They say..."Timing is Everything!" This is maybe a few months shy but so, so relevant to our current situation. Basically, Sugata Mitra saw potential through a wall leading to the slum. So, he thought why are all the rich people having all these amazingly brilliant children, what about the poor people who don't have access to technology?
The future of learning, schools are obsolete/outdated! What will education/learning look like? In 9 months a group of children left alone with a computer, in any language, will reach the same standard as an office secretary in the west. Sugata started thinking..."Could it be that we don't need to go to school at all?" He draws the conclusion that it's all about letting learning happen. H repeated this experiment all around the country and got the same results....every time. Encouragement seems to be the key. This is my whole basis of my "why". I feel if you give a child some encouragement, some positive words, they will roll with this! When you take the time to make that connection, build that bridge, show you care, they will perform for you as if they were a rock star. Children want to please, it's an innate quality.
Another point made was that of Self Organized Learning Environments (SOLE). This is exactly what we just experience through Distance Learning on March 13-June 2020.
SOLE is based on broadband + collaboration + encouragement
Sugata Mitra's wish is...that we design the future of learning! We can do this! Starting this fall. By supporting children all over the world. We can tap into their wonders & abilities to work together. I think we just did this on a smaller scale. If one person can collect all the data ⇨ send it to "A School in the Cloud"
Great post Susan. Connections between students and teachers/youth workers are missing today. Youth are very intuitive. They know whether or not adults are being their true selves or are being fake. We need to being our true selves to the classrooms. Develop a sense of community before moving on to anything else.
ReplyDeleteHi Susan!
ReplyDeleteHis point about rich parents having "gifted" kids really speaks to the fact that the more resources available, the better. When any child is given access, so many things can happen!