Sugata Mitra's "Hole in the Wall" experiments have shown that, in the absence of supervision or formal teaching, children can teach themselves and each other, if they're motivated by curiosity and peer interest.
He points to the following conclusions based on his "Hole-in-the-Wall" research:
- Remoteness affects the quality of education
- Educational technology should be introduced into remote areas first
- Values are acquired; doctrine and dogma are imposed
- Learning is a self-organizing system
He introduces the word "Outdoctrination," and he outlines his vision for:
An educational technology and pedagogy that is digital, automatic, fault-tolerant, minimally invasive, connected & self-organized... to address remoteness, values, and violence
During his speech, he quotes a scientist (whose name escapes me now) who said to him,
A teacher that can be replaced by a machine should be.
My own opinion on this is that a good teacher passes on his/her passion to the students. From my point of view, that's the only upside of having a human teacher. If that cannot be provided, well... yes, a machine will suffice.
Awesome research for the future of education...
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