Sugata Mitra: "A School in the Cloud"

 

What is going to be the future of learning? 

            We often hear the expressions “head in the clouds”, “on cloud 9”, and “every cloud has a silver lining”, but what is a “school in the cloud”?

Through his TED Talk, “A School in the Cloud”, Sugata Mitra explains his innovative and engaging perspective on student learning by posing the question, “What is going to be the future of our learning.” He begins his presentation by giving a brief history of why education functions the way that it does today. He references the British Empire’s need to build people to work in the bureaucratic administrative machine, people who have great handwriting, ability to read, and have mathematical fluency (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) skills. Now these skills are still important today, but many of them can be done with the ability to effectively and efficiently navigate technology. What problem does this cause? Well, it leads to education producing identical students without creativity. Schools are being obsolete and outdated, now this doesn’t mean they are dying out or not needed, but there is no discovery (the aha moments) that leads to student exploration, engagement, encouragement, and success.

Identical Students/Robotic Learning

I can honestly say that this TED Talk has allowed me to take a step back and reflect about my role with young people in an online environment. Something that resonated with me was when Mitra stated, “We take our children, we make them shut their brains down, and then we say perform.” This reminds me of teaching to the test (which unfortunately has become quite common in our educational world), where we prioritize hitting standards, or exclusively working within strict guidelines of the planned curriculum. I think of RICAS and the pressure that is put onto our students to cram and learn all different reading and math skills so they can “meet the standard.” No surprise though, they aren’t retaining what is being thrown at them, it's not meaningful or engaging. This all leads to one huge problem, we are stripping our students of the use of their independence and creativity in their learning process and journey. There needs to be a shift in balance in learning from threat to pleasure. Mitra reminds us that learning “is the product of self-organization, as it makes learning emerge. It’s not making learning happen, it's letting learning happen.” Mitra refers to the Self-Organized Learning Environment (SOLE) consisting of three important elements, Collaboration + Broadband+Intelligence. So what does this mean for my classroom? First it is giving students opportunities to work together to find solutions to difficult/big questions, bringing back the wondrous questions. It is me, as the teacher, to learn to raise the questions, take a step back, and let the student’s creativity take shape while admiring their efforts. It is changing the classroom to be more student-centered for them to explore, take risks, make mistakes, and rise back up to try again. No teacher wants their students to be “spare parts for a computer.” We need to give our students time to become inquiry based investigators where they are at the forefront of their own lessons and understanding. Not only will students find meaning in learning, but it creates a more inclusive learning environment based on collaboration for all.

Lastly, another point in the TED Talk that intrigued me was the “method of the grandmother” when interacting with students and technology. As teachers we can employ this method by once again taking a step back and prompt learning by asking, “why, how, tell me more, wow that is amazing, etc. By doing this we are flipping the table as we are turning students into the teacher. The key now to all of this is for me to provide my students with the encouragement and confidence to move forward in their own learning.I see this method being very connected to technology because we are providing guidance to students while they are exploring and navigating their own questions in their own unique way. They are teaching themselves how to best use technology as an effective resource for them to learn and grow. We are changing from the standardized curriculum lessons into something that would be more memorable and effective as our students go forward into their educational journey to eventually the work world. By SOLE we “take to the clouds and create the future of learning. We are designing a future of learning by supporting our children to tap into wonder and giving them the ability to work together to go on intellectual adventures driven by big and wondrous questions.”

Now its time to... "Get on With It"