New media in my life

Thansila

I am a village girl. I am doing my plus one education in Wayanad, Kerala. I am also doing my communication training in an organization. From there I have realized the potential of the new media. What we couldn’t do person to person, I realized that with the help of the new media we can do far better. For example, I travel rarely outside my district, but with the help of a blog or social media I can communicate with people around the world.

If used in the proper way I am sure we can lean more from the new media, we can connect with individuals and organizations beyond our geographical boundaries. From my personal experience I have observed how effectively the official blog of the centre and social networks like Facebook shared inspirational stories of education to the world. Through our newspaper, The Peace Gong we are able to exchange stories from friends in different parts of India and abroad. For instance, our friend in Pakistan, Syeda Rumana Mehdi’s poems have been inspiring us to think of conflicts around the world. We discuss some of these issues like how children are getting affected by the Syrian crisis and how we can end conflicts in our own communities. We have been extensively using our The Peace Gong group in the Facebook for connecting with like minded students. 

Also using the new media, we children of the Wayanad Shishu Panchayat are trying to connect with other Shishu Panchayats across the country and aiming to create a national movement. We feel elated when we are able to develop programmes simultaneously in Kerala, Assam, Karnataka, Tripura and West Bengal; we have spoken to children in these states using Skype from our respective centres. We use mobile phones to call our seniors for guidance. We also use SMS to reach out to friends and acquaintances on the work we are trying to do in the village. Who says we are different from our friends in the cities? It has changed our perspectives and the whole way we are trying to work in the community.

The new media is a great tool of education. It helps to make the technological advancements a creative process. When we design and upload in our blogs, as a student interested in creative pursuits, it gives me immense pleasure and at the same time I am also happy that I, an obscure village girl, is being noticed by the world even beyond oceans.......

Thansila, 16 and President of the Wayanad Shishu Panchayat. She is the Editor of the Malayalam edition of the Peace Gong, the global children’s newspaper (she had originally written this in Malayalam and has been translated by her adult coordinators).