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WAVELENGTH – The ID Newsletter of India – May 2008
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Hello friends,

Welcome to this edition of Wavelength.

May 2008! I shall remember this month forever. It taught me
how quickly fortunes can turn, it told me that all that
seems impossible is actually possible, it also motivated
me to review my priorities; helping me redefine the
direction of my efforts. If you are not from Delhi
(and the subscription data tells me that it's highly
probable that you aren't,) my statement must've baffled
you - after all, what was so special about May 2008?

Well, we had a cool and very wet May. We had more than
160 cms of rain against the average May rainfall of about
17 cms. May is one of the two hottest months in Delhi.
Before I experienced it, I wouldn't have dreamed of such
pleasantly cool May. I would say - It's impossible for
May to be pleasant. If May can be pleasant, I can do what
everyone puts down as impossible! Don't you think so?

This May, like all other months before it, also brought
me the daily newspaper every morning. In the newspaper,
right on the front page, there was a small news
item - the news item spoke of the power of concepts; and
so it started the spark of this month's Mystery of the Month
article, "Education, Training, and Learning", which
introduces and explains the three terms conceptually. I
hope that as an instructional designer, you will find
this little article informative.

Now, about Wavelength's Courses and Training Programs:

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Instructional Design & Content Writing Certificate (IDCWC Online)
Certificate Course - Session 9 (July 2008 - September 2008)
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The 9th session of the IDCWC Online shall begin on
July 01, 2008. The IDCWC Online shall officially be two years
old on July 01, 2008. On this happy occasion, I would like to
once again thank our first session participants who placed
confidence in Wavelength's ability and its intention to
ensure effective learning through the online medium.

We would also like to thank our participants from all other
sessions for their support through the last two years. I hope
that Wavelength's future online courses will continue to
receive your love and affection.

Please visit the IDCWC Online page at: http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/idcwc_online.htm

Also read the views of the IDCWC Online participants at:
http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/trg_participants_views.htm#idcwconlineviews

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Instructional Design for Senior Professionals (IDSP Online)
Certificate Course - Session 4 (July 2008 - August 2008)
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The 4th session of the IDSP Online shall also begin on
July 01, 2008. The registrations for July - August 2008
session of the IDSP Online are on. The IDSP Course is for
those knowledge-hungry professionals who've had their fill
of training/content development and who are now managing
teams of trainers/content developers.

If you have more than 4 years of experience related to
learning, and want to register for the course, please write
to us at idsponline [at] vibrantwavelength [dot] com

Please visit the IDSP Online page at: http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/idsp_online.htm

Also read the views of the IDSP Online participants at:
http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/trg_participants_views.htm#idsponlineviews

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Wavelength's Contact Courses at Noida
(The IDCWC and The ASDC Courses)
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If you are interested in enrolling for the IDCWC contact
course or for the ASDC contact course, please call us at
9810324284/9810412297/0120-4315505.

May was a bountiful month for Wavelength's ID Newsletter.
Our subscriptions jumped up by 12% in a single month! I
would like to thank our more than 2400 subscribers,
who've stayed with us and supported us through the thick
and thin! Thank you!

I wish you all a fantastic June, which idolizes May and
emulates her deeds!

Bye!

Thanks and Regards,
Shafali R. Anand.

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Table of contents
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From the Editor's Desk
Mystery of the Month

The Cognitive Excursion - *** NEW EPISODES!!! ***
** HIVE - New Episode!
** CLICK - New Episode!
** PEARL - New Episode!

ID Section
Technology Section
Site of the Month
Views
Laugh-a-little
Innoken Games
Signing Off...

