TED - Self Organizing Education System
Submitted by ZeroFiction on Sat, 07/23/2011 - 22:58in
Education scientist Sugata Mitra tackles one of the greatest problems of education -- the best teachers and schools don't exist where they're needed most. In a series of real-life experiments from New Delhi to South Africa to Italy, he gave kids self-supervised access to the web and saw results that could revolutionize how we think about teaching.
Sugata Mitra @TED: The child-driven education
Education powered by the internet and a child's natural inclination to explore.
After decades in the education field, the most important
success factor in education is to have students who want to learn...not content delivery, not uniforms, not fancy video equipment, not well written books, not expensive private schools, not "fun" teachers, not game-based teaching, not matching delivery to learning styles, etc.
None of that matters if the student doesn't want to learn, which is more often than you think.
None of that matters if the student really wants to learn. The student will adapt their mind around the content delivery method...often seeking out additional vehicles of learning.
That stuff matters (a little) if the students sort of want to learn. This is the state of our present system...the vast majority of students sort of want to learn, so we argue about and try everything under the sun trying to reach them. But no matter what, results will be mediocre.
So the key is to SELL THE BENEFITS OF EDUCATION TO STUDENTS! Part of that is teaching their parents *how* to sell education to their children. Just demanding good grades doesn't always work. You have to get the children to value it...to want it.
So if this story is true, the students in the story WANTED TO LEARN.
BTW: This goes for people of all ages. What's the difference between old people that know current technology and old people that don't? Barring cognitive degeneration, the former want to learn it, the later don't.
Buddhist Proverb: When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
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thanks for posting
I think of all the internet has done for me. So much information out there that I never would have learned or heard anywhere else!
Thanks for posting this.
It is certainly a hopeful message.
Famous Quote from Justice William O. Douglas
"The Constitution is not neutral.
It was designed to take the government
off the backs of people."
Is this socialism?
The one thing in common in all of his examples is the FREE use of a computer and FREE access to the internet. Doesn't this teach these children to expect handouts? What if those kids had to pay 4400 rupees a month to Comcast to get online? Wouldn't that be a better way to learn them about self-sufficency?
All of that "FREE" stuff can
be handled on the local level to those in need.
What isn't needed is public employee (teachers) salaries and pensions, overpaid school system bureaucrats, unions, the text book industry, Dept. of Education, expensive infrastructure, etc. etc. etc.
"If a teacher can be replaced by a machine, they should be." And that is exactly what they have become.
It would be interesting
to see how quickly the kids could learn to build their own computers out of street trash. My guess is would take a few weeks, providing there were rare earth minerals in the surrounding detritus of Mumbai's slums.
Regarding your contempt for public school teachers: here in Minnesota we have had a great system, with excellent hard working teachers. (My daughter attends a public school.) As a result, we have always ranked high for quality of education. Although I do not know where you are from, it is always strange hear criticism of the most well educated blue states, emanating from the most backwards red states. (I realize that you may occupy your own private Idaho) If you look at a national map of where teachers are paid well and treated with respect, you will see striking correspondence with high grades and access to higher education.
Teachers have become machines? Utter nonsense.
I got a public education here
I got a public education here in California and it was the biggest waste of time in my entire life. I learned nothing useful and would have been much better dropping out and entering the workforce, a job-training program, or even college. Just about anything would have been better than that. I think the only useful skill I learned was how to type.
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Naturally,
Education is not for everybody. I worked on a golf course when I was in college. The guys there were happy cutting grass and hunting for golf balls. To each his own.
After high school I worked
After high school I worked one year at a mail-order company where I was top salesman in a sales-force of 50, but the owners didn't care to pay their employees decently and there wasn't even a community college around for me to go to, so I thought the military was the best way out. I signed up for the Naval Nuclear Power Program, which has the highest attrition rate of all military programs, and finished my 6 years as the top workcenter supervisor in the Reactor Department on a nuclear powered aircraft carrier (the Carl Vinson). Now I own my own business and am expanding in several directions. You talk like I'm some person who has no drive, but when I tell you that public school were a complete waste of time for me, I am quite serious about it.
Your post also suggests that only people with an education can be successful, but this is the typical association is causation fallacy. My first boss out of the Navy dropped out of high school and before he was 25 had started his own business and he has done very well for himself throughout the years. I'm not saying that people don't need education, but the standard mantra of education is required for success is completely false. Also false is that academic education is best. Completely missing from public school is vocational training. The system is set up to send people to get a degree from Harvard, when it really needs to send people to get a contractor's license.
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The most powerful system of indoctrination
The most power system of indoctrination ever conceived.
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Exactly.
It's unbelievably naive to look at access to the internet as a form of education. It has some value, but it is loaded with the prejudice of hidden agendas.
Beyond just access to the
Beyond just access to the Internet is the influence of the grandmas who are essentially shaping the view these children have. Something tells me they aren't learning Adam Smith or Mises.
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An Internet Scavenger hunt
Worth watching.
Free includes debt-free!
Interesting video but I think
Interesting video but I think work ethic/interest plays a part in learning. Most of the students demonstrated in this video are students in Asia who probably have more intellectual curiosity than students here in the US, and see careers in the sciences as a pathway to a better future.
Unlike some folks I do believe college is important particularly if you plan on majoring in the the engineering, medicine or the hard sciences. So to me it is not a scam if you are not majoring in something that is not going to give a return in life.
I'm pretty sure US students
Are born with the same intellectual curiosity. But what happens when they go to government school? They learn to care more about extracarriculars and pop culture. I think the easy solution is to get rid of public schools and forced collectivism.
You quickly loose that curiosity
as you munch down your french fries and big macs. It's better to keep people hungry. They learn faster.
