After successfully completing a fourth teaching semester, the TMS Team and Schools are transitioning into the next term. Please check back in the next few weeks as we update the blog with introductions to our 2010/2011 Fellows who will be departing for Hyderabad in August!

After their formal video training has been completed at the Technology for the People Resource Center, The Modern Story arranged for the young Muslim girls from TFTP to undergo a week of practical teaching at The Spandana Society, a shelter for orphans and high-risk children in Nagole, Uppal. The two girls, Asma and Neha, were selected as a result of their excellent teaching and multimedia skills, but also in the hope that, due to their ambition and strength, they will become important role models for our young students, showing them the value of pursuing one’s education in spite of the odds.

Asma and Neha taught the young children at Spandana how to use digital cameras and video cameras, and how to tell personal stories with these tools. And what stories! Most of these kids are orphans; some of them have been rescued from nearby slums;  others were just left on the orphanage’s doorstep by their parents, who did not want them or could not take care of them. The novice teachers really enjoyed working with these children, and the feeling was more than mutual! When they left, on their last day of teaching, the kids were mischievously blocking their way out, saying “Don’t go, sisters, teach us more!”

Asma and Neha demonstrating how to use the digital camera

Asma is showing the children how to upload the photos

Neha and Asma are expalining the video camera, while the youngest member of the orphanage is supervising the lesson!

Neha, answering questions about the video camera

Ioana, the TMS trainer, proud to see Neha and Asma embracing their new teaching role and applying their skills so well!

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The girls that are attending animation and multimedia classes at the Technology for the People Resource Center in Chandrayangutta, Hyderabad, have filmed and edited a digital story about their experience at this institute.

Here are the PowerPoint presentations made by the young women from the TFTP Resource Center. The girls chose a general theme (traditional arts and crafts), went and took lots of photos, and organized the photographs into a PPT presentation.

www.slideshare.net/themodernstory

Enjoy!

We are now in the second week of training with the young Muslim women at the Technology for the People resource center in Chandrayangutta. The training is well-attended and the girls are enjoying the curriculum immensely. They have already mastered the digital camera, and are now practicing the art of filming and video editing. Their first photo projects, which they are now finalizing in PowerPoint, explore a variety of traditional arts and crafts, many of them unique to the Hyderabadi Muslim culture, such as embroidery, jewelry manufacturing, or the design and painting of wedding cards. Stay tuned for their photos and presentations!

The lessons are moving along rather fast, since it is easy to teach these girls, given the complex software that they are already familiar with. They can work expertly in Photoshop, Corel Draw, 3DS, Flash and HTML, so teaching them film editing is not a difficult endeavor at all, and it is truly a pleasure working with them. Particularly because of their more advanced computer skills, I found that I had to modify the curriculum a lot, in order to make sure that I am catering to their needs and their learning styles. For instance, while teaching them about the digital cameras, I was explaining the correct way to insert the batteries (with the negative and positive poles), and, watching their expressions, I realized I am almost offending them by starting from such a basic level! I am very proud to work with them, and it is a pleasure getting to know them as well and to talk to them, whether it is about the Deccan Chargers or modern make-up or Hindu-Muslim relations. TFTP has done a fantastic job of molding these girls into confident, outgoing and extremely inquisitive young women, and I am happy that TMS now has the privilege to contribute to their education and development.

Ioana, Sujatha, Neha, Asma and Huma

Practicing with the video camera

An interview in the computer lab

The rocky way up to the TFTP Resource Center : an excellent picture taken by Huma

Tabassum is photographing the scenic view over the Old City

A little walk up the hill, to practice with the digital cameras

Ioana with four of her students, overlooking the Charminar area

Zakeera, Tabassum, Sujatha, Asma and Huma

At last, here are the fantastic and wonderfully witty videos made by our students at Elurupadu Government High School in AP’s West Godavari District.

The children were prompted to create and film a skit depicting an interaction with the political leader in their village. They then wrote and choreographed a Bollywood-style song expressing the same community issues. We were amazed to see how they came up with the lyrics and the dance moves, spontaneously, over the course of a single day! And the casting process for the choreography was adorable to watch: certain dance talents emerged and took over the choreography, testing out  the various class members by offering them the chance to audition; the verdicts, delivered in a highly official manner, with a serious face and a hand supporting the chin, broke many hearts: “No chance”, “Try again next time”, “Good enough for the second row”.

The content of the skits is also very interesting, as it contains some amazingly keen and astute observations about the process of political action and representation, especially in rural areas. “You talked differently when you wanted our votes!”, the children accuse their “village leader” in the skit, and the leader snaps back “It is not in my hands. I have told the person responsible. What more can I do?”. These are political behaviors that the students have noticed in their communities, and the medium of the fictionalized skit gave them the chance to explore these issues within the safety of the distance afforded by the fictional enactment.

We hope you enjoy the videos!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Uk0L3dC6Yc&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRj0H5SPvFQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty2kbmPylXA&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXZNoEq47rk&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0]

Over the past 6 months, I have been challenged to think about what students in under-resourced schools need most in order to succeed.  We have worked in a range of schools, and have come to understand privilege and disadvantages in various ways.  For students at Railway Girls High School in Secunderabad, barriers may include lack of technological access in the home.  On the other hand, at Elurupadu High School in West Godavari District, drainage problems in the community may prevent students from even attending school.  These experiences have reminded me of the need to think flexibly as an educator and programmer.

