E-learn Weblog of Willem van Valkenburg

Op Dies van de TU Delft op 7 januari 2011 ontvangt Sugata Mitra een ere-doctoraat voor onder meer zijn belangrijke werk rond het zelf-organiserend leren. Vorige week verzorgde hij nog de afsluitende keynote van de Onderwijsdagen.

About Sugata Mitra
Intrigued by how children might learn without being conventionally taught, Mitra 11 years ago conducted a first experiment: He ordered a hole cut in the wall of the New Delhi office of NIIT, an international IT training company where he headed research and development. In the opening, he put a high-speed computer with Internet access, and he waited. Within hours, curious children from the nearby slum had begun flocking to the machine, exploring it and figuring out which actions yielded results.

In the days and weeks that followed, and in subsequent experiments, the most advanced computer users among the curious kids taught their siblings and friends what they knew, and those children taught more children. They learned to browse the Internet, create documents, play games, and paint pictures. They used the computer's programs to learn words in English, assemble virtual dinosaur skeletons, and listen to stories aloud. The children, ages 8-13, developed their own vocabulary for the task, calling the cursor image a needle and folders cupboards. Mitra describes the process as "minimally invasive education."

Ever since, about 600 ‘holes in the wall’ have been created across India, Africa, and Asia.

Sugata Mitra is currently leading a research project at the NewCastle University in UK, where he is applying similar concepts of self organising learning systems in regular schools.

Voorafgaand aan de dies op 6 januari verzorgt hij een gastcollege op de faculteit TBM. Meer informatie hierover is te vinden op deze pagina.