Watch this video! It may change the way you think about Technology and Education!

Children in New Delhi learning at a computer in the Hole in the Wall project.

Hi, everyone,
On my RSS feed today, I came across this video.  Take a few minutes and watch it, and I think you will be quite interested!  Sugata Mitra explains how his experimental "Hole in the Wall" process demonstrates that children are quite capable of learning on their own, even in empoverished and illiterate areas.  His experiments show that by working in groups, with positive encouragement (he calls this the "Grandmother Cloud"), students learn even complex things, remarkably quickly and deeply.

I was watching my students last week as they struggled to learn the 50 states online.  Two of the boys enjoyed the game, worked hard at it independently, and made some definite progress.  One boy got very frustrated, put his head down several times, and needed my encouragement to continue.  The other kept trying to interact with his neighbor, either to help him get an answer or solicit help himself.  Since my goal was just to have them learn, not assess them, I encouraged them to give each other hints and support.

I wonder what would happen if I put them all on one computer?  It would be interesting to see if they would all learn equally or whether some of them would "check out" and let a leader do the work?  I may have to do an experiment and see!

One of the reasons I mention this is that we are discussing student group learning and Delicious.  In a way, by having students share their bookmarks, we are encouraging them to share learning.  But after watching this video, I wonder whether that is enough.  I loved seeing the intensity and excitement on the students in the videos, and I want to see that on my students as well.

What do you think?  Do we need more active ways to have students collaborate via skype, chat, etc. while researching?  Should they work in a group on one or two computers, and be encouraged to discuss their research aloud instead of learning in an isolated setting?  Active vs. passive learning...

It's worth thinking about!