Mitra put forward the idea of "the school in the Cloud"

Abstract: According to foreign media reports, Newcastle University professor Sugat Mitra (Sugata Mitra) proposed the concept of cloud schools, and to obtain the 1 million dollar 2013 Ted awards. Mitra conceived cloud schools make full use of students ' self-study ability, greatly reducing

According to foreign media reports, Newcastle University professor Suga Tes Mitra (sugata Mitra) proposed the "Cloud school" concept, and to obtain the 1 million-dollar 2013-year Ted Award. Mitra conceived cloud schools make full use of students ' self-study ability, greatly reduce educational input, subvert traditional education methods, and create educational equity.

What kind of person is Mitra? Every child wants to be his student. Mitra is unusually energetic, often smiling, often allowing students to play with electronic devices.

Tes Mitra (Sugata Mitra) addressed the TED Conference

Mitra his method education as "spontaneous organizational learning". The core idea is to stimulate students ' curiosity, to ask ingenious questions, and then to let go of the children to find the answers. Mitra, who is the winner of the 1 million-dollar Ted award this year, believes the idea is a completely new approach to education, subverting the traditional teaching model that has been in practice for hundreds of years.

Mitra is a professor of educational technology at Newcastle University (Newcastle University), a former physicist at New Delhi, India. According to him, he was a PhD in physics at the age of 26, but he needed to work outside of physics in order to earn a living. He knows how to write code, so he starts writing software and then teaches others to write software.

He has been in the software industry in the wind and bought himself a computer. When the expensive computer arrives at home, his son is engrossed in watching him install the computer. Mitra warned his son, "Don't touch My Computer." However, when Mitra encountered a computer problem, his son was able to help him quickly. Mitra said: "My son has learned a lot by observing." As a father, I think he is a genius. ”

One day in 1999, when Mitra came home from work and passed through the slums of New Delhi, he suddenly sensed that the genius of his son should not belong only to middle-class children. "Looking at the children in the slums, I thought to myself, my children have this gift and they have the same." ”

So Mitra did a strange experiment to prove his theory. He placed a computer in a wall in the slums of New Delhi and protected it with a plastic cover. Computers can surf the internet and have a mouse that can be manipulated. Mitra turned the computer on and left. "I left my computer in the den, and I knew it would be smashed and torn apart and sold," he said. Let me see what happens. ”

Eight hours later, Mitt pulls back to see the progress. As a result, he found that the children were surfing the internet, and they were using English that they did not speak at all.

One of Mitra's colleagues speculated that perhaps a programming student from Mitra had passed by and taught children to surf the internet. So Mitra decided to do the same experiment in a village about 200 kilometres from New Delhi. Mitra smiled and said: "Here, a software developer passing the possibility of zero." ”

Two months later, Mitra returned to the village and found that the children were playing games and surfing the internet. "We want a better mouse and a faster processor," a child said to Mitra. "And, someone complained:" You gave us a computer with only English, so we must learn English by ourselves. ”

Through this experiment called "the Hole in the Wall", Mitra first felt the concept of "self-study". "I stumbled across something that was ubiquitous," he said. It is indeed universal. ”

Since then, Mitra has spread the concept of self-study in hundreds of Indian elementary schools and then brought it to the United States, Britain, Australia, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and Latin America. Mitra's teaching method is not the traditional 3R (listening, writing and counting), but rooted in the problem, and focus on learning through collaboration. Mitra said: "This is not to motivate them to learn, but to let nature." ”

In Britain, Mitra recruited a group of retired old teachers-all women. The group of old teachers he called "Grandma Cloud" connected to Mitra's school via Skype. When the children are clustered together in groups of four or six people, "Grandma Cloud would ask questions like:" Is there more than zero? "," are robots also conscious "and" Why do my eyes cry when I'm sad? "

Then they could lie behind the chair and let the children wander for answers and learn. They only give the children the encouragement that grandmothers can offer. Mitra joked: "When a child is in trouble, we send an old lady." Mitra found that the children's English proficiency improved and the scientific results soared. They learn more and more quickly, and all depend on self-study. Mitra said: "This education method needs only broadband, collaboration and encouragement." ”

But it's a little scary, too.

The Mitra goal is to disrupt the educational machinery established by the UK over the past hundreds of years. "The British education system is a huge computer--the human computer. The aim is to build a human-made machine to support a huge bureaucratic system. But this is obsolete, and the Age of Empires is long gone. I am not saying it is not good, in fact it has been brilliant and brilliant, but we do not need. ”

So, Mitra put forward "cloud school" idea. A small group of 24 students was administered by his grandmother's volunteers. They ask questions and provide encouragement, and everything else can be done remotely, such as lighting, heating, door locks, etc. Mitra suggests this cloud school be a supplement to everyday education-only on weekends and after school. Mitra said: "The traditional school provides English teaching to the children, and I offer them Internet cafes that can learn English well." Now, I can't say that cloud schools can be a substitute for traditional schools. ”

"If everything goes well, then I can confidently tell you that we can make the competition fairer-something that is lacking in the world today." ”