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WAVELENGTH – The ID Newsletter of India – January 2007
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Welcome to Wavelength's second anniversary edition.

With this issue Wavelength turns two. Two years is a long
time in the life of a newsletter. Two years ago, it wobbled
uncertainly into your arms...you helped it become confident
and strong. Today Wavelength shall reach 1683 mailboxes across
India, Asia Pacific and the US. It thanks you all for being
there and reaching out.

Here is a short summary of the 2006 highlights:
* Wavelength's most important achievement of 2006 was the
launch of IDCWC Online. The Wavelength team worked very hard
to make this dream come true - and it came true when the
July-September 2006 participants shared their feelings and
also their nostalgia for having to leave the course behind
and moving on. Now with the third session in full swing,
Wavelength is accepting applications for the fourth session
of the IDCWC Online, which shall begin classes on
April 01, 2007.

* The contact programs of Wavelength continued to gain speed
during 2006. IDCWC Contact, ASDC, and AS2OOP courses enabled
some very bright individuals hone their skills and become
assets for the eLearning and training industry.

* Wavelength also conducted Corporate Training Programs for
the BPO and training industry, which were lauded by the
participants as well as the organizations.

* During this year, Wavelength conducted the Autumn Training
Workshops to facilitate Instructional Design and ActionScript
trainings for organizations that wished to train a smaller
number of participants and thus didn't find our corporate
trainings viable. The Spring Workshops that are scheduled for
February are built on the same philosophy. If you are
interested in these workshops, please write to us.

* It is also important to mention that Wavelength's Newsletter
subscriptions almost doubled during this year. The newsletter
today reaches almost 1700 individuals who are busy shaping
the destiny of India.

* Wavelength also introduced the Instructional Design for
Trainers (IDT) workshop in its bouquet of FREE workshops. The
first IDT was attended by trainers from almost all major BPOs
in an around Delhi, and concluded successfully on
January 7, 2007. We will organize IDT 2 shortly and announce
it at the site as well as in the newsletter and hope that you
will attend it.

Wavelength's plans for the coming year include many new
offerings. According to our tradition we shall unveil them
through this newsletter; but what is important is the fact
that you are at the center of the 2007 plans. In the bouquet
that we intend to put together, there shall be a flower for
each of our valued friends.

As I mentioned in the editorial, January, anguished by the
December's indifference to weather decided to take things into
its own hands. Mornings are foggy and afternoons are chilly
with freezing wind biting through layers of clothes to make
our limbs numb! I think it's an excellent time to pull out
our previous year's diaries and determine the magnitude of
time that we wasted trying to revisit sites that we loved.
Of course, I am talking about the Mystery of the Month article
for January 2007, which provides us a basic understanding of
RSS, the technology that is revolutionizing the way we find
information in the cyber world.

The Site of the Month for January 2007, which is proposed by
Kamal Sharma, IBM, Bangalore; is a fantastic place to spend
time at. Check it out for some of the coolest effects you
may have seen in a long time.

The Spring Training Workshops are beginning on February 19,
2007 and shall continue till March 02, 2007. If you are
interested in inquiring about the Spring Training Workshops,
please write to us at: springworkshops@vibrantwavelength.com.
The details of this workshop are available at:
http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/spring_workshops07.htm

The next course groups for the Instructional Design & Content
Writing Certificate (IDCWC) contact course as well as the ASDC
course shall begin on February 25, 2007.

The fourth FREE ActionScript Orientation (ASO 4) workshop shall
be held this Sunday (January 21, 2007.) If you are interested,
please register NOW!

I wish you a very happy New Year. May you design and create
your destiny according to your dreams and fill it with the
patterns, motifs, and colors of your choice. Keep smiling.

Thanks and Warm Regards,
Shafali.

(Editor & Publisher, Wavelength)

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Table of contents
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From the Editor's Desk
Mystery of the Month
ID Section
Technology Section
Media Section
Site of the Month
Views
Laugh-a-little
Innoken Games
Signing Off...

