1 00:00:01,340 --> 00:00:05,430 How can you expand your content knowledge for the Windows Server Hybrid 2 00:00:05,430 --> 00:00:09,650 Administrator certification efficiently? Well, I'm a big proponent of 3 00:00:09,650 --> 00:00:14,600 self‑inventory and you figuring out how you learn best and then choosing 4 00:00:14,600 --> 00:00:20,300 your resources based on your learning style. VARK is a common model that you 5 00:00:20,300 --> 00:00:22,480 see in the instructional design world. 6 00:00:22,480 --> 00:00:28,100 V is visual. A is aural, or audio. Then we have R for read/write and K for 7 00:00:28,100 --> 00:00:32,660 kinesthetic. Visual means that you learn best with illustrations, 8 00:00:32,660 --> 00:00:33,900 diagrams, pictures. 9 00:00:33,900 --> 00:00:36,520 I'm very heavy on the visual myself. 10 00:00:36,520 --> 00:00:38,320 Aural is listening, 11 00:00:38,320 --> 00:00:41,970 listening to teachers speak either in a prerecorded way like 12 00:00:41,970 --> 00:00:45,830 you're doing here at Pluralsight or live. Again, I myself am an 13 00:00:45,830 --> 00:00:49,160 aural, or audio, learner. I listen to the audio tracks on 14 00:00:49,160 --> 00:00:51,340 Pluralsight courses almost every day. 15 00:00:51,340 --> 00:00:54,990 Read and write is somebody who reads. You're in the Microsoft 16 00:00:54,990 --> 00:00:58,630 Docs. You're writing summations. You're writing blog posts and 17 00:00:58,630 --> 00:01:00,190 contributing to the community. 18 00:01:00,190 --> 00:01:02,770 You find that you can learn by explaining. Again, 19 00:01:02,770 --> 00:01:06,100 I'm that as well. And then we have kinesthetic. These are learners who 20 00:01:06,100 --> 00:01:10,820 learn best by experience. They observe others doing the work, and then 21 00:01:10,820 --> 00:01:13,230 they begin to experience it themselves. 22 00:01:13,230 --> 00:01:17,890 So activity based, experimentation based. You could be like I am 23 00:01:17,890 --> 00:01:22,330 multimodal; I am all four of these. I really am. I'm grateful for that 24 00:01:22,330 --> 00:01:25,950 because that means that I have a much wider pool of resources that I 25 00:01:25,950 --> 00:01:27,980 can benefit from when I'm studying. 26 00:01:27,980 --> 00:01:32,360 What are some applications of this VARK learning style model in your 27 00:01:32,360 --> 00:01:36,130 study approach? Well, it could be attending live training. That's 28 00:01:36,130 --> 00:01:39,480 different from Pluralsight. I guess I say that against my professional 29 00:01:39,480 --> 00:01:44,540 interests. But some people really do want live interaction with their 30 00:01:44,540 --> 00:01:45,890 instructor and peers. 31 00:01:45,890 --> 00:01:48,770 You could watch computer‑based training, like what we're 32 00:01:48,770 --> 00:01:50,840 doing, and then communicate with me offline. 33 00:01:50,840 --> 00:01:54,060 You can always do that. You could read online literature. I say 34 00:01:54,060 --> 00:01:57,200 Azure in the slide, but we're talking Microsoft Docs because 35 00:01:57,200 --> 00:01:59,860 you're going to be in the Windows Server docs, as well as the 36 00:01:59,860 --> 00:02:01,940 Azure docs following tutorials. 37 00:02:01,940 --> 00:02:05,430 We have cloud labs here at Pluralsight, for example. If you followed 38 00:02:05,430 --> 00:02:08,020 my suggestion of building your own practice lab, 39 00:02:08,020 --> 00:02:11,500 you can use Microsoft Learn's guided tutorials or just 40 00:02:11,500 --> 00:02:14,510 experiment on your own if you are a kinesthetic learner. 41 00:02:14,510 --> 00:02:17,000 Reading general print literature. 42 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:20,390 This I kind of shake my head a little bit. If you're going to 43 00:02:20,390 --> 00:02:23,100 get a print book on Windows Server, at least that's 44 00:02:23,100 --> 00:02:27,140 relatively stable from month to month, but the public cloud, 45 00:02:27,140 --> 00:02:31,410 all three of the major ones, at least change on a daily basis, so print 46 00:02:31,410 --> 00:02:36,150 books can be a bit dicey in terms of good current knowledge of cloud 47 00:02:36,150 --> 00:02:39,430 computing anyway. And then there's participation in the community, 48 00:02:39,430 --> 00:02:41,700 Azure, Windows Server users groups, 49 00:02:41,700 --> 00:02:44,510 this sort of stuff. These are just some ideas to get you thinking. 50 00:02:44,510 --> 00:02:47,740 Another technique that I use a lot is mind mapping. 51 00:02:47,740 --> 00:02:50,670 Now I know that this illustration is impossible to read, 52 00:02:50,670 --> 00:02:51,790 but that's not the point. 53 00:02:51,790 --> 00:02:55,460 A mind map is a way for you to take your material and 54 00:02:55,460 --> 00:02:57,730 organize it in a tree‑like fashion. 55 00:02:57,730 --> 00:03:01,020 I mean there's no right or wrong way to mind map. It's what makes the 56 00:03:01,020 --> 00:03:05,040 most sense to you. But what I've done here, I've defined the 57 00:03:05,040 --> 00:03:08,360 well‑architected framework in the Microsoft Azure docs, 58 00:03:08,360 --> 00:03:11,960 the five pillars of architectural excellence, and then that's the first 59 00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:14,570 level of the mind map, and then it goes out from there. 60 00:03:14,570 --> 00:03:16,790 This mind map allows you to, 61 00:03:16,790 --> 00:03:21,450 if you're a read/write learner particularly, can help you solidify and 62 00:03:21,450 --> 00:03:24,870 understand basically as a visual learner as well. 63 00:03:24,870 --> 00:03:28,300 It basically allows you to see the relationship among different 64 00:03:28,300 --> 00:03:30,470 bodies of knowledge and different concepts. 65 00:03:30,470 --> 00:03:35,410 I love mind mapping. I like the mind mapping tool Mindomo. I give you a 66 00:03:35,410 --> 00:03:38,940 link to the company in the exercise files. And no, 67 00:03:38,940 --> 00:03:41,780 they don't know I'm giving them a recommendation. 68 00:03:41,780 --> 00:03:44,960 I just like Mindomo because it works. Runs in a 69 00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:46,670 browser, they've got mobile apps, 70 00:03:46,670 --> 00:03:50,580 they've got desktop apps, and it gets the job done for me so it's worth it. 71 00:03:50,580 --> 00:03:57,000 But for some people, mind maps can be invaluable to make sense out of a larger body of knowledge.