Lit
Review
I
watched a ted talk on the future of schools. Sugata Mitra started a study using
hole in the wall computers. He left these computers in a wall, in poor areas
that did not have computers. These kids had no idea how to use computers. He
left them for 9 months and when he came back they were browsing the internet
and understood the computer. He then left a speech to text technology system,
he had them practice their English accents. They needed to say the sentence until
the speech to text device had scribed for them properly.
His
results favored self-directed learning, this is what are schools should move
towards. He said “Learning is a product of self-organization. If you allow the
brain to self-organize, Learning emerges. It’s not about making learning
happen, it’s about letting it happen”. The teacher should simply ask the
questions, and encourage them, then stand back while they get the answer. I
like his idea of a “school in the clouds” as Sugata Mitra calls it. Students are
capable of learning so much, technology is a key to learning anything they want
to know and more.
This
TED talk is about the future of schools, and the future of technology. Although
this is similar to virtual schools and online classes, I think this is a little
different. I like the idea of self-directed learning. The students will learn
what they want to know and what they need to know in life. Some of the questions
he posed were:
To a
9 year old: say, if a meteorite was headed towards the earth, how would you find
out if it will hit or not? If they say, how would you know? You say, its one
magical word, a tangent of an angle. Then you leave them alone.
As
teachers, with the internet around, we have an amazing resource. It makes
learning interesting. Also, when you research something because you want to
know, it tends to stick in your brain longer. I learned we should have prompting
questions for the students to do their own research. My go to line is “I’m not
sure, google it”. They end up with the right answer, and they came up with it
themselves. But, I like if more in depth prompt for self-directed research.
Bibliography:
Build
a School in the Cloud (Sugata Mitra:)
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