Reflections on
Sugata Mitra's hole in the wall TED Talk
Sugata Mitra's talk on the "Hole in the Wall" experiment is intriguing. The fact that uneducated small children could teach themselves, by computer, to speak English in a Tamil speaking society is amazing. And even more amazing, that they did it by themselves out of pure curiosity. Adventurous poor children, exploring a computer fastened in a public wall, that was set up in English. The story in this video is extraordinary:
How awesome is the thrill of discovery in students (and adults as well), that when harnessed, is a driving force for learning and innovation. How can we make use of these discoveries? In contrast, the grinding challenge of Common Core requirements is a recipe for cookie cutter students. The love of learning is sometimes squashed, trying to make an assessment tool, that grades all students across the Earth. I am saddened by the narrow focus this forms in a few teachers. Those few teachers in the United States seem to think the objective of teaching is to have a quiet class, sitting like eggs in an egg carton. For example, while substitute teaching at an unnamed site, I was teaching a class that required a lesson on the human heart. The lesson contained some basic facts, simply that the heart is about the size of a fist, and that the heart supplies oxygen to all the cells in the body. This is a simple and easy lesson, but it was well below these fourth graders and they hungered for more. We had finished nine minutes early so I had a little time to field some of their slightly off topic questions. They were asking about what smoking does to the heart and lungs. I told them that they ought to see, or maybe not see what cigarette smoke blackened lungs looked like.
As I was saying this, the tech-savvy girl who was running the Smart board behind me, quickly Googled an image of a smoke blackened pair of lungs, and the whole class was fascinated. Some had parents or relatives that smoked. We Googled from smoke damaged lungs to clogged arteries, aneurisms, damaged hearts, and so on. The excitement of learning and the thrill of discovery had the whole class enthralled. Most of the students stood up from their folding chairs and were commenting, pointing, and asking new questions. They and I were having a good time chasing down these side trails with our few minutes of spare time.
Suddenly their teacher, who happened to be passing down the hall, rushed into the room, seeing them standing up and not quiet. She berated them heartily over their standing up and talking, ignoring my attempts to get her attention. Then she rushed back out in the hallway with a self-satisfied look on her face, totally misreading the student's motives and activity. Scolded for their curiosity, in a brief moment, their natural curiosity and love of learning was squashed. Does learning have to be a chore and a bore? Like this image below, should students check their mind at the door, and kill time until it is time to go home?
We should fan the flame of the love of learning and discovery. When we see enthusiasm, and earnest investigation, we should encourage them to travel into new realms, where they have not explored before. We then will see a new generation brighten the scholarly academic horizon with new discoveries! They, like us, will enjoy the wonder and mystery of learning.
A wise old man once said to me, "Beware of smothering enthusiasm. It is better to have a few sparks on the rug, than a cold fireplace." This is wise counsel.
Flame and Socrates quote
Now I must hasten to add that although I agree with much of what Mitra has noted, I must tweak his premise some. I do teaching in many classrooms and am likewise aware that in the normal class size of 24 students, not all are interested in the computer. Most are, but roughly 25% are not. So if a camera were set on those "Hole in the Wall" computer sites one would probably see that not all children are interested in a computer. Certainly some children looked at the computer, and just continued walking. Mitra makes no mention of that. But in a classroom, we don't get to only invite those that are interested. Public education requires every student to attend up to age sixteen. So not every child will be self-taught by a computer.
And there are two other problems with Mitra's "Hole in the Wall" situation. One problem is purely practical. And that is, they are kids. Between playing the computer, many would probably get into fights. Normally twenty four children left in a room, classroom, open field or whatever will have some sort of disagreement arise, and some sort of conflict will break out (I might note with adults as well). And besides conflicts, the last problem is that children might take the road of least resistance and simply lay around, or run off to something even more pleasurable. It is human nature. Some might just choose to goof off instead of working. So when it comes to children learning for their education, an adult does still need to be in oversight of them to some degree. There is a need for an oversee/teacher, to keep them from straying into trouble, or goofing around. So Mitra's idea should be encouraged and enabled, but an adult overseer/teacher needs to be a part of the mix, and not expect children to operate for a school year solely by themselves.
Now as far as current classrooms are concerned, it would be difficult to weave in Mitra's revelations. Common Core is tough enough to keep up with as it is, but allowing children more flexibility and less teacher led learning would not be easily accomplished. As the saying goes, "It is difficult to put new wine in old wineskins, because the old wineskins will split with all that energy. And the old wineskins will think that the old way is best." So instead we need "new wineskins for the new wine." The present structure can be tweaked some, but will not allow that much freedom.
