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This is a fascinating interview discussing what children can learn if given a computer and little, if any, instruction. Very Cool. Links on the progress since this interview are at the end of the post.
A: Yes. It started out as a joke but I’ve kept using the term … This is a system of education where you assume that children know how to put two and two together on their own. So you stand aside and intervene only if you see them going in a direction that might lead into a blind alley.
The interview explores what happened when:
What he discovered was that the most avid users of the machine were ghetto kids aged 6 to 12, most of whom have only the most rudimentary education and little knowledge of English. Yet within days, the kids had taught themselves to draw on the computer and to browse the Net. Some of the other things they learned, Mitra says, astonished him.
A: Well, I tried another experiment. I went to a middle-class school and chose some ninth graders, two girls and two boys. I called their physics teacher in and asked him, “What are you going to teach these children next year at this time?” He mentioned viscosity. I asked him to write down five possible exam questions on the subject. I then took the four children and said, “Look here guys. I have a little problem for you.” They read the questions and said they didn’t understand them, it was Greek to them. So I said, “Here’s a terminal. I’ll give you two hours to find the answers.”
Then I did my usual thing: I closed the door and went off somewhere else.
They answered all five questions in two hours. The physics teacher checked the answers, and they were correct. That, of itself, doesn’t mean much. But I said to him, “Talk to the children and find out if they really learned something about this subject.” So he spent half an hour talking to them. He came out and said, “They don’t know everything about this subject or everything I would teach them. But they do know one hell of a lot about it. And they know a couple of things about it I didn’t know.”
I would think some might object to the fact that such conditions exist. But they do for millions of kids today.
And I think we can all learn some ideas from this experiment that could be useful.
My favorite charity is Trickle Up. If you want to do something to change the conditions for many who don’t have access to this blog I recommend it.
Related: PBS Frontline story – Hole in the Wall Foundation – A ‘hole in the wall’ helps educate India – The Hole-In-The-Wall 2003 study – Appropriate Technology – Water and Electricity for all
January 10th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
[...] “It has built-in wireless networking and video conferencing so that groups of children can work together. The project is also working to ensure that children using the laptop around the world can be in contact.” [...]
November 13th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
We mentioned the Give One Get One program last month – you can buy one for yourself with the purchase of one for a child in the developing world. The cost is $400, $200 qualifies as a charitable deduction (the gift for the child).
November 15th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
“between ‘what kids can learn’ on this gizmo and the ‘Trickle up.org’ factor of taking the first steps out of poverty by using media for positive change, regardless of who ends up with the green machine, I’m in…”
December 12th, 2007 at 7:54 pm
“Rufus does not have an opinion about that controversy, but he does have a verdict on the laptop. “It’s great,” he says…”
February 23rd, 2008 at 9:16 pm
donate using the widget displayed in this post: to William Kamkwamba who built his own windmill in Malawi to get electricity for his home…
February 25th, 2008 at 11:06 am
I remember such discussions with Dad (Chemical Engineering professor). The only danger I saw was him getting tied of -why? (when I was older)…
July 10th, 2008 at 2:59 am
I’m amazed at what my ten year old is capable of doing, and finding, on the Internet. Quite independent of me or his siblings, he has created several blogs, taught himself to capture and edit screenshots of a MPRG he plays (Club Penguin) and started posting tips and tricks for other Club Penguin participants. We’ve done nothing to foster this, simply made a computer available in the family room for limited amounts of time each day.
July 29th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
I totally agree with you Fergus. My nephews and nieces are even younger as your ten years old. I am amazed every time when I see hem browse through my own free games website I once put together for them. They learn so quickly! If I think what I did at that age, it was probably nothing but playing outdoors with a ball when the weather was fine and reading comics and books inside when it was raining or cold. On the other end I don’t know if kids are happier these days knowing so much already. Sometimes I have the feeling that kids can’t be true kids anymore.
August 7th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Growing up with a computer in the home has made a huge difference for young people today. They see the internet as a natural extention of themselves. Their blog is a psuedo diary which lets their friends know what happened to them or what is going on after school. My youngest even has a blog – she turned the picture book we posted online after she was born into her own page and she is only 10 years old!
August 14th, 2008 at 9:38 am
I remember seeing a program about this on the tv and found it facinating.
It was amazing how these children managed without guidance to figure it all out. Its almost as if they are preprogrammed to adapt to this computer age.
I wonder if children nowadays will ever experience the simple “toys” of our yesterdays.
I believe that there has probably been more of a leap in the knowledge that they have gleaned over the last decade than at any time before.
Are we going to have a future generation of whizkids, I think we are.
August 26th, 2008 at 4:06 am
I think the experiment you carried out was marvelous. I think the concept of this self learning should be implemented in schools. Actually if I go to see we really become dependent on the tutors to teach us. And like machines we learn what the tutor has taught us. I think it’s great to inculcate this habit of self learning among children. to find solutions to your own problems, if faced with any difficulty we are there to help.
January 7th, 2009 at 10:34 am
[...] I believe strongly in the ability of kids to learn if they are just provided some tools that help them do so. See a great post on Hole in the Wall computers. [...]
January 11th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
[...] Give Children a Computer and Stand Back – $100 Laptops for the World by curiouscat Tags: Technology Permalink to: Why [...]
April 16th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
I’m a huge fan of the idea of Nature vs Nurture (siding with Nurture). The idea of Tabula Rasa means that everyone starts off pretty close to the same (give or take some IQ, etc.), and has the ability to learn to be anything. If we give people computers when they’re young, they’ll go to Wikipedia and learn things really fast, especially if they computers are pre-loaded with things that will encourage learning, etc.