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Events Calendar
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1. The next session of IDCWC Online (Instructional Design &
Content Writing Certificate Online) course begins on
April 01, 2007. We are receiving applications for this
session now.
i) ****NEW****Read the views of the IDCWC Online Previous
Sessions participants at http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/wavelengthians.htm#idcwconlineviews
ii) Read details of the course at http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/idcwc_online.htm
iii) View FAQs at: http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/idcwconline_faqs.htm
iv) Experience sample learning interactions at: http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/idcwconline_preview.htm
v) Write to idcwconline@vibrantwavelength.com with your queries.

2. Wavelength's next course group for the Instructional Design
& Content Writing Certificate (IDCWC Contact) course begins
on February 25, 2007. Registrations are on for this group.
Read details at http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/idcwc_details.htm

3. Classes for the next Flash ActionScript Developer Certificate
(ASDC) course group begin on February 25, 2007. Registrations
are on for this group. Read details at http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/actionscript_certificate.htm

4. The Spring Training Workshops begin on February 19, 2006.
You are welcome to register for either the Feb19 - Feb 23
slot or for the Feb 26 - March 02 slot. These 5-Day training
workshops replicate our corporate programs and follow the
same content outline as the IDCWC and ASDC courses.
Organizations that wish to sponsor participants or
individuals who would like to participate for any of these
workshops are requested to write to us at: springworkshops@vibrantwavelength.com.
Details of the workshops are available at http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/spring_workshops07.htm

5. FREE ActionScript Orientation workshop on January 21,
2007 - Main Audience: Flash Designers (Min 6 months of
experience) and Flash Developers (0-2 years of experience.)
Click http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/actionscript_workshop4.htm
to register for the workshop.

6. Classes for the next course group for ActionScript 2.0 using
Object-Oriented Programming (AS2OOP) course begin on
February 24, 2007. Registrations are open for this course
group. Click http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/actionscript2_oop_details.htm
to read the details of this course.

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From the Editor's Desk
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http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/editorial.htm

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Mystery of the Month
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Whenever we begin to think that nothing more could be done
to improve efficiency, we are proved delightfully wrong. How
often do we consciously think about the time that we waste
when we browse for the information we need? How often do we
spend time finding the "lost" url of a site that we found
useful, or finding those sections of a particular site that
would contain relevant information updates? My honest answer
to the above questions is - Very Often! If I spend two hours
browsing, I waste at least one of those two hours just
finding my way to the information I need. The cyber world is
where most of us find answers to our questions, and most
often we spend hours re-"searching" the sites that we "know"
contain the information.

If you have seen those RSS Feed buttons on different sites
(usually on the sites and blogs that are frequently updated)
but haven't clicked them; it is time to meet the technology
that is changing the way information is given and received
over the Internet.

Click http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/rss.htm to read the
Mystery of the Month, "Learning Arrives at Your Doorstep!"
for a Wavelength article that encapsulates the rationale as
well as the application of RSS to enhance the efficiency of
learning in the cyber world of today.

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ID Section
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ID Concepts
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Connectivism...what does it mean? Why has it caught the
fancy of eLearning instructional designers around the world?
Begin your exploration by clicking http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm
to read the introductory, thought-provoking article by
the Connectivism theorist George Siemens himself. This
article prepares grounds for the introduction of
connectivism by exploring the three existing approaches to
learning - behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism. It
reviews the three approaches to identify the common shortcoming
of all the three approaches, when applied to the learning
environment of today - "These theories do not address learning
that occurs outside of people (i.e. learning that is stored
and manipulated by technology)."

Later, the article introduces connectivism as an alternative
theory and explains that "Learning (defined as actionable
knowledge) can reside outside of ourselves (within an
organization or a database), is focused on connecting
specialized information sets, and the connections that enable
us to learn more are more important than our current state of
knowing." The article then lists the fundamental principles
of this alternate theory.

After you have read through the article, click
http://www.elearnspace.org/media/connectivism_Web_2/player.html
to hear George Siemens talk about his theory.

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Language & Culture
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Culture in Focus: The United States
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This month we orient ourselves to the culture of the
United States of America.
I think that the best place to begin our quest is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_the_United_States
as it not only provides a succinct summary of the different
aspects of American culture, it also provides enough direction
to those who wish to explore further.

