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WAVELENGTH – The ID Newsletter of India – November 2008
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-- New! -- ID & ELEARNING ONLINE COURSES FOR TRAINERS! -- New!--
http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/idt_online.htm
http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/elt_online.htm

-- New! -- Flex 3.0 APPLICATION DEVELOPER COURSE! --New! --
http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/flex_certificate.htm

Hello Friends,

Welcome to this edition of Wavelength.

I write these opening lines of your Newsletter with a heavy
heart. The Mumbai carnage that lasted three interminable
days has been heart-rending and enervating. I usually begin
working on the newsletter sometime during the middle of the
month. This month, the mood of the newsletter was generally
subdued because recession ruled my top-of-the-mind awareness.
But then, when I heard about the terror-strike in Mumbai...the
ache of recession seemed mild in comparison.

I hope that all your loved ones are safe and pray that those
who’ve felt the tremors of terror would find the courage to
recover from its aftermath.

The indomitable Indian spirit will rise again, and when it
does, we will have to review our ability to become an even
stronger nation. One of the primary measures of ability is
economic prosperity, and the recession that palls its gloom
over all of us will have to be managed – by each one of us,
individually. The Wavelength article this month,
"Let's Beat Recession", talks about recession and its
fallouts, and it attempts to fan, and if required, rekindle
the thought that you are the center of your universe;
and that your competencies can help you through the
toughest of situations.

As part of our continuing effort to aid your quest for
excellence, Wavelength announces a 3-Day Instructional Design
& eLearning Training workshop in January 2009. Here are the
details of this workshop:

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The Instructional Design & eLearning Training Workshop
(January 21 to 23, 2009, 8 hrs/day)
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This three-day workshop aims at equipping the participants
with all the ID skills needed for the design of content for
any medium and the development of storyboards for eLearning
development.

Audience: Trainers/Content Writers/eLearning & Training Team-leaders
Dates: January 21 to 23, 2009 (Thursday to Saturday.)

Please read the details of this workshop at:
http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/instructionalDesign_trgworkshop_jan09.htm

If you are interested in attending this workshop or would like
to sponsor participants for it, please send your inquiries to
our Trainings Coordinator at: connect@vibrantwavelength.com

I once again provide the details of the two new courses that
Wavelength has crafted with loving care for our Trainer
audience. If you are trainer who wishes to explore the magic
of instructional design and eLearning in a magical way, I
invite you to go through the details of these courses.

Here are the two new courses for our Trainer audience.

* The Instructional Design for Trainers Online Certificate
(IDT Online) Course
* The Elearning for Trainers Online Certificate
(ELT Online) Course

1. The IDT Online or The Instructional Design for Trainers
Certificate Online Course

2. The ELT Online or The Elearning for Trainers
Certificate Online Course

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The Instructional Design for Trainers Online (IDT Online)
Certificate Course:
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Audience: Trainers (with at least six months of experience)
who wish to learn instructional design and enhance their
training design, development, and implementation capabilities.

Duration: 3 months.

Next Session Begins: January 01, 2009

Please read the details of this course at: http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/idt_online.htm
Please send your queries to us at idtonline[at]vibrantwavelength[dot]com

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The Elearning for Trainers Online (ELT Online) Certificate Course
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Audience: Trainers (with at least six months of experience)
who are comfortable with instructional design but would like to
learn eLearning content development to extend their
training programs.

Duration: 2 months.

Next Session Begins: January 01, 2008.

Please read the details of this course at: http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/elt_online.htm
Please send your queries to us at eltonline[at]vibrantwavelength[dot]com

January 2009 will also see us organize a Three-Day ID Training workshop. Corporates who would like to sponsor participants for this workshop and also those individuals who wish to participate in this three-day program at Noida, are welcome to write to us at connect[at]vibrantwavelength[dot]com

I would first like to thank everyone who has applied for our
new online courses. However, I'd like to make a tiny request.
I request the Content Writers who do not work with the
training function (and work with eLearning instead) to apply
for the IDCWC Online instead of the ELT Online.
The ELT Online presumes some training/training-related experience.

