Will children teach themselves?...
Watch this video
The Hypotheses:
- Set up a computer with high speed internet access in the slums. Will children be able to & how long would it take if they did, to figure out how to use the internet and promote self-education.
- Will children be able to understand and teach themselves more advanced topics with no supervision?
- Wil the "granny role" promote more self-education?
The Results:
What Mitra found was that "groups of children can learn to use the computer and internet on their own, irrespective of who and where they were." He followed the advice given to him by Arthur C. Clarke "if children have interest, then education will happen." He used this advice to continue these experiments and see what the limits were. Mitrad continued by doing more and more complex things, as expected learning decreased with the higher complexity. He then introduced what he called the "granny role" which was an adult figure who didn't explicitly teach the children what he wanted them to learn, rather they provided positive reinforcement to hopefully promote self educating. This granny role is what lead Mitra to discover a 76% pass rate for students who self educated and made him decide on developing what he called a SOLE. In understanding that groups of children working together with the addition of "granny role" supervision, he was able to introduce the Self Organized Learning Environment. The video can better illustrate, but basically these were dedicated areas where groups of students can come together. They have access to a computer with high speed internet access and via online communication devices (skype) acces to what he called the "granny cloud."
Mitra proposes that education is a self organizing system, where learning is an emergent phenomenon. A self organizing system is composed of two things:
- Structure: appears without explicit intervention from the outside
- Emergence- system does things that it was not designed for (i.e. you didn't design it that way because it looked impossible)
"A question of attitude, not technology," is Mitra's main theme through the development of SOLEs. I think it's extremely interesting to see how through the use of technology that self education is highly promoted.
What do you think?
What a great topic Austin! This is quite an interesting experiment for not just children but taking a broader perspective of humans in general. I really think it shows that humans are interested and inspired to learn no matter what the situation. I understand the obvious arguments that many of our public school children and young adults are not 'inspired' by their own classes and educators but aren't they still learning. Although it might not be school consider two examples: cell phones and video games. Many of the young males are highly stimulated by video games and will learn complex actions in order to compete and complete goals and objectives. What about cell phones? These are complex mini computers that do an incredible amount. Children also become mild experts in their various functions because they are inspired to learn too.
ReplyDeleteSo to go back to the original post, this is an important experiment that shows how even some of the most disadvantaged and poor humans in the entire world can be inspired to learn and teach themselves is quite extraordinary. Or is it? Maybe it's because some of these children are so economically disadvantaged that all they have is their hope and aspirations to survive and learn?
Being a question of attitude and not technology may need to be rephrased. How about it's a question of attitude with the aid of technology. Technology is the essential advancement tool for learning in this test case and I don't see how it might work otherwise. What else would one do aside from placing a teacher in the wall and lecturing to the kids. I think that this is where the technology proves itself to be necessary for the actual learning of knowledge for these test subjects.
I like your rephrasing of A question of attitude with the aid of technology...
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading this post one of the first things that came to my mind is teachers being replaced by technology. It is a scary thought! and a very realistic one, obviously.
I think that these children are growing up in a world where technological aptitude is clearly necessary for success, but it is also more natural to many (at least those who are in living conditions to be exposed to it). I wonder what past experiences these children have with technology, and how this effects their success with this method?
On a side not, this reminds me of something; Someone told me a story about their son who is 3yrs old. His Dad has an ipad, and he would let the child look at it and touch it, because it amused him. Now after about 6 months of playing with it he has been figured out how to navigate certain applications, search for things visually...things I had no idea a 3yr old could do? just an example of how innate? the use of technology is becoming.
Attitude has a lot to do with anything we learn. I think the SOLE is a great tool for those whose learning set fits this method. I like the idea of emergence is very interesting. I also think that exposure is key. Relying on self-education is two –fold: It can hinder the learning process that occurs with exposure to new ideas and people, or enhance what’s to be learned by personal motivation.
ReplyDeleteI love the work of Sugata Mitra and this project in particular. I think one of the greatest advantages of technology is self learning due to the almost endless access to information. I believe the self learning that is evident in this experiment shows an educational opportunity that is yet untapped by traditional instructor centered classrooms. The main hurdle of such self learning is creating some kind of validity to the learning, without some kind of credential to "prove" the learning society will have a hard time accepting this approach.
ReplyDeleteThis is pretty sweet. In some ways this is not surprising though. I think it is human nature to be curious and want to learn. Many times education has such a negative connotation and technology is the entity charged with alleviating education of that stigma. I think this shows that education is going to happen regardless of the venue or method. I know in the middle school I was in last year, we used computer programs simultaneously with instructor led techniques. The students would rotate from lecture, to a self guided education tutorial. I believe this is a little different than SOLE's, but I think it is a start.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting topic. I watched it, and really liked it. I was over at my mothers house and about 2/3 of the way through she came through the room. I showed her and we watched it together.
ReplyDeleteThe gentleman has some interesting ways to look at things. Some of his comments would definitely stir up some people in the education community. Specifically, his nonchalance about plagiarism. Though I have never done it in school, it is close to my philosophy. I think that if it is related to a job or task that allows you to look up information, use it. You cannot remember everything, and if you try you are going to get something wrong. Why try and remember everything, when it is easier to learn how to find the answer. If someone else has said what you want to say, and said it better; why not learn from them?
