Over time his experiments grew to include what he terms the "Grandmother method of teaching" and what his students have termed the "Granny Cloud". Here the "teacher" merely admires and compliments the students, occasionally asking questions like, "how did you do that?" and "can you do that again?"
Mitra has concluded that "Education is a self-organizing system, where learning is an emergent phenomenon". He notes that part of the success of his experiment is small groups of children working together and discussing what they find. He maintains that "A single child in front of a single computer will not discuss" and presumably will not remember as much as those who worked in groups.
Without a doubt, Mitra has had some astounding results and success from his experiments. His method of engaging students but not giving them the information makes me think of it as a digital Socratic method of teaching. He poses the questions and the students Google the information. In his tests, retention of the material learned was astonishing. I wonder though if as the students become more adept at finding information on the computer, their learning becomes less ingrained? I wonder if the retention rates were so high because the effort that they required in finding them?
While I am not ready to dispose of teachers quite yet, it would be interesting to apply this method in a class for a lesson and see what the outcome would be in our culture--one that takes technology for granted and is always demanding to be entertained.
If you are interested in watching this video you can find it here.
Not entirely sure why, but I doubt the validity of an experiment that has students learning how to use a computer from nothing. I mean, I understand learning functions and what not, but there had to be some instruction that tells them to Google search information. Otherwise how would they know what Google is. I should probably watch the video though. I'm merely responding to what people have said about it and not the video itself.
ReplyDeleteI agree Marsha - I think that the high retention rates definitely have to do with this "Socratic method" of teaching. I think that we usually remember things better when we have to figure them out on our own - "learning things the hard way." It is the difference between active learning versus passive learning. I also think you are right in saying this experiment would have different results in our culture today. Google has made information finding a very passive activity. I think this is why we will always need teachers - to create opportunities for active learning.
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