For the Flex Application Developer Course beginning on
January 11, 2009, please go through the details at http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/flex_certificate.htm

And for those who reside in NCR - Delhi, the next sessions
of the IDCWC course, the ActionScript course, and the Flex
course are all scheduled to start on January 11, 2009. If
you are interested in enrolling for any of these courses,
write to us at connect[at]vibrantwavelength[dot]com or call us at
9810324284/0120-4315505.

I wish you a warm and cozy, depression-free winter.

Thanks and Warm 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 11th session of IDCWC Online (Instructional Design &
Content Writing Certificate Online) course begins on
January 01, 2009. Read details at: http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/idcwc_online.htm
Please send us your queries at idcwconline[at]vibrantwavelength[dot]com

2. The 6th session of IDSP Online (Instructional Design
for Senior Professionals Certificate Online) course, begins
on January 01, 2009. 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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Online Courses for Trainers
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1. The IDT Online
(Instructional Design for Trainers Certificate Online Course)
begins on January 01, 2009.

Read details at: http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/idt_online.htm
Please send us your queries at idtonline[at]vibrantwavelength[dot]com

2. The ELT Online
(Elearning for Trainers Certificate Online Course)
begins on January 01, 2009.

Read details at: http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/elt_online.htm
Please send us your queries at eltonline[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 January 11, 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 January 11, 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 January 05, 2008.
Registrations are open for this course group. Read details at
http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/actionscript2_oop_details.htm

**NEW **

4. Classes for the Flex 3.0 Application Developer Certificate
(FADC) course begin on January 11, 2009.
Registrations are open for this course group. Click
http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/flex_certificate.htm

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***NEW*** ID Workshop:
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The Instructional Design & eLearning Training Workshop
(January 22 to 24, 2009, 8 hrs/day)
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Instructional Design & eLearning Training,
a three-day ID workshop for content professionals and trainers,
shall be conducted at Wavelength Noida between
January 22 to 24, 2009 (Thursday to Saturday.)

Please read the details of this workshop at http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/instructionalDesign_trgworkshop_jan09.htm
If you are interested in attending this workshop or would like
to sponsor participants for it, please send your inquiries to our
Trainings Coordinator at connect[at]vibrantwavelength[dot]com

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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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Whatever one might say, we have begun to feel the teeth of
recession on our necks. A recession of such magnitude is a
factor that's beyond the control of an individual, an
organization, an industry, or even a country! It would
require a lot of tinkering at different places, to get the
global economy up to steam again...but until that happens
what should an individual do?

What a human never does is - sit and wait! Human mind
surprises us with its ability to innovate, to find
solutions where no solution seems to exist, and to draw
out sparkling new competencies to make things happen!

The Mystery of the Month article for this month reflects
upon some of these hidden competencies and how we can
keep ourselves charged until the world around us bounces
back to normal. Click http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/beating_recession.htm
to read "Let's Beat Recession."

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The Cognitive Excursion
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Are you ready for a recharge? Plug yourself in to the
Cognitive Excursion. The CLICK this month would rejuvenate
your childhood memories of Aesop's Tales, Jataka Katha, and
Panchatantra! PEARL checks your Net-Index, while HIVE helps
accelerate the flow of the verbal adrenaline in your veins!

Enjoy the Cognitive Excursion at: 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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So how does learning happen? Do you agree that brain has
got something to do with it? Paradoxically enough, what
the human brain has found most difficult to explain is its
own working. In fact, the Ancient Egyptians believed that
brain was a useless jelly that performed no useful function,
and so when they mummified their royal dead, they stored all
the other internal organs in alabaster jars, but they threw
the brain away!

Fortunately, we now know that it's our mind that makes us
what we are. Though the complexities of the human mind are
not yet completely understood, theories have been formulated
on the basis of experimental data. Read,
"The Inside Story - Understanding the structure of the brain,"
by Robert Gilman at http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC06/Gilman1.htm
to understand the structure and the processes of the human mind.

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Language & Culture
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Culture impacts our writing in myriad ways! It make our
language the way it is; it makes us favor some examples over
others; and it goads us to talk about certain matters and
steer clear of others! My experience tells me that the
optimum way to learn about cultures is to read, and to
read fiction along with non-fiction. In fact, my personal
opinion on fiction is that an interesting story is a
contrived experience (ref: Dale's Cone) and so the learning
from the story is retained well!

