Here's an interesting set of ideas that might go against some of my assumptions in regard to the OLPC project from MIT. However, I am not so sure about the results just yet. Begin forwarded message:
From: Knut Yrvin <knuty@skolelinux.no> Date: September 10, 2006 3:45:56 AM EDT To: schoolforge-discuss@schoolforge.net Subject: [school-discuss] Self Organising Systems for mass education Reply-To: schoolforge-discuss@schoolforge.net
By Sugata Mitra, Dean of Research at The NIIT Institute and Chief Scientist at NIIT Limited
* An extract:
The “Hole in the wall” experiments
Groups of children can learn to use computers on their own, irrespective of who or where they are.
Groups of children, given access to shared, publicly accessible computers in playgrounds and other public areas, will teach themselves to use the technology on their own.
The original “hole in the wall”, January 1999, Kalkaji, New Delhi, India
We found this through a set of experiments conducted from 1999 onwards and often referred to as the “Hole-in-the-wall” experiments.
We found that children given unsupervised access to computers in public or play areas would become:
1. Computer literate – in their own way, with their own vocabulary, but highly effective nevertheless. 2. Better at math and English – I don’t know why, maybe because they learn to analyze and solve problems in groups. 3. More social and cooperative – because they learn that knowledge, unlike material objects, grows with sharing. 4. More interested in school – if the computer is near or in the school premises. 5. Less likely to drop out of school – because they want their computer. 6. Less interested in petty crime – mostly because all their free time is spent at the computer. 7. Generate local goodwill – parents like the idea that the child is learning something and not creating trouble at home.
It took us five years of rigorous measurements across the Indian subcontinent to verify these results amongst 40,000 of the world’s poorest children. Almost half of them, girls.
The data based outcomes showed:
* Acquisition of functional computer literacy * Improvement in academic performance * Increase in confidence and self-esteem * Increased collaborative behavior
Apart from data-based findings, there is consistent anecdotal evidence of large-scale impact on school enrollment, retention, concentration, attention span and problem-solving ability.
To keep computers working in, mostly, outdoor environments, we had to design several pieces of hardware and software. In five years a design emerged that is reliable and low on maintenance. The design is resistant to vandalism and undesirable adult access. Interestingly, both vandalism and adult access is automatically low in public places where children are present. We were also able to design software to remotely monitor all activity at these “playground” computers.
We found much more effective use of the computers already owned by schools—200 children can become computer literate using one playground computer—making it an effective and affordable method.
Without adult intervention or supervision, 40,000 village children experimented with computers and software to acquire an enduring understanding of the information age.
The news article:
http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/5865
The scientific articles:
http://www.hole-in-the-wall.com/docs/Paper06.pdf http://www.hole-in-the-wall.com/Publications.html
Best regards
Knut Yrvin
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