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Events Calendar
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Online Courses:
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1. The 9th session of IDCWC Online (Instructional Design &
Content Writing Certificate Online) course begins on
July 01, 2008. Read details at: http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/idcwc_online.htm
Please send us your queries at idcwconline [at] vibrantwavelength [dot] com

2. The 4th session of IDSP Online (Instructional Design
for Senior Professionals Certificate Online) course, begins
on July 01, 2008. Read details at: http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/idsp_online.htm
Please send us your inquiries at idsponline [at] vibrantwavelength [dot] com

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Contact Courses:
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1. Classes for the Instructional Design & Content Writing
Certificate (IDCWC Contact) course begin on June 01, 2008.
Registrations are on for this group. Read details at
http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/idcwc_details.htm

2. Classes for the next Flash ActionScript 2.0 Developer
Certificate (ASDC) course group begin on June 15, 2008.
Registrations are on for this group. Read details at
http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/actionscript_certificate.htm

3. Classes for the ActionScript 2.0 with Object-Oriented
Programming (AS2OOP) course begin on July 12, 2008.
Registrations are open for this course group. Read details at
http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/actionscript2_oop_details.htm

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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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Conceptual knowledge is the precursor to mastery in any
discipline. If you are a trainer, an academician, or an
instructional designer, you need to know what exactly you
are dealing with. A couple of experiences from my training
sessions made me realize that education, learning, and
training, are often not clearly identified by us. This
identification is, however, extremely important because
it tells us about the holistic objective as well as the
generic process required for each of the three.

"Education, Training, and Learning", is a short comparison
of the three, in terms of three important parameters:
Objective, Term, and Process. Click http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/education_training_learning.htm
to read this article.

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The Cognitive Excursion ( NEW EPISODES!!! )
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The Cognitive Excursion has touched a chord. Hasn't it?
It has reached the inner recesses of your mind, helping
you release your cognitive power, so that you may
experience the pleasure of seeing it work!

The Cognitive Excursion is experiencing an accelerating
number of plays each month; and the response is obviously
motivating. So we bring you brand-new issues of HIVE, CLICK
and PEARL, once again.

Take a break! Go Play!

Click http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/cog_ex/cognitive_excursion.htm

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ID Section
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ID Concepts
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At http://hsc.csu.edu.au/pro_dev/teaching_online/how_we_learn/cognitive.html
you will find an excellent essay on the cognitive learning
theories. It discusses the ideas of three cognitive theorists
(Bruner, Ausubel, and Gagne).

Jerome Bruner's focal principle was that "a combination of
concrete, pictorial then symbolic activities will lead to
more effective learning," similar to Dale's hypothesis.
Ausubel's advance organizer that enables activation of
learner's schema is a device that many of us have already
used. I think that this particular page presents a very brief
yet interesting introduction to the works of these three
theorists.

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Language & Culture
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The influence of culture is often difficult to assess.
This influence becomes more complex when we speak of
organizational culture. The relentless forces of
organizational culture, keep the training professionals
on their toes as they try to figure out the nuances of
organizational culture. Trainers would find http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/im_learning_org.html
an interesting and useful addition to their favorites.

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Writing Style
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According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writing_style)
- Writing style is the manner in which a writer addresses
a matter in prose, a manner, which reveals the writer's
personality, or 'voice.' While creating content for learning,
we are often expected to cleanse our content of true "style".
In fact, as a part of the content development team, we are
often required to write in a given style.

The above Wikipedia link will help you anchor your writing
style ship, while you steer your writing skills in the
right direction.

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Technology Section
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Learning Content Management Technologies
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"Learning Management Systems: The wrong place to start
learning" by George Siemens is a balanced view on Learning
Management Systems. This article available at http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/lms.htm
introduces us to the pitfalls of giving too much
importance to LMSs. The article lists some prominent
drawbacks to the use of LMSs.

True to his crisp and direct style, George Siemens provides
a list of the characteristics that define an effective
eLearning environment. Though I am not completely in
agreement with the point that managed learning is not in
harmony with the new learner's style of learning, I agree
with the central idea of the article, which is that
learning shouldn't be structured around the LMS; it should
be designed around the learner. LMSs are but tools and
they should remain so.

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Site of the Month
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The site of the month for May 2008 is...professorlaytonds.com

This site is different! Well, so is every site that wears
the crown of Site of the Month! Okay! So this site is
differently different. It is a site that displays a lot of
artwork from a game called - you guessed it
right - "Professor Layton and the Curious Village!"

Click http://professorlaytonds.com/ for a quick confirmation.
You will have to wait for the site to load, but the wait is
worth your while. I like this site for many reasons. Here
are the important ones...listed chronologically.

