COURTESY OF HOLE-IN-THE-WALL EDUCATION LIMITED
Voices
now we need to use it to spark the
imaginations and build the mental
muscles of children worldwide.
This journey, for me, began
back in 1999, when I conducted
an experiment called the “hole in
the wall.” By installing internetequipped computers in poor Indian
villages and then watching how
children interacted with them, unmediated, I first glimpsed the power
of the cloud. Groups of street children learned to use computers and
the internet by themselves, with little or no knowledge of English and
never having seen a computer before. Then they started instinctually
teaching one another. In the next
five years, through many experiments, I learned just how powerful
adults can be when they give small
groups of children the tools and the
agency to guide their own learning
SUGATA
MITRA
HUFFINGTON
03.10.13
In the networked age,
we need schools, not structured
like factories, but like clouds.”
and then get out of the way.
It’s not just poor kids that can
benefit from access to the Internet
and the space and time to wonder and wander. Today, teachers
around the world are using what
I call “SOLEs,” “self organized
learning environments,” where
children group around internetequipped computers to discuss
big questions. The teacher merges
into the background and observe
as learning happens.
I once asked a group of 10-yearolds in the little town of Villa Mercedes in Argentina: Why do we have
five fingers and toes on each limb?
What’s so special about five? Their
answer may surprise you.
The children arrived at their answer by investigating both theology
A hole-inthe-wall
learning
station in
Changjiji,
Thimpu,
Bhutan, in
2009.