I'll bet that if you put a small bowl of seeds in a poor neighborhood in Mumbai, the kids would just eat them rather than starting an agri-business. It shows how backwards poor people can be. If you believe in individual responsibility you have to ask why poor people, so often, eat next year's seeds?
Additionally our kids, from kindergarten
on, are told to sit down, shut up, only speak when called upon, obey instructions, start & start work or projects when told, put in a required amount of time incarcerated each day doing required assignments only, then bullied by unhappy peers in the scarce times allowed "outdoors."
American children have no experience of freedom from their youngest years. children in poor rural villages have far more personal freedom and, if nourished adequately, don't have the spirit stamped out of them by omnipresent authority figures, outside their families.
well....
as far as the last 100 years or so has gone....
we don't really have to look back that far into the past to see a single italian woman blow the socks off of compulsory education and all on her lonesome.
the things that people are "finding" out today with regard to learning and childhood development can all be found in the teaching and research of maria montessori.
the whole notion of a computer being necessary - and yes a computer does help facilitate the gathering of information but whatever - takes a back seat (without a seat belt) to the natural unfolding of a child - to which most of the world's schools pay attention to none whatsoever - and seemingly without regret mind you.
the single most criminal act known to us at this time - can be found in the suffocation of a child who would have infinitely reached heights not attainable within the current paradigm. it precedes all else.
will a system that follows rather than leads the unfolding of children still produce a world of people with crime or problems? yes of course.
but to what extent would our crime and problems be mitigated?
the answers are already found.
if ever you should want to read writings of the most stirring kind - just google montessori and read a few quotes by her.
she never ceases to blow me away.
it's like listening to pink floyd's meddle or dark side.
the shizzle does does not age.
Education
This is nothing uncommon. I am only wary of all the emphasis on surfing. Practical skills have to go hand in hand with theory.
ie. what about cooking, printing, hammering, sawing, painting, etc.
Obviously the public system will steer students into domains they find inline with their agendas.
Judging by this guy's waist size he has been sitting at a computer for a bit too much as well. ;)
donvino
Your surfing comment is a bit short sighted.
The transfer of information, even practical application, does not require expensive teachers, expensive buildings, expensive bureaucracies, and the agenda driven curriculum. By surfing the children are able to receive objective data form many different sources and form their own conclusions. Our current system controls the information and delivers only what the system deems appropriate, it builds barriers to information transfer not broader access to it. Those barriers not only affect the child directly but prevent that information from being propagated by that child to other children or even worse the child propagating the agenda driven information vs objective information.
I would argue that a child left to surf will find his/her needed information and retain that information longer, as documented in this video, rather than sitting in a chair idle and listening to someone regurgitate from a text book or standardized test format.
I was particularly impressed that the one Indian girl inserted herself into the teacher role, organic information propagation, no teacher required. No Educational Industrial Complex needed what so ever. The guy with the fat waist is now on my who most inspires me list.
different learning styles
some people learn by reading and some learn by viewing.
ie. some have more problems going by instructions, diagrams, or algorithims from a page because of language conflicts and disparity.
others seem to pick up on things more readily such as watching others perform a task ie. using power tools, cooking, computations.
and some just go by intuition and instinct ie. learning to play guitar by ear or building a castle for instance like that Bishop guy from Colorado...btw, he is ron paul supporter lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDQsy7aiVD0
donvino
great point.
you're absolutely right about one thing at least - that the current system controls information - i.e. columbus discovered a'murika, aliens don't exist, 9/11 was carried out by some militants from some caves = the single cave theory, and so on....
but you'd have to do a lot of explaining to get me to believe that the internet and the information on it cannot be controlled - indeed, i believe that it is.
there is a RIDICULOUS amount of information that i cannot retrieve online that i MUST acquire by going to the library or book store (btw - all border's books are closing - this leaves one major book store in the DFW area, my area, disregarding half price books - all mom and pop stores are closed and if and when barnes and noble ever shuts its doors forever - what will that mean?).
this guy in this TED video is strictly keeping to the notion that he can successfully implant a computer into a classroom or population with the goal of promoting a spontaneous education.
he in no way, that i can see, addresses the natural rhythm in learning that ALL humans experience - regardless of their ancestry - their place of birth - or their time in history. it's just - wham bam thank you ma'am - there's your computer, problems solved.
i do NOT even think so.
if you are like me - and you have a concern for control of information - then that's going to have to be an ongoing concern.
Incredible...
I am convinced government, public education is the atrophy of individualty, motivation, and the desire to improve your knowledge and role in society.
To hell with bureaucratic systems micromanaging the pursuit of knowledge.
To hell with teachers and government officials with "god complexes", trying to make sure everyone gets a perfect education.
To HELL with uniforms (what a prison for individuality).
To HELL with public education, GO freedom and individual pursuits of life and interests.
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with you 80%
My kids go to a school with uniforms..... its a more of a positive than negative.
Who is Ron Paul and What Has He Done?
The phenomena described in this talk has some parallels for what we've seen in this revolution, don't you think?
We're part of the granny cloud, now.
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Love Ted.com
Here's one of my favorites on education. It's the coolest animate video I've seen. I promise it's worth your time. http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_changing_education_par...
That was excellent as well.
I'll be sharing that.
Here is another
glimpse into the future of education from TED.
http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_rein...
“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” --Albert Camus
The future of education is online
there will be no need to build expensive schools or colleges. A college degree on a campus will be a thing of the past within the lifetime of some of the younger DPers...
'Cause there's a monster on the loose
I love how modern educational establishment
Tries to make you feel guilty for using google. I'll bet it was the same way when handheld calculators started to hit the educational scene. It's just progress you dinosaurs. Get out of the way.
And did anyone else absolutely detest all 18 years of state micromanagement?