From the Editor's Desk - February 2005

Welcome to the second issue of Wavelength. Truly speaking, the second issue has been more challenging for me, as it has to adhere to the standards and expectations set by the first. This, as most designers would agree, is not easy. When an artist creates the first artwork of a theme, he can work with any color palette; he can use any medium that he fancies; he can also use a subject of his choice; and finally, he can give any kind of visual treatment to the subject. Compare this with what he will need to do if he were to create 100 art-pieces in the same theme, using similar subjects, same medium, and the same color palette (Of course, Hussein’s latest venture comes to mind!)

Such boundaries that may amount to standardization, can also lead to stagnation; and stagnation is the last thing we Instructional Designers want to let happen. We tend to introduce creativity, though in small measures, to the most inane of content. I’ll try to ensure that Wavelength retains its freshness and comes to you in a different flavor every month.

This month, “Mystery of the Month” features – Culture. Culture is the double-edged sword that the Instructional Designer can use to hold the audience to his content presentation or to lose them entirely. I hope you like the article and links given here. The idea behind putting the spotlight on Culture is to enhance consciousness of this issue, which probably is more important for Indian Instructional Designers, who usually write for audience that belong to a different culture.

A thought…

Recently, I was reading John Dewey’s thoughts on “Training Thought,” and it made me think that what we Instructional Designers actually do is train our minds to think the way our audience does, and then try to respond to those un-uttered queries that may arise in the audiences’ mind. The queries that we generate on behalf of our audience, and the responses that we provide are what lay the foundation for a great course.

Before we move on…

I’d like to welcome the new subscribers. Thanks so much for the wonderful response. I hope Wavelength will live up to your expectations.

I wish you a great, fruitful, and fun-filled month ahead. When we meet in the next issue, spring would have set her pretty foot in India…Wavelength hopes to bring with it another fresh theme that will bind us all together.

Thanks and Warm Regards,
Shafali R. Anand.
(Editor & Publisher - Wavelength)

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