1. The pre-loader has a soft, storybook look. The pre-loader
attaches itself to your mouse (no big deal, I agree,) to
keep you from leaving the site and wandering off in the
web-jungle.

2. When the site loads, you see the curious village, which
does look like a curiosity! The soft animations that play
on the site are interesting and very, very subtle. How
many could you discover?

3. Don't forget to notice the fonts. The fonts used for the
title and the menu follow the overall theme closely. Roll
your mouse over the top menu (also available in form of
icons at the bottom right.)

4. Click Intro to reach a submenu, which provides some
interesting links. The layout of this page is organic and
informal. The game-story trailer loads at the right of the
page. On this page, nothing is jarring; everything is soft,
comfortable, and smooth.

5. Now click "Characters". This link helps you get
introduced to the characters. After the page loads, you'll
be able to see the characters standing near the inn. When
you click the characters they whirl to the center-front.

6. The "GamePlay" link is yet another learning experience.
The screenshots combined with textual instructions are not
only instructive but also visually delightful.

7. Finally, the "Game Demo" page! This page provides you a
technical interface, which surprisingly, doesn't destroy
the rustic harmony of the page. You can experience some
part of the game through this demo. In this game, you need
to solve puzzles to make the story progress. However, the
story is presented in form of lovely animations - and these
animations keep you grounded!

8. I'll stop here, and leave you to enjoy your exploration!

If you've not clicked the link so far, here is it
once again - http://professorlaytonds.com/

See you in the curious village!

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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/trg_participants_views.htm#idcwconlineviews
to read what the course participants feel about the
Instructional Design ONLINE course (IDCWC Online) and Wavelength.

2. IDSP Online Course Participants' Views (first session):
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Click http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/trg_participants_views.htm#idsponlineviews
to read the views of our participants from the first session of the IDSP Online.

3. IDCWC (Contact) Participants' Views:
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Click http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/trg_participants_views.htm#idcwcviews
to read what the IDCWC Contact program participants feel
about the Instructional Design course (IDCWC) and Wavelength.

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

5. 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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India…is a Stage!
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Oh yes. It is.
And the performer is Sajitha Jayaprakash’s book “Technical Writing” (Himalaya Publishing House).

If you are interested in discovering (or rediscovering) the techniques of technical writing, check it out. The book covers all aspects of technical writing in sufficient depth. Relevant examples are used to illustrate the concepts, making them easy to understand.

I compliment Sajitha on her effort, and wish her all the best.

Note for the Analytical Intellectual:
If you are wondering…one fine morning, this book landed on my desk. It literally fell out of the blue! What caught my attention was a lack of the usual recommendation request. I’ve always been curious about technical writing (for I never can write “technically”) so I went through it. I’ve added this information here because I think there are many who are looking for a practical guide to technical writing; and this book fits the bill.

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Laugh-a-Little
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Yesterday, something unusual happened. I found myself channel-surfing. I don’t watch a lot of TV, so for me the exercise was painfully slow; but it did provide me an opportunity to see that most of the news channels were telecasting some or the other “Laughter Show”!

TV powerfully mirrors the popular culture of the day, and so, it can be assumed that today’s audience is willing to laugh (as opposed to the audience of yester-years when serials such as Humlog and Mahabharata ruled the roost.)

With that far-fetched assumption, I once again try to gain your attention through the following links that I hope will make you laugh. Here are they:

1. An excellent collection of creative ad campaigns can be viewed at http://www.indrajit.in/fun-zone.htm

2. If you are a dog lover, you will find this dog humor page irresistible. Click http://www.antion.com/humor/speakerhumor/dogs.htm

3. Check out "Hot Air" at http://www.tltgroup.org/resources/f_humor.html for some journalism humor.

Laugh Jee Laugh!

Continue to laugh and smile, until we meet again - next month!

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

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Signing Off…
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Take care, smile a lot, and do review your priorities periodically:)

All the best!

Shafali

Shafali R. Anand
Editor & Publisher, Wavelength the ID Newsletter
Director, Wavelength eLearning Consulting and Training Pvt. Ltd.
shafali [at] vibrantwavelength [dot] 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 [at] 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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