to items in Evernote.  It is different to sharing URLs in that it works in a desk top version of Evernote rather than a browser.

This will be useful for me for building up a Financial Manual - linking various policy and task notes together.

Webcasts for CPD

Webcasts are a maturing technology and with the proliferation of free courses by leading universities, I hoped to see some good material for CPD.  Now while some of the university courses could certainly be used for CPD, I was hoping to find something more aimed at staying up to date with UKGAAP/IFRS, UK law and UK business based ideas.

CIMA does have a suite of material available here but at £30 for an hour's course seems expensive (the special offer bulk buys only allow a restricted choice).

I would be interested to hear if anyone has found a good alternative?

Skrill - could this be used like escrow for low amounts?

Please note this link may only work if you have a subscription to The Times.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/industries/banking/article3819003.ece