You are waiting for your morning train or coffee and a child starts screaming. The parents quickly take out a digital device and the kid is quiet now. The parents and you heave a momentary sigh of relief. All her attention is on that glowing screen while her fingers are ready to swipe to the next piece of content.
Digital native is a term that is often used for a generation that has grown up with tech gadgets. And just because they have, we assume that they know the best way possible to use the gadgets as well. But should being tech savvy be equated with media literacy? Karla Bookman thinks it’s time we debunk that myth. “It’s not enough to just leave them with an iPad,” says Bookman. “Children need mentorship and guidance around what they are absorbing online.” Bookman is the founder and editor of parenting website The Swaddle.
In the workshops that the website usually organises, parents have regularly pointed out their concern for technology, device use and the question of screen time. In the run-up to Children’s Day on November 14, Godrej India Culture Lab in association with The Swaddle is organising a two-day event that will focus on these thorny issues of modern parenting.
For the first day of the event, Bookman has curated and will moderate a panel discussion on the topic “Screening the Screen: How to separate good from bad in an avalanche of children’s media.” The panel includes Sashwati Banerjee, the managing director of Sesame Workshop India; Monica Wahi, children’s films curator and Lisa Heydlauff, the founder of Going To School, a non-profit which uses design in education. Learning expert Dr Shabbi Luthra and pediatrician Dr Anupam Sibal will also be on the panel. “By the end of the discussion we will try to come up with some practical tools and approaches to help parents make intelligent choices regarding digital media for their kids,” says Karla Bookman.
On Saturday November 11, there is a mini children’s film festival. Godrej India Culture Lab has curated it in association with the Children’s Film Society of India (CFSI), the Canadian Consulate and the South Asian Children’s Cinema Forum. Parmesh Shahani who heads the Godrej India Culture Lab team, wanted an India-focus. “We brought together films which are exciting and very Indian,” he says. “They show that there is great Indian children’s content being produced in our country as well.”
Among the Indian films, CFSI’s animated feature Goopi Gawaiya Bagha Bajaiya (inspired by Satyajit Ray’s Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne) and the award-winning Malayalam film Ottal will be part of the screening. Shahani says that while this is not a comprehensive children’s film festival, he expects it to give parents and educators a perspective into alternative children’s content. “We hope our films will provide a window or a teaser into the world out there,” he says.
The Children’s Media Festival is on today and tomorrow at Godrej India Culture Lab, Vikhroli. Register by sending an email to indiaculturelab@godrejinds.com.