A School in The Clouds

 Ted Talk by Sugata Mitra


Sugata makes the argument that our current education is based on the need 300 years ago to create the Bureaucratic Administrative Machine by the British Empire.  In order to be a part of the machine you had to know 3 things: 

How to add, subtract, multiply and divide in your head. You needed to read and have good handwriting. 

Sugata's argument is that we do not need those same skills anymore, only reading. 

He began to do experiments with children who do not have access to the same technology or education to see if they could learn the skills needed to use technology and could solve complicated problems/ learn about complicated information.



This brings us back to the idea of technology natives. Are children actually technology natives OR are they just curious enough to figure things out when THEY deem it interesting and important. 


As a parent I believe we see this all of the time, but often do not think about it this way. If our children are interested in something be it video games, sports or even legos they will learn all they can about it. They will request adult help when needed to further their understanding and the learning does not end, they continue to grow and willingly practice whatever skill it is to enhance their abilities. 


Kids get a bad wrap when it comes to learning because we are usually only looking at what we, the adults want them to learn. We do not stop and look at how they learn, why they learn and WHAT makes them want to learn. 

Our society is test happy, everything is based on how well you do on a test. My daughter cannot spell, she fails almost all of her spelling tests and I have come to the conclusion that it's ok. We will use opportunities to encourage her and teach her tricks to help her learn.. But at the end of the day as long as she is able to use technology spelling is not really an important skill because it is done for us when we write. 


Our students do not feel connected to what they are learning. This is from my 18 year old who struggled through classes to graduate high school. His complaint was, why am I learning this, I don't care about these topics and have no plans to ever need this information again. 

As teachers we need to be more like the British grandma's and just guide the students through their learning. 




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