Blueberry Wine Information Blog

11:59 AM

2009 - Wine Price

Today's Wine Price Article

Blended Learning - Old Wine In A New Bottle


Before starting to define the concept of blended learning, its important to know the most unobtrusive fact about the concept - that it has been around in disguise for eons and its immortality is undisputable. Simply put, unblended learning is something unimaginable. Learning has always involved blending of different methods and only the uninitiated can think of a learning environment where a computer can carry out all the aspects of training without the assistance from other media. Though this term found entry into the e learning jargon only lately, we have been using blended learning since time immemorial. Teachers using different forms of exercises right from story telling and toys to using charts and reading aloud for training toddlers are using blended learning techniques.

Blended learning in corporate training

Blended learning fast seems to be replacing e learning in corporate training, if not elsewhere. Corporate training programs aim at improving revenue, reducing costs and enhance teamwork in general, rather than focusing on the individual development of employees. Learners, too, learn with a view to becoming effective at their jobs rather than for the sake of increasing knowledge. Keeping these trends in mind, blended learning can best address the needs of a corporate training program, since different sets of learners require different delivery methods. The key to enhance results lies in offering the perfect amalgam of media and delivery as per the requirement of a particular program. Learning experiences are categorized into steps in a blended learning model and the learner?s progression from one step to another keeps on building upon the previous learning experiences. This forms a ladder through which learners keep on climbing rung after rung to blossom into a tree of collaboration from the sapling of education. Organizations have graduated from the basic information exchange level to the level of expertise ? all within scheduled time frames and fixed costs through blended learning techniques. A blended learning model allows the ease of combining either elements from a particular level, or complete levels to arrive at a single learning solution. The blend that a company selects depends upon various factors including requirements, costs, time on hand and available content.

Basic elements of blended learning

Broadly, blended learning models comprise of the following elements, mixed in varied proportions according to an organization?s requirements. Blended learning can be classified into

Learning through information

Learning through interaction

Learning through collaboration and

Learning through classroom experiences

E learning technology can be put to good use while learning through information, interaction and collaboration. This not only reduces cost attributed to enlarged periods of non productive activity on the part of the employees, commuting and employing instructors, but also creates reusable content, and reiterates core messages and concepts to ingrain them in the minds of the learners. At the same time, the classroom sessions develop interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate face to face.

Learning through information

Material based information is the first coherent step towards starting a learning program. Web based material can now be handed to the learners, thanks to e learning techniques, which can render the learning program easy to deliver and faster to implement. Making the information accessible all the time will give learners the liberty of scrolling through the content at their own convenience, which, in turn, will enhance understanding and enthusiasm.

Learning through interaction

The learner-instructor, learner-content, learner-learner, and learner-infrastructure interactions become all the more important in a blended learning environment. Web can assist all the above mentioned forms of interaction, which, together, help retain the knowledge that is acquired through information .Web simulations of real life situations allow learners to apply their knowledge practically, without the possibility of them affecting your business directly.

Learning through collaboration

Collaborative learning includes peer to peer discussions, conference calls, chat, team rooms and instant messaging. Technology has enhanced the concept of collaboration manifold, where learners, even though geographically remote, can communicate in real time. The collaborative environment also heightens the chances of collaboration between e learners and subject matter experts (SMEs).

Learning through classroom interactions

Conventional, tested and, by far, one of the most effective approaches to learning, classrooms are the best places to personally connect to peers and instructors. No technology can replace the advantages of this approach, which is exactly why no e learning or blended learning model will skip this element for any reason. But, as one would like to believe, blended learning has never attempted to replace classroom based learning. On the contrary, technology based learning takes care of the basic, mechanical and mundane aspects of learning to allow classroom based training centre around discussions on already learnt subject matter and behavioral and psychological modifications.

Bottomline

Blended learning involves the appropriate blend of varied components including courses, content portions, IM pings, blog feedback, and many other things. The ubiquitous problems of speed, scale and impact associated with most e learning models can be successfully solved by blended learning. Applying blended learning to all your learning needs will definitely leverage your organization vis a vis your competitors.

