Learning  Trello to manage your projects ; Lesson 01

What is Trello?

Trello is a project management tool,  equipped almost with everything you need to organize and collaborate projects of different size.

You can create separate boards for each of your projects, or dedicate a board to different sets of activities that your team needs to execute. Open a card and you can add comments, upload file attachments, create checklists, add labels and due dates, and many more. This blog post will give you a basic idea of how to cope with Trello and in the future posts the conversation will lead until you become a Trello expert to bring comfort for your project work, in other words this is a task management app that gives you a visual overview of what is being worked on and who is working on it. It used the Kanban system, which was developed in Toyota as a system to keep production levels high and maintain flexibility. It is best represented as a whiteboard filled with post-it notes.

1st Lesson; How to start Trello?

We only need a computer with an internet connection to start Trello. Open your search engine (Chrome, Fire fox  Mozilla, Opera etc.) and then google "Trello"

Click on "Trello"

Then click "Sign Up" button on the top right hand corner

Once you click on that it will lead to a page where it is necessary to fill a sign up form, fill it and then click on "Create New Account" if you already have a google account then click on "Sign up with Google"

Once you create new account it needs a verification, therefore log in to your email and click on the button in the verification email to continue Click on "Confirm your email address"

Then there appears the welcome screen, give a name to your project on the text field and click on "Great! Let's build your board"

Then it will lead to your "Trello" dashboard with cards and controllers

Using the Menu on the right hand corner you could apply changes and make Trello comfortable, user friendly and enjoyable.

Play with the settings and the dashboard until the next lesson, always learn by your self, we shall guide. 

To be continued... 

‘Entrepreneurship Learning’ to the Sri Lankan education system; sustainable way of promoting entrepreneurship culture through IDB

When promoting the entrepreneurship culture it is compulsory that we got to implant the seeds of entrepreneurship in our education system therefore we will introduce the ‘Entrepreneurship’ subject to schools with the affiliation of the Education Ministry. Our goal should be to make Sri Lanka the ‘best place in Asia for a young entrepreneur to start and grow a business’. 

The stats show that ‘Entrepreneurial Studies’ as a subject was introduced into the school curriculum in 2007 but it hardly reaps the yielded expected results. We firmly believe the reason behind this debacle is mismanagement and improper planning. IDB has a bigger role to play in this; we have twenty five district offices and eighteen Industrial estates throughout the country. This got to happen as a partnership between Education Ministry and the Ministry of Industry and commerce, the syllabus will be prepared for primary and secondary levels and the teaching staff will be trained by IDB. This could either be a pilot project where the initiation could be taken to a different province than Western. Once the teachers are trained and the curriculum is prepared ‘Entrepreneurship’ subject will get established in the school system. Once it is established island wide the schools could coordinate our district offices for further assistance. Since we are represented in all districts through our decentralized mechanism we could assist almost all the schools with their training and curriculum reforms.  Then using our Industrial estates we will provide schools at least two industrial visits per year and from the school days children will get familiar to the factory layouts, machines and the tenacity within a factory environment. 

Countries like Japan, China and the European countries do this more often and their industrialists have higher tendency to teach their younger generation about entrepreneurship in a simplified manner. We have 10,144 total government schools and 4,129,534 school pupils and 237,000 teachers and if the IDB manipulate resources correctly we could give a compact service at least to a considerable amount of schools. Our district officers becoming the coordination hubs and our industrial estates becoming the places where we give live demonstrations. We have a quarterly publication called ‘කර්මාන්ත’ we will construct it’s content in a more constructive and industrious manner and make it available as a reference printed material for school children where they get to know about the inspirational success stories of Sri Lankan entrepreneurs and implant the can do attitude in their mind set.

