The event, which brings together experts from the publishing, media, education, digital and creative industries, would explore questions such as where do the content creators stand in this paradigm to learn about what do children like? How do they learn? How do we get better outcomes in education? How content creators nurture a democracy of opportunity within the system which recognises the inherent diversity among children? What can we do to encourage madly creative content that delights and educates?

The event will bring together the creators – authors, illustrators, designers, publishers; disseminators – teachers, librarians and facilitators, with visionaries and innovators from the field of education for creating impactful learning content for children.

The time is ripe for creators of children’s books and media to understand the education landscape better since a large part of their work is reaching children via the school. New ways of learning and the increasing presence of digital media are changing classroom practices with varying degrees of success. This, according to GBO, starting conversations around education in the broadest sense is something that will benefit content creators and bring new ideas to the educationists.

Like every year, the event will be held at two locations, Delhi and Bengaluru. The two-day Delhi event has been scheduled for 2-3 August 2016 and the daylong event in Bengaluru is on 6 August 2016.

In its previous seven editions, Jumpstart has brought together over 140 speakers from 13 countries and 16 industries and has conducted 17 Masterclasses.

Innovation in education
The GBO has announced a sneak preview into the kick-starter session at Jumpstart 2016.

A survey of what children like to read for pleasure and why they exhibit certain preferences in the content space will form the backdrop of the tug of educational content at the forum. An author, an illustrator, a digital media expert, a teacher and a policy-maker will come together in compelling 10-minute talks followed by a moderated discussion to answer the following questions: What are the evolving pedagogies in classrooms and is the content moving in step with them? What are publishers doing differently in new ecosystems of learning? Are new products being designed differently? Has technology influenced design itself? Are new formats transforming content creation and delivery or not? And most importantly, are children learning better because of this?

The speakers include:

Ken Spillman, author
Ken Spillman is one of Australia’s most versatile and prolific authors, editors and critics of more than 35 books. Ken’s Jake series for younger readers has enjoyed remarkable success since 2009, and now appears in around a dozen countries. His adventure series, The Absolutely True Fantasies of Daydreamer Dev is also attracting many fans in India.

Florian Sochatzy, digital innovator
Florian Sochatzy is the CEO of the Institute for Digital Learning, Munich, Germany and coordinates all processes. His main interest is high quality digital learning media. The institute for digital learning develops, produces and integrates digital applications for learning in schools, museums and public places. At present, the work of the institute is focused on the development of multimedia textbooks (mBooks) for history classes.

Preminda Langar, educationist
Preminda Langar’s hallmark is developing a progressive curriculum with social responsibility and group work that goes hand-in-hand with academics. She was part of the core team that compiled the Shri Ram School Junior School Curriculum in 2004. In 2005, she won the Outstanding Educator, Gold Award in ‘Unsung Heroes No Longer’—an all-India competition conducted by the Rustom Irani Foundation, Mumbai. Preminda was actively involved in developing the pre-school curriculum for S Chand and for the Army Pre-Schools.

Amit Kaushik
Amit Kaushik, a qualified economist, has spent 20 years as a civil servant. He served as director of elementary education and helped in the roll out and implementation of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in addition to being responsible for India’s international commitments towards programmes like Education for All. He was also associated with the drafting of the Right to Education Bill, 2005, which subsequently became the basis for the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act in 2009.

To register, visit www.jumpstartfest.com.