It's been two years since I first wrote about 'Learning Without Teachers', and now Sugata Mitra is sharing compelling stories involving peer instruction, that should lead educators at all levels to re-think what it means to teach.
Mitra's most recent research seems to validate an approach that forgoes 1:1 computing, in favour of a strategy that limits access to learning tools. In a wide range of settings, with diverse populations of learners, Mitra has married the use of communications technology to 'interest-based' learning, and the early results have been stunning, even if counterintuitive.
Do you believe that this 'peer to peer' approach affirms recent developments in professional learning? Does it validate project-based approaches to learning? Might it support equipping a classroom with an On Demand Ecosystem?
Sugata Mitra speculates that "Education is a self organising system, where learning is an emergent phenomenon..." and he is committed to researching this contention. Whether or not we agree, Mitra's work provides an unspoken challenge: How do you assess the effectiveness of the tools and learning strategies that you employ?
Showing posts with label sugata mitra. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sugata mitra. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Learning Without Teachers
What will happen if you place a single computer workstation with free access to the World Wide Web in a wall so that 'unschooled' children can access it?
In the "Hole-in-the-Wall" project, Sugata Mitra discovered that kids in Delhi, India could and would teach themselves how to use such a tool. No instructions, no teachers, no supervision. The experiment has since been repeated many times and now Sugata Mitra's LIFT talk is available via TED...
In some ways, this self-teaching reminds me of Greg Mortenson stumbling upon students carrying on with their lessons absent of teachers in remote Pakistan. Greg's chronicle of his mission to build schools for these students is chronicled in "Three Cups of Tea".
This peer-teaching and self-learning isn't what you might expect to find when teachers leave their North American classrooms... I wonder why that is?
In the "Hole-in-the-Wall" project, Sugata Mitra discovered that kids in Delhi, India could and would teach themselves how to use such a tool. No instructions, no teachers, no supervision. The experiment has since been repeated many times and now Sugata Mitra's LIFT talk is available via TED...
In some ways, this self-teaching reminds me of Greg Mortenson stumbling upon students carrying on with their lessons absent of teachers in remote Pakistan. Greg's chronicle of his mission to build schools for these students is chronicled in "Three Cups of Tea".
This peer-teaching and self-learning isn't what you might expect to find when teachers leave their North American classrooms... I wonder why that is?
Friday, May 16, 2008
Minimally Invasive Education
If we get out of the way, even crows can learn!
It's been over 8 years since Sugata Mitra first made a computer available to the people of the slums of New Delhi, in what has become known as "The Hole in the Wall" project. Did we learn anything? The children did. With no formal training, they learned about computing and taught one another numerous technology skills that are reviewed in this Interview from the year 2000. The catch, the technology was compelling!
And now comes an example from TED, where Joshua Klein has demonstrated that even crows can learn and teach one another... especially when the results of the learning are nourishing!
Far be it for me to suggest that we abandon teaching and leave students to their own devices. Rather, let's be minimally invasive in allowing the learning to happen, but maximally invasive in ensuring that the problems we present to learners are relevant, compelling and appetizing.
It's been over 8 years since Sugata Mitra first made a computer available to the people of the slums of New Delhi, in what has become known as "The Hole in the Wall" project. Did we learn anything? The children did. With no formal training, they learned about computing and taught one another numerous technology skills that are reviewed in this Interview from the year 2000. The catch, the technology was compelling!
And now comes an example from TED, where Joshua Klein has demonstrated that even crows can learn and teach one another... especially when the results of the learning are nourishing!
Far be it for me to suggest that we abandon teaching and leave students to their own devices. Rather, let's be minimally invasive in allowing the learning to happen, but maximally invasive in ensuring that the problems we present to learners are relevant, compelling and appetizing.
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