Monthly Items

Feature Items

1.   3 – $50 gift certificates to an item of your choice

"FREE Book in Exchange for a Book Review."

 
NOTE: This is a repeat of our highly popular lab from last month, May!
     Want to code in to Silverlight 4.0?
     Yes, join William Wegerson as he gives you an introductory step-by-step into creating an off-the-shelf Silverlight 4 application.
     This will be more of a presentation than a lab, but you can optionally bring your personal laptop* and follow along with the presentation and make this into your own 'hands-on' lab. Our time will be paced so that those who are coding on their laptops can type and ask questions as the talk progresses.
     Laptops are optional. This time, no hardware will be provided by the lab, unlike most of our Denver Visual Studio User Group Labs. Enjoy yourself in the intimate setting of our lab as we build a real Silverlight application together!
FMI: Silverlight
* If you bring your laptop, please have (at least) the 30 day trial version of Visual Studio 2010 installed along with Silverlight 4:
     + Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Trial - Web Install
     + Get Started with Silverlight with One Install
     NOTE: William will be there one hour early (6:00 p.m.) to help with those who don’t have these above tools installed. Disks are limited so please try to have both items installed before arriving at the lab. Seating is limited so be there early.

LeaderQuest, Directions and Bing Maps

 
     Chris Wallace was asked by Mark Segall, Ph.D., head of the Department of Computer Information Systems (CIS), Metropolitan State College of Denver (MSCD), to talk to their assembled students in CIS. The goal was to help his students understand the importance of lifelong learning, especially as it relates to Information Technology.
     The students are currently all enrolled in CIS courses of study, including a beginning .net programming course. In addition to recognizing and attending learning events like our Trifecta (our regional user group monster code camp), most recently held last February, the students have also become aware of certifications in IT, including Microsoft certifications. Now, there has been a need revealed to introduce the students to active members of the local IT profession and participants in local IT user groups, like our Denver Visual Studio User Group. Chris Wallace was invited to discuss these goals with his students.
     Chris believes that it is absolutely right to encourage students to think in terms of lifelong learning in IT as well as other disciplines and life in general. During our April Denver Visual Studio User Group meeting, Chris announced this talk and promoted this thinking in regard to a long discussion that members had regarding this same topic (Chris had scheduled this discussion long before knowing about the request to talk at the college). It was extremely good to hear everyone's point of view. It was a spirited conversation for the 132 persons present.
     Chris invited two additional persons to help round-out the talk with the students. Joining Chris in this talk was Roy Ogborn and Steve Wake, both experienced members of the IT professional world in the Denver area and long-time members and active participants in our user group along with Chris, who is the founder and long-time leader of our user group. All three are valuable IT professionals and long-time Microsoft product users. Each of the three has many years of experience in software development from varied backgrounds coupled with public speaking engagements.
     Lead by Chris in this discussion at the college, Chris, Roy, and Steve covered their views on the value of certifications in general and those of Microsoft certifications in particular and found that helpful to the students by their responses during our extensive question and answer sessions sprinkled throughout the talk.
     They also engaged the students to speak about their points of view and their experiences and expectations, in order to focus the ongoing talk on the needs of the students. The students came from a wide range of skills and interests. Some were novice students with a small amount of exposure to Java from a pre-requisite course to older students who were experienced developers coming to MSCD to complete their undergraduate degrees. In their current courses, they are provided enough of a foundation for them to continue to learn about the vast array of features available in Microsoft Visual Studio or any other development environment.
     Together, Chris, Roy, and Steve, concentrated on their software development area of expertise and how their experiences related to the goal of providing insight into life-long learning as a major component of success in our technical field. The talk was more of a discussion with the students rather than a presentation. Interactive discussions followed with examples provided by them as well as the students. Starting with a short introduction and some examples, several question and answer periods constituted the majority of their time together.
     Chris, Roy, and Steve, enjoyed the time they spent with Dr. Segall and his students. They also trust that it was beneficial to his students and a good use of their time. Dr. Segal thanked them for coming to talk and stated "I think it was a valuable session and helped reinforce some vague notions some newer students might have had about lifelong learning."
     Dr. Segall has invited them back to do this again in the fall with different students. Next time, the three plan to do more to have the students direct more of the conversation, which will hopefully spur even more questions and a deeper level of conversation. They also plan to engage even more student discussions to encourage lifelong learning, especially as it relates to Information Technology.

 
     Thanks to everyone who volunteered to speak. Congratulations to Ely and Bill for their upcoming talks! Look for details in our August newsletter...

ExecuTrain of Denver, Directions and Bing Maps