Calcutta-born Sugata Mitra has been defying the odds since birth. Statistically, very few people born in Calcutta make it above the poverty line, much less out of the Indian city. Mitra has done both. Currently a visiting professor at MIT, Mitra is revolutionizing primary education.
Mitra recently received a $1 million TED Prize for his work to improve education in the slums of Hyderabad, India. His “Hole in the Wall Experiment” started out simply enough. He stuck a computer into a wall in Hyderabad and invited students to learn English. When students asked Mitra how they would learn English, he replied with a simple and challenging “I don’t know, how would you?” Students embraced the challenge, utilized the computer they were given and downloaded the talking Oxford dictionary, which they then fed back into speech-to-text software. As they learned the words and spoke them into the software, they were able to gauge their understanding based on whether or not the computer typed the words correctly. Mitra, much like everyone who hears the story, was incredibly impressed:
“Groups of children can teach themselves almost anything. You take children and put them into groups of four or five and then you ask a big question. The internet is full of answers, but you must ask the questions that turn on the mind…when they find the big answers they believe in themselves, and they believe in the world around them.”
Mitra’s dedication to innovation in the classroom, regardless of where it is, is changing the role of education in impoverished countries. By allowing students to challenge themselves, he’s proving that trust and confidence are two of the greatest things we can offer students.
If you share the same dedication to innovation in the classroom as Sugata Mitra and others like him, we encourage you to apply for the Fourth Estate Leadership Summit. The Summit will equip teachers with the tools needed to promote human rights and social justice within your classroom and community. We’ve set aside 300 spots exclusively for educators. To learn more and to join us in Los Angeles on August 8-11th, click the links below.
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