If we stop and reflect, we can find one big similarity between
the United States and India. Both have been British Colonies.
The only difference probably was that when India came under
British Raj, we already had forty centuries of history behind
us. Nevertheless, the culture of North America is essentially
very different from that of India and so it is a good idea to
learn about it.

There is no dearth of information about the American culture,
yet http://www.lifeintheusa.com/ is a site, which can be
called encyclopedic in this context. Check it out.

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Writing Style
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Click http://www.junketstudies.com/rulesofw/ to view eleven
rules of punctuation. What? You know them all? I too thought
that I knew them all, but now I know that I didn't. Do click
and view the examples for Rule No. 8, to experience the
lighter side of punctuation flaws.

Click http://www.docstyles.com/apacrib.htm for a comprehensive
guide on writing style.

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Technology Section
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Learning Content Creation Technologies
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A subset of eLearning, which is growing slowly but sure-footedly,
is m-learning or mobile learning.

Wikipedia defines m-learning as "the delivery of learning to
students who are not keeping a fixed location or through the
use of mobile or portable technology." To understand m-learning
and to become comfortable with the strengths and limitations of
the corresponding hardware (primarily the mobile phones and the
PDAs) click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-learning.

Nitin Upadhyay 's article "M-Learning - A New Paradigm in
Education" at http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Feb_06/article04.htm
gives us an overview of m-learning by first outlining the
characteristics of m-learning, then reviewing its advantages
and disadvantages.

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Media Section
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Art Concepts:
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The Masters - Titian or Tiziano Vecelli
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Titian, whose real name was Tiziano Vecelli pioneered the
Italian Renaissance. Titian created both landscapes and
portraits with equal finesse and ease. His ascent as an artist
began with "Sacred and Profane Love", which you can view at
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/t/tiziano/mytholo1/sacred_p.html

Dark forms over light backgrounds characterize Titian's art,
in this period of ascent. He played with strong colors to
create his characteristic impression. His art became more subdued
when around the age of 45, he lost his wife.
Click http://www.wga.hu/html/t/tiziano/4religio/presenta.html
to view "Presentation of the Virgin", which was painted around
this time.

Titian was born around 1485 and died in 1576. He often
exaggerated his age to impress the patrons of his art and
so historians are not clear about his year of birth. Regardless
of the controversies surrounding his age and his personality,
Titian is considered to be a great master of the Venetian school.

Read Titian's biography at: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/titian/

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Graphic Design Concepts:
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The link http://www.webdesign.org/web/web-design-basics/design-principles/general-
guidelines-for-imagery.4728.html
provides some guidelines for good use of imagery on websites
and substantiates them with example and non-example sites.

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Media Technology Concepts:
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Media technologies include far more than just software; they
include the hardware too. One of the important tools that a
graphic designer requires is a graphic input device. If you
are wondering what I am talking about, you need to click the
link http://www.scottjohnsonart.com/Gallery1.html to see what
Scott Johnson achieves with his Intuos 3 tablet.

What is Intuos 3? Click http://www.wacom.com/productinfo/intuos.cfm
to find out. If you are a graphic designer who likes to create,
I recommend that you buy one. It will change your life:)

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Photoshop Pros:
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If you are looking for inspiration of an astronomical magnitude,
click http://www.worldofinfinity.com/2d.htm to find a gallery of
images, each of a different hue yet all blending to create a theme.

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Flash Fans:
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Flash enables you to create vector art. The question is - What
is vector art? The answer can be found at:
http://www.vectortown.com/what-is-vector-art/

For some cool examples of vector art, click the following links:
http://www.deviantart.com/print/264246/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/45157662/
and http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/43337519/
...all by ChrisVector.

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3D Dons:
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A butterfly! Is it all that I have to offer this month?! Wait!
Don't judge before you interact with it. Yes. This 3D butterfly
is interactive! You can rotate it and you can hurl it into
the space by zooming out. 3D interactivity implemented through
Java is smoooooth! Experience it at
http://www.ibiblio.org/e-notes/VRML/blaxxun/gallery.htm

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Site of the Month
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The Site of the Month for this annual edition of Wavelength
is suggested by: Kamal Kant Sharma (IBM - Bangalore)

I should confess that when I first visited this site it set
me wondering - What was so special about it? A cold gray,
punctuated with colorful cars...big deal!

