Do You Want To Write A Chicken Soup Story?

Chicken Soup For The *****!!! Soul is a very popular series of short story collections. The 101 real-life stories for a specific group( e.g, mother's soul) are heart-warming, inspiring, and touching!

Recently, Raksha Bharadia, the editor of the Indian Chicken Soup series conducted a workshop on how to write a Chicken Soup story. The workshop took place at Landmark book store in Nungambakkam, Chennai, India.

Raksha Bharadia is looking for stories for the new Indian series about Golden Soul (old people aged above 60). The story should have 300-1200 words. You can e-mail your stories to rakshabharadia@gmail.com. You can also send caricatures or illustrations. People reading your stories should feel that they are not "alone" in facing a challenge.

If your story gets published, Westland gives you Rs.1000 and two copies of the chicken soup book.

Raksha Baradia said that for a chicken soup story content was most important. Language comes later. Raksha listed the steps given below to write a story.

Step 1: Identifying a Topic

• What was the difficult phase of your life and find one word that describes that phase.
• Identify a self-realization that can either be positive or negative.
• Who are the top influences in your life and why?
• Have you encountered any paranormal situations or miracles?

Once you identify a Topic, you can look at the topic from different perspectives and start writing the story from any one of the perspectives.

Step 2: Writing Stage

When you write the draft, do not censor your emotions and words. Let the words flow. Good stories are not about fancy words. So put your internal sensors to sleep. Do not write and edit at the same time. Start your writing with an attention grabber such as a problem.

Step 3: Re-writing Stage

Add details and thoughts about the defining moments of the story. Write about alternative methods for solving the challenge or problem. Check if you have been honest and if the story flew from your heart.

Step 4:  Editing Stage

Cut off repetitions. Remove words that will make the reader run for a dictionary. Check if there is a flow between sentences and paragraphs.

Step 5: End the story with a Catchy Note

So, what are you waiting for? Send a test mail to Raksha Bharadia and shoot of your stories to her. She keeps all the stories safely and uses them for an appropriate soup heading :)))

The Story Of A Technical Newsletter

Writing Technical Newsletters is fun and challenging too. There can be numerous sources for a newsletter - Subject Matter Experts (SME), product brochures, catalogs, textbooks, user manuals, websites, product demo videos/ presentations, trainings,lab sessions, and other newsletters.

The initial source of all information is the Subject Matter Expert /Line Manager. And they review the final content too. Line Managers disapprove of too much theory or examples that is never implemented in the field. Content that does not directly lead to money in the business is taboo for Line Managers and Business Unit heads. Sometimes, content that is sensitive and controversial is cut off. However, a writer has to strike a balance and bring about coherence and clarity in the subject presented.

Click here to view a newsletter on Cables.

Few enthusiastic business heads will take you to the field or workplace. I once visited Spencer Plaza and CTS where Building Management Systems(BMS) with huge chillers, fire alarm systems, and IP-based security systems were implemented. I worked on a BMS software project too. It was interesting to write a newsletter after seeing and implementing the systems in the field.

Click here to view a newsletter on BMS written after site visits.

The feedback for the Technical Newsletters was that they were too technical! Directors wondered if people had time to read and understand 10 page content. So, i was advised to come out with short newsletters. Again i had to strike a balance and come out with two versions of each newsletter - 10 pagers for seniors and single pagers for freshers.

Click here to read a single pager of the BMS newsletter.

You need to keep in mind the font style of the company too, e.g. Times New Roman, 12 pt , and 1.5 lines spacing.

Click here to view a newsletter on Fibre Optics with a crossword puzzle.

Is Onscreen Text (OST) A Must For e-learning Courses?

Few months back i was watching the Hindi movie Page 3. I had turned on the subtitles in English as i do not understand Hindi. Most of the time i was busy reading the interesting and important subtitles and missed out on the actor's expressions and nuances. I am planning to see the movie again without subtitles to enjoy the acting in detail! Even though the subtitles or Onscreen Text(OST) helped me in understanding the story or context, it sure distracted me from enjoying the picture to the fullest.

This incident led me to think of Modality Principle. Modality principle says that you should not overload the visual channel simultaneously with different types of information. Sometimes, e-learning courses have an animation running and you have Onscreen Text(OST) supporting the animation. The OST is like a transcript of the audio. In such situations, the learner can ignore OST and focus on animation along with audio. Or the learner is distracted by OST very near or on the animation.

There are four options to deal with OST:

• The replay and pause buttons are there. So, you can replay the animation or pause the screen to read the OST in detail.
• The OST can appear after the animation or vice versa. So, the learner need not simultaneously view the animation and OST.
• You can do away with the OST that is a repetition of audio and include text pointers to important parts of the animation.
• Or you can include a retractable transparent screen with the OST that can be toggled as shown in the TED video below. The subtitles can be turned ON/OFF.

 
A funny animation on Photosynthesis without distracting OST:




Click here: An animation with a balance of OST and audio.

What Is Instructional Design (ID)?

Instructional Design(ID) is the design and development of instructional materials and learning activities to meet learning needs.

Why do we need ID?

Information is not Instruction. So we need an ID model to convert information to learning material.

If you do not provide adequate practise, knowledge, structure, and guidance, people do not learn!

Is ID a copyright of flash-based e-learning course?

No. ID has been existing from the time teaching and learning started. The science of ID evolved much later and was lapped up quite well by the e-learning industry.

B.Ed( Bachelor OF Education) is a university course in India for undergraduate teachers and the B.Ed syllabus includes Blooms taxonomy and Gagne's nine events of Instruction! And a whole host of B.Ed trained teachers have been teaching (ILT) in Indian schools for nearly three to four decades.

What Is Instructional Design?

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A Course Map

A Course usually contains two modules. Lesson is the amount of learning in one sitting and the Lesson duration has to be fine tuned to 20 or 30 minutes. And a Lesson contains not more than six Topics, say 3 Instructions + 3 Simulations. Each Topic contains a set of Frames. And each Frame must not contain more than 80-100 words.

A learner can take a test at the Course level(summative evaluation) or Topic level(formative evaluation).

Can a course exist without modules? If you have modules you can reuse the content at module level. Modules also help in establishing the prerequisites for a learning unit.

However, If the course needs exploratory learning, you can omit modules and directly have topics.