Unfortunately, many of us don't read fiction. Recently, when
a prospective instructional designer referred to fiction as
"Trashy", I felt a little sad. I think that for all those
who write or intend to write, reading fiction is a
phenomenal learning experience! But then we do construct
our own realities...don't we? So if your reality too is
different from mine - you may like to read some real
experiences of cultural faux pas at: http://www.artofspeakingbusiness.com/?p=26

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Writing Style
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Reading as a form of entertainment is standing at the edge
of a cliff, with both its feet precariously resting upon a
mound of banana peels! It's about to meet a violent end at
the hands of TV entertainment, which is ready to give it
the shove! As writers, we need to play the hero and save
reading...and to save reading we have to write better.
Click http://www.rswarren.com/library/improve_your_writing_structure/
to read, "Make your Writing Sing with Structure," by
Robert Warren.

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Technology Section
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Learning Content Management Technologies
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Click http://learning.media.mit.edu/learninghub.html for an
overview of the future of learning.

An interesting viewpoint on m-learning and the progression
from eLearning to m-learning is available at http://learning.ericsson.net/mlearning2/project_one/thebook/chapter1.html
This write up reviews the evolution of learning technologies
and focuses on the m-Learning revolution. It also identifies
the possibilities of learning through the use of this
new medium.

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Site of the Month
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December is just around the corner...I think I had a
glimpse of its snow-white beard...oh! That was the
Santa Claus! Naturally, because for November 2006, the
site of the month is... http://www.northpole.com

Why?

Why...what? It's the holiday season, and with all
other tourist destinations turning so expensive,
I'd rather be at the north pole...and so should you,
my friend, so should you! Click the link above and
get ready for a fun-filled journey in the reindeer
sledge!

Here are some motivational points:

1. In the bandwidth-happy days of today, most site
developers prefer to burden the bandwidth wagon with
Megabytes - in comparison, this site is feather-light!

2. The simple graphic treatment is heart-warming. Notice
the use of the Christmas colors - red, green, and white.

3. Click the "Reindeer Barn", the first hut from the
left, to reach the barn, where Raymond the Reindeer
lives. This is an interactive barn, so please explore
it for the stories that are hidden within. The stories
are presented in form of HTML pages. I love the seamless
integration of Flash and HTML presented in this site.

4. This site allows you to create your own "personalized"
stories in "Santa's Den" the second hut from the left,
in the front row. Did you know that Santa too has a TV?
Check out the sub-menu at the bottom. This site has great
depth. If you have kids, I am sure you'd like them to
explore it.

5. If you are looking for some colorful cards, click
the "mailroom."

6. The "Toy Shop" has a shop-py interface that allows you
to reach some online toy stores. Check out the uniformity
in the theme.

7. Did you know that Santa Claus is married? Well, he
seems to be. Meet Mrs. Claus who is willing to share her
recipes for cookies, candies, cakes, and pies with you.
Click the "Cookbook" icon for the recipes!

8. And if you are the fun-loving soul, find some games
and puzzles at the "Elf Pal Academy". You'll find some
cool puzzles that you can print and enjoy.

9. Finally, what do you want at the end of a great day?
A great evening...of course! So visit the Clubhouse and
watch the disco-dancing Santa. (This is where I
disagree - the dance isn't correctly identified - it's
the Bhangra and not the disco - what do you think?)

So are you there yet? If not, hop on to the reindeer
sledge and zoom off to the North Pole.
Click http://www.northpole.com

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

4. IDCWC (Contact) Participants' Views:
-----------------------------------------------------------
Click http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/trg_participants_views.htm#idcwcviews
to read what the our Trainings'/Workshops' participants
feel about our training programs.

5. 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.

6. 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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The current economic as well political situation in the
country doesn't give us much opportunity to laugh. I
think that this is the time for some quiet reflection...but
then there's always a lighter side of life, which encourages
us to go on, despite all the trouble and sadness. So, it
is with the objective of bringing a smile to you lips, I
present this link:

http://www.wordtinker.com/Writing%20faux%20pas.htm

Check it out for some interesting cultural faux pas in writing!

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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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Bye then! I'll meet you again...towards the end of December!
I wish you good health and prosperity.

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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