Viswanath Shankar has been managing and maintaining various e learning softwares for the past decade and a half. A storehouse of knowledge about LMS (Learning Management Systems), he is aware of the impact e learning can have on the academic as well as corporate learning. He has been working in close co-ordination with web development experts to develop user friendly distance learning programs. It takes a professional like him to declare the big time arrival of e learning as a worthy substitute to conventional learning techniques.

Viswanath Shankar has been managing and maintaining various e-learning softwares for the past decade and a half. A storehouse of knowledge about LMS (Learning Management Systems), he is aware of the impact e learning can have on the academic as well as corporate learning. He has been working in close co-ordination with web development experts to develop user friendly distance learning programs. It takes a professional like him to declare the big time arrival of e learning as a worthy substitute to conventional learning techniques.



Wine Price and More

Blended Learning - Old Wine In A New Bottle


Before starting to define the concept of blended learning, its important to know the most unobtrusive fact about the concept - that it has been around...


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Wine Price Items For Viewing

The FTD Fruit & Chocolate Basket - Premium


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Price: 59.99 USD



Current Wine Price News

Cafe Society: Mark your new calendar for these food experiences (Ventura County Star)

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 00:07:56 -0800
It’s the first week of a New Year, time to transfer birth dates and anniversaries out of our old, well-thumbed calendars and into shiny new ones. So why not scribble in a few save-the-dates while we’re at it? Happening this week: an appearance by Mr. Mojito, also known as David Nepove, director of “mixology” for Southern Wine & Spirits.

Christmas home tour (Southlake Times)

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 23:24:33 -0800
Mantels will decked with garland and trees will sparkle in eight immaculately decorated houses in four premier Southlake and Keller neighborhoods as Terra Land and Hat Creek Developments present their inaugural Christmas Home Tour.

Review: Siegel-Schwall still kickin' at Acorn (South Bend Tribune)

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 22:44:30 -0800
THREE OAKS -- If their current series of concerts really are the start of a farewell tour, The Siegel-Schwall Band isn't acting like it.

Around the world on a shoe-string budget (Express India)

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 12:40:32 -0800
With the deep and long drawn recession adversely affecting the budget of the globetrotters, the tour operators are coming up with low cost options

NW Arkansas today (NWAnews.com)

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 05:26:48 -0800
QUOTE OF THE DAY "I'm going up to the office right now so I can feel what it's like to be mayor." Doug Sprouse, who was sworn in Friday as Springdale's 44th mayor Article, 1B Today's happenings Wine Country Tour, 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m., Mount Magazine Lodge, Paris Looking ahead LifeWriters, 10 a.m. Monday, Shiloh Museum, Springdale Relay for Life of Fort Smith planning meeting, 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, ...


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10:53 AM

January - Napa Wine

Today's Napa Wine Article

I Love French Wine and Food - Reviewing The Reds


I recently finished a wine tour of Italy?s twenty administrative regions, briefly describing each region prior to tasting a representative wine with food, and at least one imported Italian cheese. I enjoyed this experience so much that I plan to repeat it, but only after doing something similar for France and perhaps a few other countries. I am happy enough with Italian wine to continue to drink it for the rest of my days, but there are other wine-producing countries out there, and other wines to drink. I am going to give you a bit of a report on the red wines I encountered on this wine tour, but only after a quick summary of Italian red wines, as if such an endeavor was possible. Look for a similar article on Italian white wines.

You wouldn?t be alone if you immediately think red when the subject of Italian wine is raised. In spite of extreme variations in climate, soil, elevation, and other geographical conditions, every single one of Italy?s twenty regions produces red wine. The percentage varies widely from 91 % in the southern region of Calabria to 16% in the central region of Latium.

The reality of Italy wine is more complex than first meets the eye. Who would have thought that Sicily, a southern Italian region if ever there was one, produces almost as much white wine as red wine? Considering that Sicily holds first place for Italian wine production that?s a lot of white wine. In fact, Sicily?s annual white wine production is greater than the total wine production of all but five Italian regions. But this article is about Italian red wines, not Italian white wines.

