Comments on: Sugata Mitra’s New TED Talk

By: Harihar Rajaram

Harihar Rajaram — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 16:42:37 +0000

I think there is great potential for using technology in teaching and learning (either unsupervised or supervised), but I am skeptical about the depth of learning that is achieved in these experiments of Sugata Mitra’s that are described here and in his other lectures. If it is facts, and learning is measured by performance on a multiple-choice type test, maybe there is some evidence that the students have learnt “well”. But in my own experience with > 15 years of teaching engineering science courses (e.g. fluid mechanics) at college level, I have found that purely technology-based learning does not always lead to retention or an ability to understand what fundamental physical or mathematical concepts need to be invoked, to solve a problem presented to a student. The best of students don’t need a teacher, true; but I think the vast majority do not know how to go about learning unless they are guided……I use web sites with all kinds of information for the students, I use a lot of experiments and demonstrations, but year after year, although students appreciate these, they feel that the most valuable part of a course is the old-fashioned classroom lecture where we learn and understand and solve problems using a somewhat socratic approach.

By: Education is a self organizing system, where learning is an emergent phenomenon « Learning Change

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 20:24:07 +0000

[...] Sugata Mitra’s New TED Talk [...]

By: Robin Heyden

Robin Heyden — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 12:21:34 +0000

Wonderful TED talk! Thanks for bringing it to us, Will. I often quote Cathy Davidson’s line…if a teacher from the early 1900′s walked into a classroom today, they would know exactly what to do. Desks lined up in rows, teacher stands at the front, chalkboard, pencils….Not much has changed in 100 years. But if that same teacher walked into one of Sugata Mitra’s SOLEs, they would need to alter their methods. Maybe that could be one of our yardsticks for change?

By: seh_notts

seh_notts — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 17:37:17 +0000

Deschoolers like Ivan Illich (1970s) and John Taylor Gatto (1990s) have been pointing out the damaging effects of traditional schooling for many years.
Time for a radical rethink? I think so.

Gatto’s ideas are outlined on wikipedia:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Taylor_Gatto]
What does the school do with the children?
Gatto takes this in “Dumbing Us Down”, the following propositions:

1. It makes the children confused. It presents an incoherent ensemble of information that the child needs to memorize to stay in school. Apart from the tests and trials that programming is similar to the television, fills almost the whole, “free” time of the children. One sees and hears something, to forget it again.

2. It teaches them to accept their class affiliation.

3. It makes them indifferent.

4. It makes them emotionally dependent.

5. It teaches them a kind of self-confidence which requires constant confirmation by experts (provisional self-esteem).

6. It makes it clear to them that they can not hide, because they are always supervised.

By: Brenda Redding

Brenda Redding — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 17:34:03 +0000

I agree with you that many (not all) adults are hesitant to give up control and that we don’t give students enough credit to solve problems independently or work collaboratively. Yet, these are the skills today’s students need for the future-we are inundated with this message and the only way students will succeed is if they are given opportunities to solve problems and work together.

By: jmeeler

jmeeler — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 21:39:20 +0000

I agree with you that the students were in groups, which is what we as teachers are told should be happening in the classroom. Students are self-motivated to learn when it is something that they want to learn about. The students in India were not used to having a computer to play with or use everyday. What are your thoughts on American children who have all of these technology tools at their fingertips? Do you think it would hard to keep our students challenged, and do the schools have the money to do so?

By: E L S U A ~ A KM Blog Thinking Outside The Inbox by Luis Suarez » The Child-Driven Education: Where Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Collaboration Come Together!

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 18:27:46 +0000

[...] tweeted a recent blog post by the always insightful Will Richardson under the heading “Sugata Mitra’s New TED Talk” where he puts together some very thought provoking arguments as to why we now may be in a [...]

By: Harold Jarche » Results-only

Harold Jarche » Results-only — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 12:33:50 +0000

[...] is a self-organizing system, where learning is an emergent phenomenon” Sugata Mitra’s TED Talk [...]

By: Rodd Lucier

Rodd Lucier — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 11:11:14 +0000

What swims in my head?