So what happened? Why did I decide to add it here? Well,
let's find out:)

1. First things first...copy and paste http://www.a-to-s.co.uk/home.php
in your browser's address bar. The Merc Symbol loads with some
text. It asks you to Rollover, so rollover! Then it asks you
to click, then click and drag...just do what it asks you to
and enjoy!

2. Next, don't do what I did. I explored the top menu!
Don't...instead explore the letters A to S at the bottom. Yes. I
explored the top menu all the while expecting to be swept off
my feet - and worried why this site should be acknowledged as
cool by a cool ActionScript Developer!

3. Are you at the bottom menu, revising the alphabet? Too bad
it ends in the British English Way - I would like it to end
the American English way -What? Don't ask me...Just
Analy"z"e this!

4. Click A to find about A-pillar and how it keeps the
side-windows from turning blurry when it rains.

5. Click B, to be blindfolded and to experience the feel
of soft-leather upholstery.

6. Click C, to understand and appreciate Charcoal filtered
Air-conditioning. Watch the condensed droplet's journey under
gravity! Wow!

7. Click D...

What? I am sounding quite like the Help of MS Word? I am
sorry! I guess I should leave you now, so that you can
click D to S on your own and enjoy these excellent effects
alone! But before I leave, I would like to
recommend...F, I...Okay...okay! I am getting out of your way!
If you still haven't found your way, click http://www.a-to-s.co.uk/home.php
and enjoy!

Thanks Kamal, this site IS an excellent example of the
effects that you can create through ActionScript.

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Views
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***NEW!!!***
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1. IDCWC Online Course Participants' Views:
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Click http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/wavelengthians.htm#idcwconlineviews
to read what the course participants feel about the
Instructional Design ONLINE course (IDCWC Online) and Wavelength.

2. IDCWC (Contact) Course Participants' Views:
----------------------------------------------------------------
Click http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/wavelengthians.htm#idcwcstudentviews
to read what the IDCWC Contact course participants feel about
the Instructional Design course (IDCWC) and Wavelength.

3. ActionScript Course Participants' Views:
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Click http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/wavelengthians.htm#asdcstudentviews
to read what the ASDC course participants feel about the
ActionScript course (ASDC) and Wavelength.

4. Reader's Views:
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Click http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/views.htm to read
what readers feel about Wavelength.

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Laugh-a-little
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Laughter is good for health.
Laughter is good for the mind.
Laughter is good for building friendships.
Laughter is good in almost all ways...except when you laugh
at someone! Click the following links to simply laugh the
good laughter!

Click http://www.squarewheels.com/jokes/trainerjokes.html
for some hilarious trainer jokes.

How many languages do you know? Mr. Pitroda thinks that
English should be introduced in class I, in all Indian schools.
He is right. Click http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/06/Nov/language.html
to find out why.

Bill Gates Wealth Index - Wow! Click http://www.templetons.com/brad/billg.html
to determine the true magnitude of Bill Gates' wealth.

Black Humor...eh!
http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/07/Jan/placement.html

I wish you a magnificent New Year!

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Innoken Online Games
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http://www.NetPeKhel.com

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Signing Off...
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I hope you enjoyed this issue of Wavelength.

I look forward to seeing you again, soon, with the next issue
of Wavelength.

See you next month! Bye!

Shafali

Shafali R. Anand
Editor & Publisher, Wavelength the ID Newsletter
Director, Wavelength eLearning Consulting & Training
shafali@vibrantwavelength.com
Wavelength, Link House, 2nd Floor,
C-4, Sector 10, Noida-201301, India.
Ph: 9810324284 / 9810412297 / (0120)4315505
http://www.vibrantwavelength.com

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Feedback: Write to me with your views on Wavelength at shafali@vibrantwavelength[dot]com with "Wavelength Feedback" written in the subject.

Suggest Links or site for "Site of the Month": Publish an article in Wavelength or suggest links– Check out http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/contribute.htm

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