Please watch this talk here:
http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education.html
Here are some of my thoughts: first, I found it a bit disturbing. Is he saying that we can effectively eliminate teachers and students will learn on their own? That what seems to be happening in some of the poor slums of New Delhi? That kind of bodes poorly for us as educators!
Or can we look at it another way - given the correct guidance, mixture of direct and discovery instruction and access to technology students (even young ones who don't speak the language!) can learn (and remember) high-level content. But can they learn the other non-cognitive skills that are required for learning - determination, stubbornness, grit - in this environment?
I liked the idea of "the granny cloud" - this brings in community involvement in the learning process, which I think is an important missing component in our educational models. What do you think?
Another response I had was more positive. In some ways I am trying to promote this methodology in our class. Provide tasks, time, community and resources to investigate science content without a lot of direct instruction. This is hard, right? Is it effective? It certainly can be stressful at times.
Like many things - I believe that the true road lies somewhere in the middle. I liked two quotes from the blog by Arthur C. Clarke:
A teacher that can be replaced by a machine – should be.
If children have interest, education happens.
Especially the second one resonates with me - kids want to learn and in some cases teachers need to step out of the way and let it happen.
So, to "score" for this SBG you need to post a thoughtful and detailed blog (2 would be even better). I would like for this to be a conversation rather then a reporting. But certainly do include some details from the video to support your statements. This should be done by October 21st.
Thanks! And Enjoy.
Matt
'If children have interest, then education will happen.'
ReplyDeleteSo whose job is it? The child's to have interest? Or the teacher to be interesting? But some children do not find math interesting. So should the teacher be replaced with a computer, simply because math isn't an interesting subject to a student?
Yes, if a child is interested, they will learn something more easily. But it also takes drive, it takes a teacher being willing to work with the child, help them understand, and maybe through this the child will find it interesting. And even if they don't, at least they have learned something.
I do like the grandmother method though, because children need to be feel re-enforced in what they do. If a child does a problem right, and the teacher just shrugs, or doesn't acknowledge it- then why would the child want to get another one right?
Teachers need to be interactive, because kids are interactive. Teachers need to get on their level, and go outside of the box in order to capture the kids attention. It is good to have visual stimulation, and have kids work with computers, but you cannot replace learning from a person with learning from a screen.
The child-driven method featured in this TED talk reminds me of the Montessori method. I think that there are some interesting interpretations of experiments presented here, and I would be curious to see more of the collected results. The ideas presented here do not suggest to me that the internet could or should replace teachers. I saw examples of children teaching each other. In someways, the internet is like a library. Should students be allowed access to information? Where does the information in the "library" come from? How does access to information shape society? I'd like to expand on Reina's statement; I think that people of all ages can benefit from "feel(ing) re-enforced in what they do." It makes being part of a community more meaningful to the individual.
ReplyDeleteEven though children can teach themselves, I believe teachers 1. speed up the process, 2. critique where needed, and 3. offer a deeper understanding through experience and knowledge that a child just beginning would not normally achieve. I remember a friend telling me that it took her sister two weeks to learn the same amount on the guitar with a teacher than she did teaching herself for three months.
ReplyDeleteThis also reminds me a lot of the changing paradigms video when he talked about group education. When you get a group of students together, they can figure out problems with new and creative ideas that would never have emerged if they had solved the problem individually.
I think one of the key aspects to this approach is just following the children's interests. I saw a video about one Reggio class building a water park for birds, because the children wanted birds to have more than bird baths. They built huge structures made out of wood and metal. These structures included waterwheels, fountains, and a mini-beach with lawn chairs. The park was so large it covered most of the park outside the school. The craziest part is that the children were only five years old. Now that's learning.
Reina, I like your idea that a teacher needs to help make a subject interesting. Like you said, a teacher should help the child understand the material, so they will become more involved with it. I think a child who becomes frustrated with something they don't understand will put up mental walls against that specific information. Through adjusting the material to fit the child, the teacher may be able to prevent those walls.
ReplyDeleteSAS, how does this remind you of Montessori?
It seems that this presentation clearly points out that the current system is in drastic need of joining the present world in order to stimulate the minds of the young. All through this video we see the kids quickly absorbing new information and finding ways, in groups, to obtain answers to questions. Though the intial results are remarkable in relation to the kids learning, in no way does this mean that teachers can simply be replaced by merely posing questions to them and hope that they achieve the right answer. However I do believe that what needs to happen is to find the means and a way to provide teachers with the training and current technological equipment in order to keep students interested and motivated to learn.
