Support Media Literacy for Kids in Rural India

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                                     Report |       II Quarter 2016 |      MediaArts Lab

In the quarter lab was involved in capacity building, productions, syllabus formation, building learning tools and had organized science fair.

In the month of April’16, thirty Agastya instructors were trained in photography. Not just the artistic aspects but also the science and math aspects of Photography also were covered. Instructors brought their teaching experience to the class and exchanged ideas and captured many good images. A follow up training was conducted in Chennai. A make shift darkroom was created for conducting the photography program for the academic year.

The lab captured campus events like YIL alumni meet, trainers meet, visits by teachers form local schools, Maverick Teacher Global Summit etc., to enable Agastya’s social media campaigns.

The lab is building an ambitious Camera Obscura to take photography to the next level. This is camera measuring 8x5 feet and can qualify to be one of the India’s biggest handmade camera. Designed and built by the lab faculty the camera is a mobile one which is going to spread the joy of image making in a couple of months.

The lab faculty spent time on reviewing the existing syllabus and brought about whole lot of exciting learning content. This content will guide the academic year 2016-17. Learning from past year were considered to make this syllabus that will make learning more exciting and time to be more accountable.

The lab organized photo and video exhibition to the children who were part of Agastya’s science fair. They organized lab and stocked required teaching aids for the year.

We designed and built one video booth for Agastya that can capture feedback and testimonies from visitors and children who visit our campus. This project will able to gather information, which will help Agastya to better services for stakeholders.

The lab instructors engaged themselves in capacity building exercises. They script short films. Productions were done with the help of instructor from other labs.

An intern from Davidson College, USA worked with us to create a teaching aid – “Media in a Box”. She researched and designed prototypes for children to play and learn media literacy elements.

Instructors from the lab attended workshop on “abuse and measures to be taken to avoid in classroom”. This was aimed at sensitizing teachers towards a healthy classroom environment.

They spent quality time on scheduling schools for the upcoming year. These schools were visited by us to explain the program and get theory participation. 10 schools have been finalized and children from these schools will be visiting the lab for the academic year 2016-17.

Links:

• Agastya's Website