In chronological order we tasted a red wine from the southern region of Calabria, the central region of Latium, the northern region of Piedmont, the southern region of Sardinia, the central region of Abbruzzi, the northern region of Lombardy, our only ros? wine from the southern region of Apulia, the northern region of Trentino-Alto Adige, the central region of Tuscany, two Vino Novellos (new wines) one from the northern region of Trentino-Alto Adige and the other from the northern region of Veneto, the southern region of Sicily, the central region of The Marche, the southern region of Bascilicata, and finally the northern region of Piedmont while describing its neighboring region of the Aosta Valley. I was unable to find a wine from the Aosta Valley. I am in the process of tasting a Riserva (longer-aged) version of this last wine, and will write an article when I have finished it.

These sixteen wines varied in classification from basically unclassified table wines to IGT, DOC, and DOCG. In short, all Italian wine classifications were represented. IGT stands for Indicazione Geografica Tipica, which may be translated as Typical Geographic Indication, in other words a wine that typifies its specific location. DOC stands for Denominazione di Origine Controllata, which may be translated as Denomination of Controlled Origin. DOCG stands for Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Guarantita, which may be translated as Denomination of Controlled and Guaranteed Origin.

The wines varied in price from $8 to $38 but only three bottles cost more than $21. Their alcohol content varied from 11.5% to 15% but only one bottle exceeded 13.5%. The vintages varied from 1999 to 2006, with slightly more than half in the range 2002 to 2004. The grapes used varied widely, including both international and strictly Italian varieties. Some wines included multiple grape varieties, while others did not. And now for the question that you?ve been waiting for, what about the quality, and in particular the quality as a function of price? That too varied widely, there were both positive and negative surprises. We overpaid and there were definitely some bargains. Which was which? Read the articles.

Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten books on computers and the Internet, but to be honest, he would rather just drink fine Italian or other wine, accompanied by the right foods. He teaches classes in computers at an Ontario French-language community college. His wine website is http://www.theworldwidewine.com.



A Short Napa Wine Summary

I Love French Wine and Food - Reviewing The Reds


I recently finished a wine tour of Italy?s twenty administrative regions, briefly describing each region prior to tasting a representative wine with f...


Click Here to Read More About Wine ...

Featured Napa Wine Items

The FTD Fruit & Chocolate Basket - Deluxe


Adam and Eve didn't have it this good! This basket is packed with a mouth-watering array of seasonal fruits and chocolates. C40-2991D


Price: 49.99 USD



Headlines on Napa Wine

Wine Snob helps wine novices (ZDNet)

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:42:44 -0800
I already blogged about my favorite bartender app (Drinks), but it would be a disservice not to mention wine. WineSnob (iTunes, $4.99) is probably the best named application in the App Store and the graphics are gorgeous but it's not what you think. My original thought was that it was an online wine database that I could query while in the wine aisle looking for a nice Pinot Noir. It's not. ...

Champagne lives up to its pedigree (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 00:00:09 -0800
Celebrate the special in the everyday with Champagne

ILW.COM - immigration news: Temporary Agricultural Employment of H-2A Aliens in the United States; Modernizing the ... (Immigration Portal)

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 13:41:57 -0800
Federal Register: December 18, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 244)] Rules and Regulations] Page 77109-77158] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access wais.access.gpo.gov] DOCID:fr18de08-20] Page 77109]] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Part II Department of Labor ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Employment and ...

One I did earlier: Is it OK to make Christmas gifts the Blue Peter way? (BBC News)

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 03:30:38 -0800
The Jolie-Pitt brood exchange home-made gifts rather than buy presents. But do children still revel in making stuff from cereal packets and toilet roll holders? Yes, says Blue Peter editor Tim Levell.

Here's one we're going to keep on making (BBC News)

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 03:28:17 -0800
Brad Pitt's brood swap home-made gifts. But do children still like making stuff? Yes, says Blue Peter's editor.

Saving the elephants and rhinos (South African Wine News)

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 14:17:49 -0800
Kim Maxwell examines a waiter training system that seems to be working and meets two charming men who are smitten with wine.

Wine-ology: Sparkling wines run gamut of identities (Ventura County Star)

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 00:08:36 -0800
It's the time of year for my annual column on champagne and other sparkling wines. And the first point I always make to readers and people who attend my wine appreciation classes is that champagne falls under the broader category of sparkling wines. Although you may be drinking a sparkling wine, it may not be champagne.


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