ReplyDeleteSAS, I like what you are saying. I too believe that there will always be a need for "real" teachers. All of these kids have had some basic form of training already, where did they learn to speak, how do they learn to read what was on the computer screen, etc.
ReplyDeleteThis presentation was amazing and very eye-opening. I really like the notion of when students have interest then education happens. I do not believe that it is safe to say that teachers can be replaced by computers, however I do believe that teachers with poor skills could and should be replaced by someone with better skills or even a computer. I thought it was amazing how much these children learned by teaching themselves and creating groups to further their learning. The grandma cloud was an awesome approach, because it promotes work whether the work produced is good or bad. Either way, whether from a computer or a human teacher, students will learn if they have interest. The key is to keep them interested!
ReplyDeleteEf, I like that you agree with SAS because I too feel the same way, teachers should be "real people" and not computers. However, if a computer can do a better job teaching then it should be used. All children need is to have interest, and teachers should be trained to help create that interest in their students. It will be interesting in the future to see where this takes us.
ReplyDeleteThis presentation was really remarkable to me. It was amazing that students could cover so much ground with such limited resources. Even though students learn through a discovery method like the one suggested here I think that teachers till have an important role in facilitating learning through guiding a student. I thought the fact that students were scoring 76% on a series of SAT questions was really intriguing. Imagine what a teacher could do by expanding on this gained knowledge; what's stopping them from helping make it possible for them to achieve 80% or even 90%? I think that we really should take this information into account. Why does school have to be such a dry environment? Why don't we make it more engaging? I agree that this idea has merit, but do think that a teacher is necessarily for further success. We saw int he video that one student tended to take on a teacher's role.
ReplyDeleteI agree with mythesprite. Though kids have the ability to teach themselves teachers should be involved to speed up the learning process. I also agree with the idea of following a students interest, just thinking of myself; if a class or subject doesn't spark my interest, I won't try. I can see how this is similar in students.
ReplyDeletei think its great these children could figure out the use of the computers without any guidance. I'm all for children learning on their own or to figure it out. It is a science. To explore and form a hypothesis on how things work or tick. We are born not knowing anything and we learned my watching because we didn't understand language at first. Just like a baby needs its mother ; a student will need his teacher to help in learning. I think teachers have a hard job teaching if they choose to work where the need is greater for a good pay thats great! but for nothing? uh no.
ReplyDeleteit appears children can figure things out on their own but with a group of children they are able to discuss and work together to figure out hoe to navigate the web. I enjoyed this video, it was cute.
ReplyDeleteI think it is amazing what children are capable of. This video really showed me that people underestimate the minds of children. I think it's amazing what they can accomplish in such little time! I don't think the the point is "that we can effectively eliminate teachers and students will learn on their own," the video is simply showing us that children are extremely capable of learning a wide majority of things. I agree with mythesprite that teachers help speed up the learning process and critique when needed. Using computers is just an additional took in helping the learning process.
ReplyDeleteThe TED snip-it with Sugata Mitra reminded me slightly of our class. We do lots of personal interest related stuff with our main tool and research source being the internet. I love the statement about if there is interest, education happens. I think this is true. If the educational system was somehow structured on this maybe more effective learning methods would develop. Although sometimes I feel like our current system is so open to "finding your interest" that sometimes direction is lost and major confusion begins. I would be sad to loose teachers though, there are enough good ones out that there that with out them education would suffer. What about movement classes, what about dance classes, I could never imagine a computer teaching ballet, or teaching piano. I appreciated what both SAS and Reina said about the importance of community learning. I think that this is one of the most positive education tools.
ReplyDelete• Sugata Mitra brings up a very controversial and interesting view of teaching- self-taught students. He believes that, “Education is a self-organizing system, where learning is an emergent phenomenon.” I think that his approach to education is very unique and riveting. I questioned his results initially, but the more study I have done on his results, the more evidence I find, even in my own life. However, there are some things that cannot be taught over the internet or the “granny cloud,” or Skype, such as languages, and maybe math. There are many things that a person can learn from the interent, but there are also some things that are much easier to learn in person. And as for emotional support, I believe that a child needs a guide, especially when a parent isn’t there for them for whatever reason. Also, relating to Ken Robinson’s video, internet teaching doesn’t allow for all of the hands-on opportunities that an in-class teacher might. However, I accept Mitra’s results and I believe I could implement them in my own classroom someday (assuming I get the chance!!)
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