No one doubts the power of education to transform lives, countries, and indeed the entire world. the disagreements arise over how that education should be structured ; how long it should be ; who should pay for it ; and who should receive it.
Indian physicist and educational researcher sugata mitra has some fascinating answers to some of those questions. mitra has conducted numerous field experiments from the literal streets of india to affluent schools of england.
The results of his studies are stunning. mitra has demonstrated that the most valuable educational reform is not a government jenis or privatisation for corporate control. it’s self-organisation. that if children can organise themselves into groups of around five, and if they have access to a single computer among them, then adults need provide only guiding questions, limited supervision, and endless encouragement, for the children to achieve more than they could if adults imposed exterior design.
Sugata Mitra has racked up a stunning series of accomplishments. he’s credited with more than 25 inventions in cognitive science and educational technology. he’s published over 35 research papers and a thousand articles in popular magazines and newspapers. he’s worked in numerous educational, technological and management positions, including as chief scientist at the centre for research in cognitive systems, india’s largest multinational training and software services company. his leadership in its r&d centre coincided with a 3, 300% increase in the company’s profits. he’s also made numerous technological breakthroughs, including being one of the pioneers of hyperlinking.
Mitra has won extensive commendations for his accomplishments, including a “best ict story” award from the world bank’s global knowledge ii conference in kuala lumpur, the “best social innovation of the year 2000” award from the uk-based institute for social inventions, and the “man for peace” award for 2002 from the together for peace foundation, in italy. his educational work inspired indian diplomat vikas swarup to write the novel q&a, which became the international sensation slumdog millionaire.
He’s currently professor of educational technology at the school of education, communication and language sciences, in newcastle university, uk.
In the following presentation, sugata mitra discusses the revolutionary results of his so-called “hole in the wall” educational experiment with extremely poor children in india. while mitra has the unfortunate tendency to speak about the 54 countries of the african continent as if they were a single state, and even to make african jungle references, he nonetheless conducted some of his research on the continent, and argues that all of his findings for self-organisation and progress are universally applicable.
He spoke at the conference of the association for learning technology or alt in nottingham, uk, on september 8, 2010. alt licensed redistribution of the speech under creative commons 2. 0.
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