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Cultural Identity of Children of Indian Diaspora
Smitha G Barki“Information Design and Technology”
Georgia Institute of Technology
Cultural Identity of Children of Indian Diaspora
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User Group
2,150,901 Asian Indian Population in the US ABCD = American Born Confused Desi Parents of these children take pride in being
American residents/citizens Celebrate the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving and
other American holidays Also try to teach their children Indian traditions
and values
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The Problem - Background
Conflict between home/community and school life Home/Community
Parents teach Indian traditions through everyday activities
Go to Sunday classes to learn mythology, culture, prayers, etc.
School American atmosphere with multicultural classmates Child feels “different” from peer
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The Problem - End Result
In order to be the same as their peer, Teens start rejecting anything Indian they have learnt
End up really a confused ABCD without knowing which culture to embrace
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Approaches taken
Ethnographic Study Application of Educational Theories Study of Online Communities Digital Media Studies
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Ethnographic Study
Attending Sunday classes with children
aged 5-13 Studying traditional classrooms methods of
teaching Indian Culture Detailed interviews with children and teens to
understand why ages 5-12 like Sunday classes and why teens do not
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Result of Ethnographic Study
Traditional Classroom method fails to hold interest of older children
Teens are concerned more about their impression on peers
What they liked Colorful stories
Questions raised “How is that possible”, “why”, “why not”
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Educational Theories
Learner Centered Design (LED) Study of Participants’ needs Requirements gathering and theoretical design
Constructionism Shares Constructivism’s connotation of learning as
“building knowledge structures” Personally meaningful projects allows learner to
make deep personal connections with ideas being learned. (Paper 1991, Resnick 1994)
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Online Communities
Community support helps children understand that they are not alone in their struggle
Extension of real world into the virtual environment
Best of both worlds by using virtual community to link small face to face communities (Bruckman 1998)
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Digital Media
How can digital media enhance the experience of users
What form of Digital Media can be used? Analog/digital Video Video Games Role playing games
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Goals of the Project
Provide a platform for expression Provide community support to help them
understand that they are not alone in their conflicted relationship
Maintain a collection of resources that can be used by all children with parents being major contributors to this section
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Proposed Space
Narrative based graphical multi-user environment
Explore mythological worlds Express their American-ness in this Indian
virtual space by creating artifacts and associating these objects with stories, narratives, etc.
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Wire frame: Classic Scene
Online Chat with people logged into the system.
ClassicScene
Description of the Classic Scene
Avatarof User
Story / Conversation from the classic scene
+ Additional Info 1
- sub info 1.1
- sub info 1.2
+ sub info 1.3
+ Additional info 2
+ Additional info 3
New Information
Add
Add
Add More
Story
Additional Inform
ation
Table of Contents
Scenes createdby users
Description of Scene. On rollover the scenes createdby users, displays the title of the user scene
Online Avatars of other userswho are logged in at that time
(On rollover Avatar’s icon)
Name:Description:What the avatar means to the me?:
Scenes created by me: Scene 1 , Scene 2Characters created by me: Character 1 , Character 2Inputs to other users creations by me:
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Wire frame: Custom Scene
Online Chat with people logged into the system.
ClassicScene
Title of the selected new Scene (shown by the selection)OR Title of scene on mouse over.
Avatarof User
Description
Characters
Table of Contents
Props
Background
Description
What the scene means to me
Story of the scene
+ Discussion 1
- sub discussion 1.1
- sub discussion 1.2
+ sub discussion 1.3
+ Discussion 2
+ Discussion 3
New Discussion
Add
Add More
New
Add
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Wire frame: New Character
Online Chat with people logged into the system.
ClassicScene
Title of the selected new Scene (shown by the selection)OR Title of scene on mouse over.
Avatarof User
Description
Ch
aracters
Table of Contents
Props
Background
Create New Character
New Discussion
New
Discussion area
Select from the list of characters
OR Upload your own image
Open
Description
What the character means to me
Narrative
Save Character
Cultural Identity of Children of Indian Diaspora
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Wire frame: View New Characters
Online Chat with people logged into the system.
ClassicScene
Title of the selected new Scene (shown by the selection)OR Title of scene on mouse over.
Avatarof User
Description
Ch
aracters
Table of Contents
Props
Background
Characters in the scene
New Discussion
New
Name of the character
+ Short Description 1 - datestamp
- Long Description 1
- Associative 1 - Associative edited date 1 - Associative edited date 2
+ Narrative 1
+ Short Description 2 - datestamp
+ Short Description 3 - datestamp
+ Discussion 1 - sub discussion 1.1 - sub discussion 1.2
+ sub discussion 1.3
+ Discussion 2
+ Discussion 3
Add
Add More
Add
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Wire frame: Create New Scene
Online Chat with people logged into the system.
ClassicScene
Title of the New Scene
Avatarof User
Descrip
tion
Characters
Table of Contents
Props
Background
Create New Scene
New Discussion
New
Discussion area
Drag and drop your characters into thescene
Save Scene
Drag and drop your Props into the scene
Description
Association
Narrative
New
New
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Questions ?
