Discovery Learning and Technology-Hole in the Wall Project

Reading about this project is absolutely fascinating to me.  It only reinforces the idea that children of all ages, languages social-economic statuses are naturally curious, intelligent, and willing to learn.  Oftentimes in classrooms, students school me when it comes to technology. Admittedly this is one of my weaker areas as an educator, and something I am only hoping to increase my competence in as I continue my journey.

What is truly incredible is that these children had not been exposed to computers before and within a very short period of time, they were very proficient.  They were also creative enough to come up with names for the various features on these computers.  If we as educators are ever in doubt about the creativity, problem solving, and communication abilities among our students, reading about the Hole in the Wall project in Sugata’s book Beyond the Hole in the Wall…will reignite hope and a sense of purpose for teaching and learning.

Etext reflection snip

 

 

We repeated the experiment in two other locations: in the city of Shivpuri in Madhya Pradesh (Digvijay Singh, a prominent politician, was interested in our research), and in a village called Madantusi in Uttar Pradesh. Both of these experiments showed the same result as the Kalkaji experiment: The children seemed to learn to use the computer without any assistance. Language did not matter, and neither did education. Had we stumbled upon something universal about children and computers? I desperately needed to find research funding. (Kindle location, 188-192).

 

I am fairly familiar with kindles since I have a refurbished kindle touch, however the app on my computer is very useful.  I like that I can reference all of my highlights and notes in one place, as well as bookmark various pages.  I am still learning how to copy and paste sections that I have highlighted so that the highlight shows up in the paste.  To compensate, I used the highlight feature in Word to show where I highlighted in in the text. I’ll have to play with this feature a bit more in order to figure it out.  The kindle app can also be a very powerful teaching tool when discussing how to annotate a text.  The fact that it is free is also a great feature because students can practice using the app in class and at on their phones or computers.

 

Mitra, Sugata (2012-01-24). Beyond the Hole in the Wall: Discover the Power of Self-Organized Learning (Kindle Single) (TED Books) (Kindle Locations 171-173), (Kindle Locations 188-192). TED Books. Kindle Edition.