The Future of Learning: School in the Cloud #SOLE
Have you heard of the Hole in the Wall from Sugata Mitra (@Sugatam)? No, then before reading any further you ought to watch – “Sugata Mitra shows how kids teach themselves“.
“Young kids in this project figured out how to use a PC on their own — and then taught other kids. He asks, what else can children teach themselves?”
The results are still being discussed and dissected today, almost 6 years after he first announced and presented his findings. And now Sugata Mitra is back, building on this pioneering work, with his new TED Talk “Build a School in the Cloud” (below).
Sugata Mitra: Build a School in the Cloud
From this talk I was amazed that not only were children (note: not students, these were children in slums and remote villages who had no access to schools let alone a computer or the Internet) who had to learn how to operate a PC and mouse, as well as a new language (English), before they were able to learn anything that they could find on it!
Sugata opens with the question of “what is going to be the future of learning” before going on to describe what is the problem with the current state of schooling, and where it came from (and why we have it).
“But that’s today – we don’t even know what the jobs of the future are going to look like. We know that people will work from where ever they want, whenever they want, in what ever way they want, how is present day schooling going to prepare them for that world?”
“We need to look at learning as the product of educational self-organisation – if you allow the educational organisers to self-organise then learning emerges. Its not about making learning happen, it’s about letting it happen. The teacher sets the process in motion and she stands back, in awe, and watches as learning happens.”
Sugata is looking to build SOLE (Self-Organised Learning Environment), based on “broadband +collaboration + encouragement & admiration”. A radical and idealistic approach, maybe, but it based on evidence and knowledge and a profound belief in the ability of children and their thirst for knowledge – I know, I can see this in my own children: when they play, when they talk, when they ask about the world, when they find something they’ve never seen or heard before, when something goes wrong and they don’t want it to happen again.
Sugata has a wish, which forms the purpose for SOLE:
“My wish is to help design the future of learning by supporting children all over the world to tap into their innate sense of wonder and work together. Help me build the School in the Cloud, a learning lab in India, where children can embark on intellectual adventures by engaging and connecting with information and mentoring online. I also invite you, wherever you are, to create your own miniature child-driven learning environments and share your discoveries.”
What a great initiative. Increasingly at work we provide people with a challenge, the support they need to meet that challenge and kudos when they get there. On the way, undoubtedly they learn. It’s the natural way. Why should children be any different? Sugata Mitra should be applauded for applying the latest technologies to his original discovery and providing a radical new vision of education.
Hi Ara – Sugata Mitra has indeed been awarded the TED 2013 prize for his School in the Cloud ‘wish’ – http://www.ted.com/pages/prizewinner_sugata_mitra
All the best, David
The experiment and the work conducted by Sugata can be applied to how we think about the relationship between students, teachers, and technology. The big question of
today: Can teachers be replaced by technology like laptops, mobile gadgets, and
internet? Some educators go for technologies, and they believe computers and
internet are far more efficient than human hands. Mctague (2014) reported that
the Ark Schools – One of England’s biggest academy chains – will introduce a new
blended learning model in 2016 which students will be taught over the internet.
Schools in the US adopted similar approach, Rocketship operated nine schools in
Milwaukee and San Jose with 5000 students spend 25% of their school day online.
In these two examples, educators claimed that schools are able to reduce the
number of teachers hired, and reallocated resources to other needed area.
However, as much innovation as digital devices and internet can bring to the classroom, many educators believe there are greater needs for teachers. Despite Sugata advocates
the “minimally invasive” approach of education, he recognize the important role
of teachers. As according to the equation of the Self-Organized Learning
Environments (SOLE) – broadband, collaboration, and encouragement – teachers
serve the encouragement role but with a different name, they are referred as
e-mediators. The setting up of the Granny Cloud aims to support the SOLE by
recruiting e-mediators to stay in touch online with Indian students by reading
stories, provide praise, and share about interesting things outside India. As
reported by Wakefield (2012), Sugata sees huge potential for the recruitment of
retired workforce to serve the role of the e-mediators, because retired
workforce have great expertise to share. That is why many educators still believe,
whatever word we choose – teacher, tutor, facilitator, mentor, or mediator –
technology cannot replace the role of a human being who care.
In my point of view, good teachers are irreplaceable; they are leaders, role models, and
facilitators who can help students to construct their own knowledge effectively.
Instead of seeing technology as a replacement of teachers, a more constructive
view is to explore how and what should be done that teachers can make use of technology to become good teachers.
Ruby Choy Ching Yee
References
Wakefield, J.(2012, April 30). Granny army helps India’s school children via the cloud. BBC News. Retrieved from
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-17114718
Mctague, T.(2014, June 13). Computers to replace teachers in the classroom by 2016. Daily Mail Online. Retrieved from
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2657195/Computers-replace-teachers-classroom-2016-radical-plans-considered-new-free-school.html