Digital Natives vs Digital Immigrants... .

CEO Ryan Pinto Felicitates Mukesh Sharma

Siddhartha Mukherjee, Mukesh Sharma , Anil Wanwari

  With a motive to bring about changes in the existing educational system and to provide quality education to students, Ryan International Group of Institutions hosted the ASISC Conference, a three day event from 24th Nov. to 26th Nov. 2010, inviting nearly 1200 ICSE school  principals from all over India at Renaissance convention centre, Mumbai.The Conference was inaugurated by the. Governor of Maharashtra H.E   K.Sankaranarayanan .
Apart from various sessions involving Harsha Bhogle( on sports and; education), Dr Kiran Bedi ( for a key note address ),  a session on "Influence of Media and its implications on School Leadership"  was chaired by me. The other panelists were Anil Wanvari  (CEO Indiantelevision.com), Siddhartha Mukherjee (Sr. VP & Head of Communications TAM) & Shaji Jose(Editor, "Aspiration Unlimited") .

The connecting links between the D.Natives & D Immigrants

As the topic suggests the principals were in a media bashing mood. But ducking their googleys, I managed to survive the session, by changing the course of session without changing the topic.The principal wanted to talk about the Media Content ,whereas  I was keen to talk about the Media Tools lacking in the School education system. My concern was based on the fact that the school going children are living in two universe . At home they do multitasking & are always wired with ipods, laptops, computers, video game consoles, mp3 players, television sets etc.& are doing amazing creative work with technology, apart from their home work & school projects..In fact they spend more time with the media than any other activity other than sleeping.

A digital native with Poonam Shatrughan Sinha

 At School the universe changes to chalk ,duster, blackboard & a teacher who is not as media savvy as the children. In fact at school the Digital Natives  (Children) interact with the Digital Immigrants (teachers). So there is a big gap and this wide culminates to a  digital divide, that if not filled soon will give rise to a total disconnect between the present and past generation.
The problem with the 50 plus lot is that they are not at all comfortable with the digital technology nor they are keen to learn it. I have seen senior Govt officers, School principals having computers on their side table, which is most of the time covered with a nice cloth. The solution is to start education through computers at school.                                                                                                                  

The Digital Immigrants

But the trainer must be trained first in order to get connected. Simply by providing the new technology will not help. It should be embraced by the teacher &
should not be forced upon anyone. Media must be integrated with the curriculum. In other words curriculum needs to drive the technology and not the other way round.
Last but not the least, every medium till date what we know is on the internet right next to each other.From Print,Music, Books, Photography,Radio, Video, films subsuming all previous mediums. How long will the stake holders of our generation, continue to ignore this reality, thats a million dollar quesition.....

A lot can happen over a cup of Tea.....

After Sahara Shree , another unassuming person whom I share a special bond is Ameen Sayani.... The Golden Voice of Radio.

The other day he was in my office at All India Radio to finalise broadcast of his radio programmes. I told him, he could have called me at his work place instead of taking the trouble to come all the way. But being a gentleman (as he is) he politely put his hand on my shoulder as if to say lets not talk about it. He was looking forward for a cup of Special Tea which is my trade mark.

I am lucky to have had the opportunity to have offered the tea to a great many celebrities , film personalities & political figures while I was heading Doordarshan Mumbai .

In fact once Malvika Sanghvi suddenly came to meet me in my office at Doordarshan . I was having my special tea . I got up from my chair went to my ante room, in a jiffy I was back with a fresh cup of tea for her . I could see she was surprised and her journalistic mind was a bit confused to understand that how can a Govt Babu do this. She did not comment much ,finished her work and left.

Next day the Times Of India carried an article about Malvika Sangghvi's

visit to Doordarshan Kendra Mumbai.

She wrote "............The times they really are changing .What a pleasant surprise to walk in to the Doordarshan headquarters in Mumbai and encounter a director who is so unlike the average government babu. Mukesh Sharma director DDK Mumbai wears spiffy suits. Offers guests personally brewed exotic tea, picks up the phone himself and keeps appointment to the dot.........." .

Coming back to Ameen Bhai, he enjoyed my cup of tea. We went down the memory lane. His association with All India Radio, Binaca Geetmala Days etc. etc.

As Ameen Bhai was leaving, I was wondering what life would have been without his golden voice for our generation when there were no TV channels , no multiplexes, no internet and no mobile phones to entertain us. I salute you SIR for being with us right from our school days till today. May your Golden voice continue to inspire todays DJS, & RJs of our times...The J is Jockeys and not Jokers, unless you are reading between the lines.

OWBT...

Jayashree Balasubramanian, Aaj Tak Chennai 600 040, India

Osei Boakye, TV-3 Network, Ghana

Anura Fonseka, Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation

Iffat Jabbar, Radio Pakistan

Mukesh Sharma, Doordarshan, India