We’re moving quickly into our third week here in Hyderabad and our second week of classes at both the boys’ and girls’ schools.  There are so many new things to see and learn here that I think I will always feel like it is my very first week.  We have been moving slowly but steadily through the first set of technical skills for creating digital stories at both schools.  After working through the components of the digital still camera and practicing taking pictures of each other within the confines of the classroom we let the students loose on their campuses to participate in what we feel should become a Modern Story tradition, the photo scavenger hunt.

Each class was divided into four small groups and sent out with a list of 25 images to capture and a limited time period to complete their task.  Having been educated in a single sex environment for thirteen years of my education I was particularly interested in the differences I observed between the way the boys and girls approached this assignment.  I want to preface these next comments by saying that these are my observations and I apologize if they are unintentionally biased by my own personal gender.

From the first moment that the cameras were put in the boy’s hands they were all about the gadgets.  They wanted to start taking pictures right away, learning by doing.  The girls on the other hand were much more methodical in their learning.  They were also excited about working with the cameras, but were more eager to learn each camera function before taking pictures.  Neither group asked many questions about the items on the list before we sent them on their way.  Once on their way, however, the girls continuously approached me and Ioana with questions about the list.  Most of the questions were about what a certain English word meant or where they could find a particular thing, but they also asked about how to take certain pictures or how to make an image they were trying to capture better.  The boys on the other hand were extremely motivated by the competitive element of the exercise and were driven by the time restrictions (granted we gave them less time than we gave the girls).  They ran off so fast and didn’t stop running around taking pictures, not even to ask us questions, until time was up.  The boys were ruthless leaving group members behind to ensure that they got a particular shot, while the girls were much better about ensuring that every group member got a chance to be the photographer.

Both groups did a fabulous job on their scavenger hunt and we plan to use their photographs to create slideshows about their schools.  I am looking forward to seeing how the gender differences play a role in the future work of the students from each school.