14 DAY TRIAL // Very poor areas of the world, as well as conflict zones, make for regions that usually teachers avoid, either because they fear for their lives, or because they know that they will never get paid for what they do. The bottom line is that the children in those places need education just like any other kids in the world, and that solutions to this problem seem to be lacking. Now, Newcastle University professor of Educational Technology Sugata Mitra believes he might have found a solution, in the form of computers, webcams and Internet connections.
“There will always be areas in the world where, for whatever reason, good schools and good teachers will not exist. This problem is not going to go away or get better without intervention, therefore we need to be looking for alternative forms of teaching to ensure children do not miss out on a good standard of education,” he explains.
“When I last visited India, I asked the children what they would like to use Skype for most, and I was very surprised by the answer. They wanted British grandmothers to read them fairy tales, and had even worked out that between them they could afford to pay them the equivalent of £1 a week out of their own money,” professor Mitra adds.
In a technique that the scientist calls “minimally invasive education,” children are left all by themselves with a computer and an Internet connection. Having pioneered this type of learning more than 10 years ago, Mitra can say for sure that the system works. It would appear, he shares, that, if left in an environment that stimulates curiosity, the youngsters have the ability to share pertinent information with each other and know how to look online for exactly what they need to know.
“Financial incentives are no good if the teacher is sitting there wishing they were somewhere else – children sense these things and it has a knock-on effect on how they learn,” Mitra adds, talking about the fact that some instructors let the students know that they don't want to be there, for whatever reasons. In such cases, there is no fun in learning for the little ones, and so they start skipping school and are “lost” to education.
“Technology should not been seen as a threat to teaching, but an asset. Computers cannot replace good teachers, but they can get a high standard of education into the schools where they are needed most, while still allowing teachers to live where they want to,” he concludes.