American India Foundation - Digital Equalizer

Telling Stories

The Telling Stories – Brainstormer Project (TSB) is a technology-based classroom literacy project that aims to develop skills in animation and creative writing, while bridging the digital and cultural divides within and across communities in India and the United States. This project is supported by a partnership between San Francisco State University (SFSU) and the American India Foundation (AIF) and hinges on the shared objective of enhancing technological access in the classroom. The initiative further promotes the mission of AIF’s Digital Equalizer (DE) Program, which seeks to promote the proficient use of technology in under-resourced schools through:

enhancing fundamental literacy, critical thinking and creative writing skills,
enriching and improving the quality of education by enabling teachers to integrate the use of technology in pedagogy, and
inspiring curiosity, confidence, teamwork and the pursuit of knowledge by actively engaging children in interactive, collaborative learning using technology and the internet.

TSB began its pilot in Fall 2006 with the goal of achieving the aforementioned objectives. Students in Havenscourt Middle School, located in East Oakland, were paired with students in Jamia Milia School (a DE school) in Delhi, India. Teams of 4 members each (comprising of 2 Oakland students and 2 Delhi students) are using an integrated curriculum to embark on a stimulating storytelling exercise. Each story involves characters (or avatars) that use magical powers to solve a variety of student-identified problems.

The pilot is still in progress and all reports indicate that the project is a grand success! Students have increased their technical proficiencies in Microsoft Word, internet navigation, blog interface, and have gained experience with Maya software and programs like Google Earth that have increased their familiarity with and interest in different parts of the world. The blogs have functioned as a repository for students’ ideas and as a robust tool for the students to interact across the globe. The students are able to post scanned drawings and sketches, poses of themselves and story passages with their teammates. Students have engaged in exercises to learn about similarities and differences in each other’s cultural surroundings and have been educated about the problems that face their respective communities. TSB has proven to be a fantastic opportunity for marginalized students in both India and the United States to benefit from each other’s experiences through the “magic” of technology. The project has opened up a world of exciting possibilities. If the distance between India and the United States can be reduced by interfacing through a computer screen, then life’s opportunities are truly limitless.

Please meet our project cadets at http://brainstormer-project.sfsu.edu/BPN/bl/about-the-class/!

**AIF would like to thank the NetIP Foundation and the Nurul Hasan Foundation for their generous support of this project. We would also like to note the contribution of our interns Ann Rogan and Shannon Keiley who helped develop this initiative and implement the pilot in Oakland.