Issue Study

So I was recently watching a TED talk video about a full functioning school system 'in the cloud'. The guy presenting, Sugata Mitra presented his solutions to the issue of a lack of accessibility to schooling in remote areas and the redundancy of modern schooling in places you actually can access it. You can check out the TED talk here. Mitra explains that in times when the technology we have today wasn't available the modern schooling system was developed to help create a global communication system. This required everyone to have these three skills: to read, have nice handwriting and able to calculate mathematic problems. 

From this he reasons that since today we have computers to type with and do maths for us we no longer require this schooling system. His solution? Schooling in the clouds, this focuses on using the internet to let kids teach themselves complex ideas like the composition of cells, what an electron does etc. and more importantly giving every child the opportunity to participate.

The groups dis-empowered in this issue are the children living without access to modern education systems, and conceivably the children with it are empowered. However a point Mitra made with his talk was to say that even the empowered are dis-empowered by their education system being semi redundant. So the issue at hand is more complicated, it's not a just an issue of making the dis-empowered more empowered or modern education more available but fixing what modern education actually is by integrating the use of our digital communication system. 

My opinions on the issue and Mitra's solution are mostly supportive except when it comes to what the school in the cloud seemingly assumes. I agree with changing our current education system to fit a modern world that has only just started growing, however I disagree that his school in the cloud is a complete curriculum. 

I acknowledge that right now it is a very good idea and can supply and empower children all over the world with the use of technology but being taken on as a standard is where I start seeing problems. I can research and learn (remember) anything from the internet by myself in half an hour sure, but whether I actually understand the information is questionable. I believe teachers as a sort of mediation is fundamental to learning. I think a better investment in time would not be googling answers to a teacher's questions but spending it on personal projects based on interests and getting hands on experience. 

Even though learning through the internet is useful and definitely relevant in today's education, it should not be based solely on this as a source of knowledge. Learning by doing is my favourite method. For example I want to make films, yet the information I could get from a hundred internet searches and books is nothing compared to the method I teach and develop myself when trying to make films.

In conclusion I believe that the way to encourage self-learning is to focus instead on what the children are interested in and inspired to do, not just telling them what they have to teach themselves to research.

Reference: TED ideas worth spreading 2013, TED conferences LLC New York, viewed 15th October 2013, <http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the_cloud.html?quote=2065>.