I just watched Sugata Mitra: The child-driven education. (TED Talk, 17:13)
and am very surprised at what I learned regarding child-driven education.
I’ve been involved
with education for approximately nine years now and I, at times, have had the impression
that child-driven education is not something that is practical. After having
watched this video, I am rethinking what the classroom could be. As this video
explains, there is a shortage of teachers where education is needed the most,
countries with limited resources and poverty. In the late nineties, Sugata
Mitra began experimenting with ways to bring education to children that would
otherwise miss out on the opportunities to learn. It started with computers
being set into walls in slums. What he found was the children took the initiative
to explore and figure out this machine, once they did that, they used it to
learn about things that interested them. One of the most amazing things that he
did, in my opinion, is that children began speaking better English through the
use of the speech to text programs in the Microsoft computers; they would have
to figure out how to speak English in a manner that the computer could
understand them.
This had an overlap of ISTE standards but this ted talk exhibited most impressively that standard regarding research and information fluency. As mentioned earlier, these students were asked to answer a questions. The most impressive thing is these students were given very little direction and were able to use google as well as trial and error to find the answers to the questions posed to them.
Sugata Mirta was adamant that children will want to learn when they have interest. Thinking back to my childhood and the children I see with their parents at a young age, it makes since to me now. I remember being bored at home and finding encyclopedias around the house (we didn’t have cable), and I would end up looking up things I was interested in, like birds and whales. My curiosity continued through elementary and middle school when I would go to my own library at school and I would check out books on these topics. I think back to young children that I babysat and anyone would agree, they ask “Why?” more then you can count. Children are naturally curious and so long as that is nurtured from a young age, they will continue to seek knowledge through their lifetime.
Good Post!
ReplyDeleteYou're right, at first the child-driven education doesn't seem like something that is practical for student learning. But like Sugata Mitra explains in the video, education happens when students have interest. He makes a great point, and its amazing what children will do on their own when you give them opportunities and options to teach themselves and one another. However I think its important to be conscious of the fact they are still very much children who need guidance. Child driven education is good in the classroom for some activities: like group work, research, discovery, etc. But every child needs a well-rounded education, which one cant get from simply searching what interests them; they need help discovering and understanding all that's out there.