As I’ve taught non-traditional skills, I’ve been able to connect with students in a way that other teachers cannot.  Be it due to the fact that I’m young or that I’m ‘foreign,’ I’ve been warmed by students’ interest in coming to class and working hard to produce final projects.   As unoriginal as it may sound, for many students it seems that learning just needs to be made fun.

In addition to the satisfaction that comes with knowing that my students have in fact gained from my presence, I feel that I have learned even more from them.  I’m convinced that getting to know youth is the best way to understand a community.  Cultural gaffes seem less embarrassing and children’s straightforward nature allows for so much honesty!

While there have been many obstacles to achieving student success, I am convinced more than ever that The Modern Story engages students in all of the right ways.  In order for a paradigm shift to occur in the field of education in India, students need to be exposed to new ideas and people.  I’m so happy to have had this opportunity and wish next year’s Fellows the best of luck!

The Modern Story strongly believes in the vital role of partnerships in the human development sector, and one of the local organizations we appreciate most, and whose work we had the pleasure of seeing, is Technology for the People (TFTP), an NGO founded by Mr. Rajen Varada in 2003. As I have mentioned in a couple of my previous posts, TFTP identifies young Muslim girls who dropped out of school and who are skilled at henna (mehendi) art and embroidery and teaches them the technique of animation, including utterly complex computer software like Photoshop, Flash and HTML. After undergoing a full-time, yearlong training, the girls graduate from the program with a professional certificate and a valuable hi-tech set of skills that are unique in their communities.

However, because of the conservative social norms that dominate their cultural milieu, their families do not allow them to accept work in the professional environment of the animation companies, and their ambition and skills are lost as they return to spending their entire day doing domestic chores within the confines of their own homes.

In comes The Modern Story. Recognizing the social importance of TFTP’s endeavors and identifying a clear potential for further development, TMS has joined forces with TFTP and will be training the young girls in digital storytelling (photography, filmmaking, editing, and more) in addition to the multimedia skills they already have. After the rigorous training is finished, the girls will get the chance to apply what they have learned and teach digital storytelling in government schools, alongside the more experienced TMS fellows. This way, they can earn an independent income from a highly respectable and enriching job, while continuing to learn and to develop this unique set of skills.

We are extremely excited about this collaboration, and we believe that, beyond their technical and pedagogical abilities, these young girls would make excellent role models for our government school students. Their hunger for learning is so inspirational, and their desire to improve themselves and enhance their knowledge is proof that circumstances alone do not determine one’s path in life. If they could instill into our students even half of the drive, spirit and determination that they have, I would be content in knowing that we have changed these schoolchildren’s paths forever.

The Modern Story recently partnered up with the Byrraju Foundation to organize a weeklong digital storytelling workshop in a rural school in the West Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh. In accordance with their mission of rural transformation in AP, the Byrraju Foundation has been actively implementing projects in the areas of education, information and communication technologies (ICT), public health, women’s empowerment and civic awareness in more than 800 villages across Andhra Pradesh. One of their most efficient and inspiring programs is called Project Chetana, and aims to train local villagers in the use of video cameras and editing software, so that they can produce community media of local relevance that is then screened in the respective villages. Under the direction of Mr. TLS Bhaskar, the Project Chetana staff – which is entirely made up of trained young residents from those villages – identifies critical social, political and cultural issues in their areas, and then films, edits and presents the videos to the villagers themselves.

In order to extend the benefits of gaining these skills to the children of these villages too, TMS teamed up with Project Chetana to offer a photography and videography workshop to the 8th class students of the government high school in Elurupadu, West Godavari district. Vidya, Danny and myself were the main instructors, and we were aided by Project Chetana staff, who helped bridge the language divide, since the students were studying in a Telugu-medium school.

In total, 80 students participated in the workshop (i.e. the entire 8th class at the school), which were broken down in two groups of 40 students each. Each group was then further divided into 2 batches of 20 students, in order to foster a more intimate learning environment and to be able to give personal attention to each student in the group, which is one of the key features of the TMS teaching style.The students learned the basic functions of the still camera and the video camera, and were able to practice these skills by engaging in special projects. The most significant video project they worked on was to create and film a skit that depicted their interaction with the village leader. The skits addressed issues such as drinking water, sanitation, drainage, old age pensions, lack of educational opportunities, etc., and the children then created Bollywood-style songs and dances that tackled the same issues in a different way. Writing the lyrics for these songs and then making up the choreography were some of their favorite activities, and the results are at once hilarious, original and impressive. Using the highly recognizable Bollywood song and dance aesthetic to tackle real problems like drainage and sanitation, beyond being extremely enjoyable for the students, is an innovative way to get them thinking about critical issues in their community and to enable them to express their own opinions in regard to these important matters. The videos are now in the process of being translated into English and subtitled, so stay tuned!

For a complete description of the workshop, and some excellent (and really cute) pictures, please check out our slideshow on slideshare.com:

http://www.slideshare.net/themodernstory/digital-storytelling-workshop-with-byrajju-foundation-in-elurupadu-west-godavari-district