How Much Can Children Teach Themselves, And Hole In The Cloud
Approximately one billion people live in India. Over half of them are illiterate and do not have access to a primary education. Yet, some of the world’s most advanced technology firms call India home. Enter Dr. Sugata Mirta, an Educational Researcher. In the TED podcasts, “Sugata Mitra: How Much Can Children Teach Themselves”, and “Sugata Mitra: Can Schools Exist in the Cloud”, Mitra discusses a global educational issue: Schools and teachers are not accessible to children living in remote areas. Through a series of experiments, using a PCs with Internet connections in the slums of India, Mitra discovers a different way to teach children that do not have access to schools or teachers. Fred Guteri writes, “He calls it the grandmother technique,
…show more content…
Peter Gray, a Research Professor asserts, “A huge amount of children's education occurs before they start school. They learn all this not through lessons provided by anyone, but through their own free play, their insatiable curiosity, and their natural attentiveness to the behavior of other people” (Children Educate Themselves I: Outline of Some of the Evidence). This theory is tested in Dr. Mitra’s “Hole in the Wall” project in 1999 in an urban slum of New Delhi, whereby he made a hole in a wall, installed a PC with internet connection and observed children playing with the computer, learning first how to navigate online. Most importantly, children that first mastered online navigation skills taught others. Mitra states, “So we thought that this is what has happening: that children in groups can self-instruct themselves to use a computer and the Internet” (Sugata Mitra: How Much Can Children Teach Themselves). Dr. Grey explains, “…young people teach themselves through play and exploration and then, when ready to do so, begin naturally to put what they have learned to purposes that benefit the group as a whole” (Children Educate Themselves I: Outline of Some of the Evidence). It follows that the role of a teacher in a traditional schools has shifted from leader to one who aids students in leading themselves. “They are recognizing that the most powerful kind of learning does not come from being told what to think but in learning how
Peter Gray, a Research Professor asserts, “A huge amount of children's education occurs before they start school. They learn all this not through lessons provided by anyone, but through their own free play, their insatiable curiosity, and their natural attentiveness to the behavior of other people” (Children Educate Themselves I: Outline of Some of the Evidence). This theory is tested in Dr. Mitra’s “Hole in the Wall” project in 1999 in an urban slum of New Delhi, whereby he made a hole in a wall, installed a PC with internet connection and observed children playing with the computer, learning first how to navigate online. Most importantly, children that first mastered online navigation skills taught others. Mitra states, “So we thought that this is what has happening: that children in groups can self-instruct themselves to use a computer and the Internet” (Sugata Mitra: How Much Can Children Teach Themselves). Dr. Grey explains, “…young people teach themselves through play and exploration and then, when ready to do so, begin naturally to put what they have learned to purposes that benefit the group as a whole” (Children Educate Themselves I: Outline of Some of the Evidence). It follows that the role of a teacher in a traditional schools has shifted from leader to one who aids students in leading themselves. “They are recognizing that the most powerful kind of learning does not come from being told what to think but in learning how