So probably a new school setting will have to be created. Normally a good format is a "Magnet School" were innovations can be tried out. A magnet school will attract innovative parents who would welcome a new approach. And if the new approach is working, a new setting can be created in the mainstream schools. For their sake and for ours, let's see how this works out in an experimental setting, before we change over the whole system. But one thing is possible, if children are given more freedom to explore, it could be astounding. Carpe' Diem!
http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_shows_how_kids_teach_themselves?language=en
As I was saying this, the tech-savvy girl who was running the Smart board behind me, quickly Googled an image of a smoke blackened pair of lungs, and the whole class was fascinated. Some had parents or relatives that smoked. We Googled from smoke damaged lungs to clogged arteries, aneurisms, damaged hearts, and so on. The excitement of learning and the thrill of discovery had the whole class enthralled. Most of the students stood up from their folding chairs and were commenting, pointing, and asking new questions. They and I were having a good time chasing down these side trails with our few minutes of spare time.
Suddenly their teacher, who happened to be passing down the hall, rushed into the room, seeing them standing up and not quiet. She berated them heartily over their standing up and talking, ignoring my attempts to get her attention. Then she rushed back out in the hallway with a self-satisfied look on her face, totally misreading the student's motives and activity. Scolded for their curiosity, in a brief moment, their natural curiosity and love of learning was squashed. Does learning have to be a chore and a bore? Like this image below, should students check their mind at the door, and kill time until it is time to go home?
We should fan the flame of the love of learning and discovery. When we see enthusiasm, and earnest investigation, we should encourage them to travel into new realms, where they have not explored before. We then will see a new generation brighten the scholarly academic horizon with new discoveries! They, like us, will enjoy the wonder and mystery of learning.
A wise old man once said to me, "Beware of smothering enthusiasm. It is better to have a few sparks on the rug, than a cold fireplace." This is wise counsel.
Flame and Socrates quote
Now I must hasten to add that although I agree with much of what Mitra has noted, I must tweak his premise some. I do teaching in many classrooms and am likewise aware that in the normal class size of 24 students, not all are interested in the computer. Most are, but roughly 25% are not. So if a camera were set on those "Hole in the Wall" computer sites one would probably see that not all children are interested in a computer. Certainly some children looked at the computer, and just continued walking. Mitra makes no mention of that. But in a classroom, we don't get to only invite those that are interested. Public education requires every student to attend up to age sixteen. So not every child will be self-taught by a computer.
And there are two other problems with Mitra's "Hole in the Wall" situation. One problem is purely practical. And that is, they are kids. Between playing the computer, many would probably get into fights. Normally twenty four children left in a room, classroom, open field or whatever will have some sort of disagreement arise, and some sort of conflict will break out (I might note with adults as well). And besides conflicts, the last problem is that children might take the road of least resistance and simply lay around, or run off to something even more pleasurable. It is human nature. Some might just choose to goof off instead of working. So when it comes to children learning for their education, an adult does still need to be in oversight of them to some degree. There is a need for an oversee/teacher, to keep them from straying into trouble, or goofing around. So Mitra's idea should be encouraged and enabled, but an adult overseer/teacher needs to be a part of the mix, and not expect children to operate for a school year solely by themselves.
Now as far as current classrooms are concerned, it would be difficult to weave in Mitra's revelations. Common Core is tough enough to keep up with as it is, but allowing children more flexibility and less teacher led learning would not be easily accomplished. As the saying goes, "It is difficult to put new wine in old wineskins, because the old wineskins will split with all that energy. And the old wineskins will think that the old way is best." So instead we need "new wineskins for the new wine." The present structure can be tweaked some, but will not allow that much freedom.
So probably a new school setting will have to be created. Normally a good format is a "Magnet School" were innovations can be tried out. A magnet school will attract innovative parents who would welcome a new approach. And if the new approach is working, a new setting can be created in the mainstream schools. For their sake and for ours, let's see how this works out in an experimental setting, before we change over the whole system. But one thing is possible, if children are given more freedom to explore, it could be astounding. Carpe' Diem!
Well said, James. The situation you described in which the teacher squashed students' curiosity and intrigue because students seemed to be unruly plays out too often in our classrooms.
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