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 2 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

Cultural Identity of Children of Indian Diaspora 3 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

Cultural Identity of Children of Indian Diaspora 4 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

Cultural Identity of Children of Indian Diaspora 5 Approaches taken  Ethnographic Study  Application of Educational Theories  Study of Online Communities  Digital Media Studies

Cultural Identity of Children of Indian Diaspora 6 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

Cultural Identity of Children of Indian Diaspora 7 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”

Cultural Identity of Children of Indian Diaspora 8 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)

Cultural Identity of Children of Indian Diaspora 9 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)

Cultural Identity of Children of Indian Diaspora 10 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

Cultural Identity of Children of Indian Diaspora 11 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

Cultural Identity of Children of Indian Diaspora 12 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.

Cultural Identity of Children of Indian Diaspora 13 Wire frame: Classic Scene

Cultural Identity of Children of Indian Diaspora 14 Wire frame: Custom Scene

Cultural Identity of Children of Indian Diaspora 15 Wire frame: New Character

Cultural Identity of Children of Indian Diaspora 16 Wire frame: View New Characters

Cultural Identity of Children of Indian Diaspora 17 Wire frame: Create New Scene

Cultural Identity of Children of Indian Diaspora 18

Questions ?