Meet Dr. Sugata Mitra, a Professor of Educational Technology at a university in England and winner of the TED Prize 2013. He started an experiment about fifteen years ago called “Hole in the Wall” in which he found out that children can teach themselves and each other, if they are motivated by curiosity and peer interest.
The first experiment consisted of cutting a hole in the wall of an urban slum and embed an internet-connected computer screen and a touchpad. The computer was left there with a hidden camera and a remote desktop access to track its activity. After a few hours, children wondered about the object in the wall and gathered around it to learn how to use it. Dr. Mitra found out that kids as young as eight years old learned to browse the internet and taught younger kids to do so. This was especially interesting for him since the computer was set up in English, and these kids didn’t show any knowledge in the language.
Dr. Mitra experimented further and discovered that ten year old children could self-organized and teach themselves about DNA replication in as little as two months using material in a foreign language! He also found out he could boost the learning curiosity through adult encouragement and admiration or what he calls the “grandmother method”. This consisted in having adults around them admiring what the kids were learning versus simply accepting it. He continued to refine his method by experimenting in schools around the world and named the method Self Organized Learning Environment (S.O.L.E.). This technique can be used at schools or at home and perhaps at work. The concept is simple, one computer per four kids, paper, pencils and a question to answer.
I stumbled upon Dr. Sugata’s work about 5 years ago when I played the technical lead role on a challenging project. It involved a relocation, a different culture and language, and new business/fiscal acumen. I realized I needed to learn fast but I also realized it was way too much to tackle. I hopelessly googled how to learn fast from content in a foreign language, and a link to Dr. Mitra’s work showed up in the results! I got fascinated as I read through it. While reading his work, I realized I couldn’t do this alone. Just as the kids gathered in front of a computer to do research on a question, I needed to surround with others. I opted to leave the books behind, I grabbed a paper notebook and engaged in collaborative research. I also discovered other three key attributes the kids were enacting: curiosity, connection and collaboration. I will address each of them in later blog posts, PLEASE STAY TUNED!
