Support Media Literacy for Kids in Rural India

The MediaArts Lab is a natural extension of Agastya’s multisensory approach in learning. It supports teachers, training them to use technology to make teaching aids and conduct research. Students are taught to use digital cameras, video cameras, computers, sound recorders and more. They produce movies on social concerns, make pamphlets and posters to raise awareness, and learn tools for social activism at the local level. Overall, the Centre is a tool of empowerment, pushing children to make a positive difference in society.  

In this quarter the MediaArts lab involved in capacity building, productions, syllabus formation, building learning tools and had training on these.

For the month of October 2020 to January 2021, the MediaArts Lab reached 527 children.

Brief Overview of the activities: Oct 2020 to January 2021

October 2020

Conducted online and offline sessions on MediaArts lab students. In an online session students learnt digital apps like canvas designing app, B612 Image editing app, Stop motion app, Kinemaster video editing app, Cartoon animation app, Plant’s identifier app, etc.

In an offline session, students learnt activities like photo essay, poster designing, pamphlet designing, newspaper making, Flipbook animation, Storybook making, origami in different views, drawing with  circle, Story writing and storyboard making, story with images actives etc.

November 2020

Students learnt digital apps by doing productions like animations, video creating, image editing, information gathering etc. And also learnt audio recording. To create awareness about the audio topics we also conducted debit, quiz, interviews etc. to aware kids on audio topic.

Students were excited while doing their own greeting cards using canvas app and sent to their friends and relatives.

December 2020

Conducted class on final production work for Operation Vasantha (OV) centers and these OV centers are in 5 villages like Mittor, Sonnarsanapalli, Kenumakulapalli, Ontipalli and Malnaur kottalu at Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh.

After introduction about the final production, students selected the topics. In every village we formed three groups, children worked in group on their own topics like audio recording, storybook making and Stop-motion animation.

January 2021

In this month completed the production work of children on creative storybooks and Stop motion Animation from selected villages.

Links:

• https://www.agastya.org/
• MediaArts Lab

Overview

With the easing of the lockdown restrictions, we were able to conduct some offline classes with children in the months of July, August, and September, in addition to regular online classes. The list of activities carried out by children during these classes include:

•       Photography and Photo Editing
•       Videography and Video editing
•       Poster making and pamphlet design
•       Creating a storybook, Flipbook
•       Stop Motion Animation

Aside from the five selected villages of Kenumakanapalli, Ontipalli, Malanur Kotal, Sonrasanapalli and Mittoor, our instructors conducted online sessions twice a week for children from other villages around our Kuppam campus.

Appropriate safety measures are being followed when face-to-face sessions are being conducted. A rule to wear face masks at all times is being strictly enforced and hand sanitizers are provided to all children.

Media Arts lab reached 7,077 children in the month of July- Sep '20 for the  5-10 grade children. Among them 4,002 boys and 3,075 girls.

Special activities: A group of children who have been trained by the MediaArts Lab participated in an online digital showcase hosted by Chennai Photo Biennale, titled ‘What is Home?’ Agastya’s children presented pictures and videos they had shot in the Abhivyakti (Black and White analogue photography) program and videos they had created about their communities and villages under the Dhwani program.

Activities planned for Q3

• Rolling out Media Kits for children in the selected villages in the month of November.
• Creating worksheets and guides that will act as reference material and activity sheets for the upcoming activities.
• Organizing training programs for instructors in the lab on scripting and producing radio shows. The insights gained from this series of workshops will be imparted to the children.