Last week I got to do something quite different – I taught the course 2310C: Developing Web Applications Using Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 to a group of software developers. I became a Microsoft Certified Trainer at the start of March, so I'm now able to teach a range of Microsoft courses. LobsterPot now has SQL, BI and .NET training comprehensively covered (contact us if you want to make a booking!)

I really enjoyed being up front teaching – an interesting contrast from just sitting at a desk in front of a screen. One of the first things I learned was how useful Win+P is for switching my laptop/data projector from 'duplicate' to 'extend' display modes. The PowerPoint slides were in 'extend' mode with the presenter view on my laptop screen, but for code demos I would switch back to 'duplicate' so I'd be seeing the same thing as the students.

The other useful thing was having a Microsoft Wireless Notebook Presenter Mouse 8000. This was a gift for taking part in the Demos Happen Here competition (along with a bright orange t-shirt). I'd worn the t-shirt a few times but the mouse had been sitting in a drawer feeling neglected. Last week it got a good workout though - really handy to swap between 'mouse' and 'presentation' mode to flick through the PowerPoint slides.

The course 2310C is a fast trip through various features of Visual Studio 2008 and ASP.NET 3.5, and is not a bad introduction to most of the things you'll need to get started doing web development. I'm pleased to observe 2310D looks like it will be available next month – with updated lessons on Silverlight 3, ASP.NET MVC and ~ADO.NET~ WCF Data Services.

This week I'm booked in to do three .NET 4.0 exams (they're beta/pre-release which means there's no charge but also means you need to wait a few weeks to see if you pass or not). Passing those should mean I'll be able to teach courses on Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4. I'm also planning to do some SQL 2008 Business Intelligence exams (70-448 and 70-452). These will not only be a good way for me to improve my SQL BI knowledge, but should be useful in LobsterPot getting the new 'Advanced Competency in Business Intelligence' (though if you've met Rob, you'll know he's a one-man walking advanced competency in BI already :-)