How many educators have reasons for doing things the way they do them, beyond, I’ve always done it this way? How many educators are actively involved in assessing the effectiveness of their practice(s)?

By: The curious cat and other stories « Viplav Baxi’s Meanderings

The curious cat and other stories « Viplav Baxi’s Meanderings — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:05:11 +0000

[...] Wall over the past 10 years or so and other such experiments and viewing Dr. Sugata Mitra’s latest TED Talk, I am inspired to ask the question – what makes the cat [...]

By: Randy Gould

Randy Gould — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 03:24:26 +0000

Listening to this confirms what my colleagues and I have been talking about for some time now. Give children tasks that engage them. Allow them to interact with each other and explore through technology. Give them the freedom to discover things on their own. One question that comes to mind is how do we merge this with the way we have been asked, by the school board, to report on the progress of our students? It seems to me that until those who make decisions about assessment and reporting have a major shift in their thinking, we will be holding our students back.

By: Marcus Johnson

Marcus Johnson — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 02:45:44 +0000

I do not believe teachers will ever become fully obsolete, but I do believe that the amount of teachers needed will dwindle and that the roles that educators play will change drastically. I often tell my students that my job is not to teach them but to help them learn/understand how to teach themselves. This research validates that in a sense. As some said before me, the key to this is that the children are engaged. Another important fact that shouldn’t be overlooked is that they are in groups (learning communities). We have to address today’s students according to their needs more so than our want to stay in our comfort zones as adults.

By: Tom Johnston

Tom Johnston — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 23:19:53 +0000

My 16 year old son uploads walk-throughs of video games with his friends using voice overs and writing out the narrative beforehand and getting the writing proofread and peer edited to make sure they did a good job. This is his fun. Then he goes to English class and suffers through a day of what he feels is meaningless questions and answers and he gives a minimum of effort.

He and his friends are self organizing their learning and it is emergent. This is happening not because of school but outside of and in spite of school.

Learning is as natural as eating but not at most schools. It becomes contrived and mechanistic and schools are under the pressure of standardized tests that supposedly prove quantitative objective success or failure of the schools/teachers.(very little to do with emergent learning)

I fear that schools will simply be seen to be a very poor way to get educated in comparison to other pathways. Some new system of learning will show up very soon and go viral and put the public schools out of business unless the public schools become that new system.

By: jmeeler

jmeeler — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 22:35:22 +0000

The video was very interesting. Children can be self-motivated if the activity is interesting and challenging enough. They love things that seem new and exciting. Would it stay exciting enough to last without a “real teacher” involved? What about safety? I believe that teaching will be very different in the future, but I’m still not convinced that teachers will become obsolete?

By: MB

MB — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 18:48:44 +0000

Teachers will perhaps not become obsolete, but their numbers may begin to decrease if (when!) SOLEs and virtual learning labs become the dominant mode of knowledge transfer.

I have no problem with this. Self-directed learning is what we seem to seek, if you believe everything you hear at department meetings, curriculum planning committees, and all-staff gatherings. Yet, we don’t seem to allow much self-direction when it comes to learning, aside from permitting students to self-select research topics and/or reporting outputs.

Mitra’s idea about self-organizing systems is one I think we are resistant to entertain, nor are we willing to experiment with it. To do so means to give up control and direction, oversight, rules/laws/regulations, to eliminate the hard boundaries of the classroom walls, and allow children to engage in behaviors that can’t be strictly monitored or regulated by officials – heaven forbid it. It follows on the heels of Proudhon and Hayek’s theory of spontaneous order arising out of chaos (and yes, I do know that this is originally Taoist philosophy).

Sometimes I don’t think we give children enough credit to be able to solve problems or work collaboratively. We put too many of our adult biases, via our own positive or negative experiences, on the experience of children learning something for the first time. If we learned to let go a little, and stop policing every tiny act of shock or defiance or inattentiveness, we might really put the fun and the interest back into learning. It seems like literally eliminating school buildings as we know them might be the best thing we can do to encourage learning, experimentation, creativity, and problem solving.