There is a social misconception that entrepreneurship can never be taught but theory and practice shows us that entrepreneurs can be made but the important question is how they could be made on a strategic basis and how education could help in creating great entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka. If education equips students with an entrepreneurial mindset at the outset of their careers, they will be more engaged and take ownership of their own success. Moreover students who will be involved in ways of entrepreneurial learning will be rather enthusiastic about this, as they would find that this kind of learning will be more fun and be experienced as more meaningful than the traditional ways of learning. Entrepreneurial learning; is also a very powerful tool to improve the access of disadvantaged groups to the job market as it was demonstrated by several initiatives. This will also create an entrepreneurial culture in their schools or colleges and in some cases support local start-ups and small businesses. All this requires close cooperation between the different stakeholders in a region and the willingness to enter innovative learning instead of sticking to traditional learning pathways. When the subject of entrepreneurship get established in schools and since the Sri Lankan education system is heavily parent oriented we could change the mind set of parents as well as teachers.

The main objective of the subject, Entrepreneurship is to generate in the students initiative, self-reliance and enthusiasm so as to empower them to become entrepreneurs both in spirit and performance. A number of skills such as observation, evaluation, communication, resource mobilization and management, risk assessment, team building etc. is also to be developed among the students. Leadership qualities, sensitivity to business ethics and adherence to a positive value system are the core issues that the subject should highlight while presenting different concepts related to entrepreneurship. 

To be continued ...

Then & Now

5G a far cry from 4G

On January 02nd, 2014 South Korea announced that they plan to roll out a next generation 5G wireless network and this is about 1000 times faster than the current available 4G network by 2020. 

This include Ultra- HD, Hologram transmission and cutting edge social networking services for the sake of intelligently connected future. 

Wireless Services Evolution

There are many ways of igniting a fire in the modern days but we are not suppose to decry the primitive attempt of our forefather to ignite a fire by rubbing wood , smashing rocks or some what similar. Primitive attempts get evolved and reach supremacy and if we talk about 4G technology 20 years ago by that time people might have mocked us taking it as a fantasy but today keeping that one small element, a brick technology keeps building the biggest, baddest and meanest wall that has ever been built. 

The image below is merely to indicate the speed of expected 5G technology. 

       

According to the web article on 'Qualcomm, The 5G Economy, ' It is expected In 2035, when 5G full economic benefit should be realized across the globe, a broad range of industries – from retail to education, transportation to entertainment, and everything in between – could produce up to $12.3 trillion worth of goods and services enabled by 5G mobile technology, 5G mobile value chain alone could generate up to $3.5 trillion in revenue in 2035, and support up to 22 million jobs and over time, the total contribution of 5G to Real Global GDP growth is expected to be equivalent to a country the size of India. India currently ranks as the seventh largest economy in the world (Link) 

To be continued...

BUILDING THE NEXT GENERATION OF LEADERS; Entrepreneurship skills we need to cultivate in kids.

   

The sweet independence of being your own boss is what entrepreneurship is all about. That's why kids and entrepreneurship is such an excellent match. It practically comes natural to them.          

First Entrepreneurship skill to be cultivated; Resilience 

Allow kids to express emotions and maximize their feelings and help them work along their negative feelings to positive ones.  

Second Entrepreneurship skill to be cultivated; Innovation & Creativity 

Let them play, it's when kids play that they engage all of their creative energies.  

Third Entrepreneurship skill to be cultivated; Industriousness 

Build independence by giving kids the responsibility for getting things done. Adults should lead by example and reduce or nullify their own time wasting habits. 

Fourth Entrepreneurship skill to be cultivated; Curiosity 

Encourage them to start new hobbies and pursue their interests no matter how impractical. Try having tech-free outings with your kids to museums and activity centers. 

Fifth Entrepreneurship skill to be cultivated; Self Confidence

Encourage their opinions and give them opportunities to make decisions. Even if it's not what you do, let them make choices and learn from experience.  

Sixth Entrepreneurship skill to be cultivated; Optimism 

Try to share positive stories and inspirational talks with your kids and encourage positive thinking. 

Seventh Entrepreneurship skill to be cultivated; Sharing & Caring 

Encourage kids to help out around the neighborhood, Improve charitable instincts and promote becoming a part of a continent than an island. 

