Andy, I wish you good traveling to Mumbai and Baramati conference on ICT and e-education focus in developing countries. I note on the agenda presenters from Tamil Nadu on the 4th, and in your panel on the 5th and Dr. Swaminathan's summary remarks on the 6th. I wanted to note my brief experience a month ago in Tamil Nadu, as I circulated a few resources from Chicago on youth-focused activities involving "simulations of tsunami early warning systems" as educational and community-building activities.
I had the opportunity to spend just a few minutes at Swaminathan foundation in the university complex by IIT Chennai, and left a copy of materials at the Honda Informatics Center. Without an appointment, no one was available to talk. As well in Chennai, I visited Jivana Jyoti, Institute of Applied Electronics and Information System (across from government museum), a vocational institution involving IT skill-training, electrical skill-training and others, as part of training-rehabilitation of differently-abled youth since 1987, promoted by Inter-Church Service Association, including through connections with persons from American College in Madurai, which arranged the visit I participated in. We also travelled south of Chennai past many tent-communities along the coastline to the Famous 6-8th century rock sculptures and monoliths at Mahabalipuram, just south of which was the newly found ancient city revealed by the massive amount of sand removed. In Madurai, I spoke with faculty in technology, a noted nationwide center in literature written and translated into English from at least 4 major Indian languages, social work and community outreach (including connection with Shanxi program linked with colleges in Indonesia, China and Japan, started with an endowment after Boxer Rebellion a century ago) at American College, established in 1880's by persons associated with United Church of Christ, now with over 2000 undergraduate and graduate students, substantially supported by public funds, but with some continuing support via a small UCC-related foundation in U.S. They are in the process of upgrading from dialup, and considering a campus-wide wireless system. I shared the prepared resources including the reference to the story on the "phone call that saved an entire village," relayed from Singapore via Swaminathan Foundation's Information Village Project (also appearing in Jan 17 New Yorker), and thoughts about what might be done by students and tsunami survivors to document what happened and to recommend a hazard warning and mitigation process for South India and Indian Ocean. Such as referring a number of persons to www.ostp.gov for update on expanded U.S. tsunami hazard activities and links with US weather service center in Hawaii linked with all the Pacific initiatives. I participated in a press event on Friday Jan. 28 for 3 reporters, hosted by social work department, and participated in by a psychologist married to president of Oberlin College who had been training graduate social work students for the second in a set of planned 3 day visits for trauma counseling with youth/elderly in the fishing area most remote and hard! hit far south of Chennai. I also passed out copies of youth-produced newspaper 45,000 circulation per issue from Chicago www.newexpression.org as an example of the quality of what teens can produce, and exchange with each other, anywhere in the world. This activity resulted in following front page news story in Jan. 30 The Hindu national newspaper published in Chennai, "College students to counsel tsunami victims in Nagapattinam, by Sastry Mallady, Madurai, Jan. 29. A group of trained student volunteers from Madurai, along with expert psychiatric counsellor from America, left for Nagapattinam district to provide professional psychological counselling to tsunami victims. The volunteers will stay there for a few days "meeting the people who survived the tragedy, with particular attention towards youngsters and the aged." "The American College here is taking the initiative involving experts and trained students to give counseling to the affected people in 16 remote villages in the tsunami-hit district. The Bursar P. Andbudurai said the effort was being made from a psychological angle to bring the victims to normality. The target would be teenage groups from schools and colleges in Nagapattinam district and yet similar importance would be given to the aged people, as per the recommendation of the Social Work Department of the college. "The villages were in the northern parts of Nagapattinam district, including Poompuhar and Pudukuppam regions. Mr. Adbudurai said the college was keen to undertake a sustainable relief work. "We found that psychological counseling was the immediate requirement." About 40 students were trained professionally by Griffith Dye, a US-based practicing psychiatrist, and Layton Olson, an expert in computer simulations, from Chicago. "The volunteers would undertake an intensive counseling during their in the villages, said Simon Daniel, convenor of the Counsling and Guidance Committee. There would be a few more visits in the coming months. The visits would also lay an emphasis on developing an early tsunami warning system after receiving local inputs. Continued for 2 more paragraphs." After leaving the Tamil Nadu area, I visted West Coast and was hosted in Mumbai by a former commander in Indian Navy in navigation, who was very interested in the project, as well as his teenage daughter as a "digital media" person was interested in seeing the Chicago teen-produced paper. Upon return to Chicago, I noted in Feb. 28 Sun-Times a commentary by Stephen Moseley, president of D.C.-based Academy for Educational Development, entitled "Rebuilding schools will help tsunami victims recover," which was the starting point for taking examples of "what schools might use to engage students in projects which arise in working through their own personal experiences," and making suggestions for better preparation for any of a number of diasters next time. While I am sharing these experiences in Chicago with a number of youth media-focused parties, one question arises for persons in the Baramati conference -- Are there parties in developing world which have "electronic education sharing tools" that allow students and teachers in one country to send to electronic-pen-pals with digital camera image-sharing in another country? Perhaps not just to show their work, such as a youth produced electronic version of a newspaper or eZine, but perhaps a shared project, such as a first draft of a "simulation" such as of an early warning system, or "model or game" in which the across-the-world students are asked to add to or modify the product sent to them, ending up with a joint product. I'm sure many DDN members in U.S. might have interests in working with parties that can manage all the technological and on-going support issues involved in such an project, which in future years might generate "virtual mentoring" partnerships among Digital Media and Communication projects, as well as science and other projects. Not being a techie person myself, I would be glad to encourage others in Chicago, and internationally-linked projects in Illinois to participate, including via links with a committee which has several links with India at UIUC and UIC, and through my law firm of Howe & Hutton, representing trade and professional associations around the world in boosting Chicago and Great Lakes Region as Global City/Region. Best for an excellent converence, and I hope you get a chance to talk with persons from Tamil Nadu. By the way, I was told that Tamil languages are spoken by perhaps 65 million around the world and is a very highly-used Internet language among a far flug disaspora, including in Madison, WI, where the president of American College in Madurai, India has often taught summer courses in their Tamil studies program. Layton Olson Midwest Technology Access Group Chicago, IL. www.howehutton.com www.mtage.org www.ilctc.org -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Andy Carvin Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 3:30 AM To: The Digital Divide Network discussion group Subject: [DDN] next stop: Mumbai Hi everyone, Right now I'm at the airport in Paris waiting for my flight to India. Apparently the flight is running at least an hour late because it originated in New York, which is getting hammered by snow. This means I probably won't arrive in Mumbai until after 1am Wednesday - yikes! That's unfortunate because I really want to spend my one free day in Mumbai visiting some telecentres and several colleagues. Hopefully I won't be too much of a zombie to do this. Had a wonderful evening last night with Grégoire Japiot of the Omidyar Network and his sister at her apartment near the Eiffel Tower. Grégoire brought several wines from Burgundy, including a tasty Chablis and two wonderful Pinot Noirs. He also brought a sampling of local cheeses to pair with the wines. We had a marvelous time. When I'm on my flight, I will write more about my last day in Paris, which included visits to the Louvre and the Cluny Museum of the Middle Ages. For now, though, I'm paying through the nose for wi-fi access, so I need to focus on email rather than writing my blog. Stay tuned... -andy -- ----------------------------------- Andy Carvin Program Director EDC Center for Media & Community acarvin @ edc . org http://www.digitaldivide.net http://www.tsunami-info.org Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com ----------------------------------- _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