His comment about Scientist's taking someone else's ideas and calling it there own followed that thought as well.
I wish that I had the best ideas of what I have done. My short film, "Equanimity" was an adaptation of a poem. I was inspired visually by another film. Most filmmakers are the same. All of the huge films were ripoffs of other movies and shows. Star Wars, was George Lucas' version of Flash Gordon. Indiana Jones, was Spielberg's take of the old serials of the 20's and 30's. They ripped off these old films and put it to an audience who had forgotten these old films. As educators we plunder any tool or method of teaching students. Shouldn't we be as forgiving and understanding to students as we are to ourselves?
I am not surprised at this "discovery". Children are very resourceful, and the key phrase continues to be "technology is the future". Children are intelligent enough to figure out these video games, telephones and computers on their own. As it was stated, give them something they are interested in and they will figure out how to navigate/work with it.
ReplyDeleteNow, this does bring up the point of equal resources. This experiment shows that given the tools, even the children from "the slums" can excel. The ability has been proven. So why do these children not perform to the level of their peers in better quality of neighborhoods? I think it is because they are not provided the same opportunities and resources.
As far as technology replacing teachers, this is a very scary thought. However, it does not seem to be far off.
Elaine -- I liked the story about the 3-year-old! Mostly because I have heard stories such as those. Many of my young cousins have pretty "tech-saavy" parents and use their "toys" frequently. My 6 year old cousin, Coral was giving me a tutorial on how to navigate (some touch screen fancy device) and I was just staring in awe at how quickly she could figure things out.
ReplyDeleteI think this goes into the general idea of how people learn. As we do more and more studies, results show that many individuals are visual learners. I think utilizing technology to teach young kids is a great idea! Personally, figuring out how to do something is half the battle, so by doing so on my own I tend to understand what I'm doing much better than if it has been lectured to me. Learning by doing.
However, I would never like to think of the idea of "technology" and "teacher" as being terms that could substitute one another. I will always believe that the social interaction aspect of learning needs to be done with a teacher and preferably in person, not through a computer. I think technology could make teaching hard concepts much easier. It would even make learning boring or mundane information more fun!
Being able to make school enjoyable is key in the learning and growing of a young mind. After all, these kids are the future.
Austin, this is fascinating. I agree with you Kendra that technology can't substitute for a teacher. Younger generations are now spending more and more time in front of a computer and less time in social situations. Very small children definitely need to learn socialization skills which technology doesn't teach them. Blended learning is a great method. It's a shame that, as Austin mentions in his post, "teachers will not go where they are needed most." We even have that problem here in this country. Sounds like a great job opportunity for some of you!
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly enjoyed watching this video and exploring this concept. It's quite fascinating to see how much humans are able to learn, even at such an early age. I have to wonder though, what types of children were used in this study. Were they gifted, or the average elementary school student? Even still, their accomplishments are mind boggling. As far as it being a question of attitude not technology, I agree with Brandon in his comment that children learn how to use cellphones and play video games by teaching themselves, so attitude definitely has a huge influence. For example, my little brother has not been too interested in his academic studies since I can remember but he has always been intrigued by his video games. He devotes hours upon hours to playing his games and attempting to win each level. This takes patience, skill, practice, and more. Like the children in the study, so much is possible when one is set wholeheartedly on completing a task and is greatly interested in it.
ReplyDeleteThis video definitely showed that children will succeed at what they desire and they will devote as much time and energy as necessary to do it!
Hi Constance and others - Mitra started with the "Hole in the Wall" project and literally placed a computer in a hole in the wall in a destitute area of India. So, maybe these kids were gifted, but who knows? They were running around with no shoes and had little access to formal education. Yet they learned how to learn and how to teach others. Not all kids became teachers of others and some learned rather vicariously (just watching) - much like you and I have found ourselves on occasion in those Elluminate sessions, right? A greater question here is the belief that learning is a natural thing and does not have to be orchestrated by an instructional designer. So - this will come up again for those of you in Instructional Design next semester. Thanks for blowing my big intro Austin! :-)
ReplyDeleteI really love the idea of SOLE! I think Mitra is correct in his hypothesis, especially the idea that children are able to teach themselves without supervision, and the application of the "granny rule." The fascination that I get is in how easily we forget how amazing the human mind is! Many children learn how to not be motivated to learn from what they see - without that influence the possibilities are endless. For instance, we all learned to crawl and walk at some point - that wasn't from a textbook and a professor or teacher, it was self-exploration and attempting to mimic the movements of those around us. The idea of applying that same inquisitive nature for learning to the internet and less-fortunate children is excellent. Here technology can truly be helpful!
ReplyDeleteThis is fascinating in nature. My opinion of this experiment is that it is almost radical and very out of the box to even do something like this. I feel that it is impressive and the information that was found was also fascinating. I am not necessarily in favor of sole self-education, however I can remember the times where I had to teach something to myself and I feel that those were the times that I learned the most in most cases. You learn from the trial and error of it as well as the problem solving aspect of doing it on your own. Self-education however I feel should not be the sole way of teaching. There are educators for a reason and that is to guide learning and provide instruction. With educators students do not have to struggle as much to get to the “right answer.” I am sure many find the victory in the struggle which I can respect, but it does not necessarily have to be that way.
ReplyDelete