Most parents have a strong resistance to promote or encourage their children to be entrepreneurs due to the perceived social recognition and interpretation that entrepreneurs are less educated and acknowledged than professionals or government servants because traditional professions such as being a doctor, lawyer, engineer or accountant are still widely considered to be more secure and stable. Therefore the perception among the masses of the role of an entrepreneur in society must be given more publicity as technology, literacy, success stories, case studies and overall awareness about the benefits of being an entrepreneur should be shared far and wide, only then we can consider the entrepreneurial culture of the country will begin to expand and develop in the future. 

Sharpening a child's entrepreneurial skills will equip them with the skills necessary to tackle a limitless future. Therefore dear parents help your kid, your siblings kids, your kids in the neighborhood to develop and enhance their entrepreneurial skills to become an entrepreneur. 

To be continued...

                                                 

ඔසවමු කා.ස.ම මාතා ඉහළට.......

හෙට දින නැග එන හිරු දැකගන්නට

සිතෙහි සවිය දෑතින් රොද බඳිනට 

ජීවිත සටනින් නිති ජය ලැබුමට 

අත් වැල් බැඳ ගමු අපි අද හනිකට 

විසිරුණු සවි බල එක තැනකට ගෙන 

සිහි නුවණින් සැම විමසා ලන්නට 

පොත පත සහ අත් දැකුමට මුල් තැන 

දී නංවමු අපගේ මව් මුදුනට 

සතර කොනම වසමින් මුළු දිවයින 

සේවා සපයන අරුමය කදිමය 

ඔබ සිටිනා බැව් නැවත දැනුම් දෙන 

අඬහැරයයි අපගෙන් ලෝකය වෙත 

නැංවීමයි කම්හල් මුළු මෙදියත 

අභියෝගයත් එයම වෙයි සැක නැත

දෑත් සියල්ලෙහි පිරුනොත් කරගැට 

අලුත් ඉරක් පායයි සිරිලක හෙට 

සොයුරනි එක්වවූ නැගුමට කා.ස.ම 

පිදුමට පුබුදින තුරුණු වියට හෙට 

තාක්ෂණය දුර දැක්මක් සමඟින 

කා.ස.ම මෑණිය ඔසවමු ඉහළට 

වැසුණු දොරටු යළි විවර කරන්නට 

ගුණ නුවණින් ලෝකය ජය ගන්නට 

කුසගිනි දහසින් දුරු කරලන්නට 

බමනට සැරසෙමු දැතිරෝදය අද 

Why Entrepreneurship; A concise sneak in

Entrepreneurship creates employment, utilizes resources, introduces new technology, brings foreign income and does many more to a country.

"Entrepreneurship means an individual's ability to turn ideas into action. It includes creativity, innovation and risk-taking, as well as the ability to plan and manage projects in order to achieve objectives………………………." (European Parliament & Council, 2017)

Considering the Sri Lankan economy, Small and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs) provide 45% of employment and contributes to 52% of Gross Domestic Production (GDP). They contribute to innovations such as new products, services and wealth creation which are all essential to a healthy economy. It has been the major driving force in Sri Lanka for so many years but still it is underestimated. According to the Department of Census & statistics, 2017 the unemployment by level of education; GCE A/L & above has increased from 8.2% to 9.2% and this keeps increasing rapidly, when it comes to entrepreneurship it helps to eradicate unemployment and create new job opportunities. Either it is product or service based enterprise, giving the opportunity to grow will allow more people to involve and earn a living out of it. For an instance an entrepreneur who identifies a business opportunity and starting an education institution provide service to children, when he grows and expand the services, more young graduates will gain the opportunity to work as lecturers, and then there will be room for supportive staff and operational staff as well. People get jobs, getting jobs they get a source of income, getting a source of income would pacify their needs in life, by being pacified they feel happy and society becomes a friendly place to live. Among the many global indexes there is an index created to measure happiness as well. So this process get enables because of Entrepreneurship.

Therefore the entrepreneurship is there to create happy faces in the community.