Hole in the wall... looking at other issues

Dear Mr Jha, 

I have no reason to defend or supporting the Hole-In-The-Wall
experiment... But one feels that some of the criticism from you could be 
misdirected.

There may be many questions that one could ask about this particular
project, supported by a commercial enterprise that is itself into IT
training in  a big way. But to base these on an inaccurate understanding
might be unfair.

Below (see at the very end) is a report I put together during the past
monsoon season. For one, the age group of the students using the 'hole in
the wall' is six to thirteen -- closer to your Nintendo navigators from
the West (if at all they should matter to such debate).

Secondly, a careful reading would suggest that Dr Sugata Mitra's arguments
seems fairly interesting and well thought-out. He too is on this list I
think (or is it the BytesForAll list?). Anyway, a copy of this is being
sent to him so that he could give us additional insights or angles to the
issue.

The problem with this field, apart from the influx of big funding, seems
to be that each one of us is convinced that *our* vision is the right way
of doing things. Perhaps there's no right or wrong way... we just need to
see which way works in the end. 

FN

On Sun, 27 Oct 2002 [email protected] wrote:

> Thanks Fred. I respect that. Its quite possible technology came in the way. 
> Its never perfect anyway.
> 
> I appreciate it. I felt strongly about the way "Hole in the wall" is 
> projected primarily on two counts: (1) It presumes that 15 year children in 
> Indian slums may not be able to navigate a computer without training when 3 
> year old in the US can navigate a Nintendo or Playstation and (2) The cost of 
> delivering such an experiment is way out of line.
> 
> Outside of that I believe that these experiments may get the governments some 
> publicity but do not add much value. A PC in a school that works goes a long 
> way if managed as well as a kiosk like Hole in the wall.
> 
> Thanks so much
> 
> ___________________________________________
> satish jha
> cmd, james martin & co pvt ltd;
> president, digital parters institute;
> n-103, panchsheel park, new delhi - 110 017
> v: 649 4384/ 9384; f: 649 4380
> v: 98111 97979

Village kids find computers a useful, educative toy

By Frederick Noronha

SINDHUDURG (Maharashtra): Vaishali Ghadi, Rasika Parab, Anikita Malgaonkar
and four other girls aged under ten years key in their names in English and
saved the computer file with an acronym made up of the initials of each.

Nothing strange. Except that they're village schoolgirls from Malgaon, a
tiny village from coastal rural Maharashtra, who should have been quite
innocent about computing at their age and on the wrong side of the digital
divide.

They would have, had it not been for the counter-intuitive thinking of NIIT
chief scientist Dr Sugata Mitra, the Delhi-based ex-IIT solid-state
physicist who launched on a seemingly crazy experiment to see if poor and
rural children could learn computers almost intuitively.

Mitra (50) earned attention globally when he first placed a
computer-in-a-kiosk alongside a Delhi slum, and just tracked how
surprisingly much slum-children could learn by themselves. 

But he's not resting on laurels... and plans to move on. 

Calling his method 'minimally-invasive education' (a term 'borrowed' from
the world of medicine, as he puts it), Mitra has now taken his experiment to
coastal Maharashtra's Sindhudurg district. 

This is a rain-swept underpopulated green setting just north of Goa, from
where people have for generations now been migrating out to India's nearby
commercial capital of Mumbai, about 500 kms north.

"We've got 42 computers in 13 physical locations so far. These include 31 in
Delhi, ten in coastal Maharashtra and one in Uttar Pradesh. We now plan to
have 66 more such computers in 22 more MIE (minimally-invasive education)
kiosks by 2003-end," Mitra told IndiaComputes!.

Students aged roughly six to 13 years are welcome at these kiosks.

What's he getting at? Mitra believes that this seemingly-bizarre experiment
can throw up a pedagogy which shows that children -- even the poorest, and
those from disadvantaged backgrounds -- are capable of studying a range of
subjects, not just computers, in a very fun-inspired and self-taught manner.

Next, he wants to work out the design that computers require to withstand
the high-humidity, dust and heat of tough rural settings. 

Finally, this would hopefully help to search out commercial models that
would sustain such ventures. This could cut deeply into the current form of
not just Indian education but even type of education sold to hundred of
thousands of students by franchisees of the NIIT computer training firm
where he is a senior vice-president and head of the Centre for Research in
Cognitive Systems.

Keeping afloat is no cakewalk, though, in this trying terrain. 

Abhishek Shirshat, director at the NIIT's Sawantwadi centre, fights with a
computer's software to get it going at a village 40 kms away from Malgaon.
Some schools reported they didn't have power since the previous day, while
at another the phone was dead for days.

"This machine was built to be put in air-conditioned offices. It will take at
least two years before you could write a paper on what needs to be done to
keep a PC running amidst heat, dust and humidity in this area," says Mitra.

But, with a battery back-up, young boys kept playing a game called 'Escaping
Monkey'. As the children fooled around with the computers, they were also
learning. 

In some cases, the teachers are pleasantly surprised by this project, which
has drawn funding support from financial institutions and others. 

Take the case of Shamsuddin Attar, the computer teacher at Shirgaon's high
school. Says he: "When I started teaching (the syllabi) the children had
already learnt part of it. So I didn't need to teach it again. I told them
about the CPU (central processing unit), keyboard, mouse and they said
they've already seen it. They were more enthusiastic to learn about the
operating of the computer (and go ahead)".

Arun Chavan (13), from the same school in whose courtyard sits a kiosk with
a couple of computers, explains how you can play music with Real Player and
Winamp. Other boys segregate around one computer -- the other is being
repaired -- as they should instructions to each other over what to do next
with the desktop that has become a plaything.

"It seems to show more than what we intended to show," says Mitra, who did
his MSc in solid-state physics in 1973 at IIT-Delhi and later his PhD. "That
children can teach themselves how to use a computer without adult
instruction. What we seem to be ending up showing is that children can teach
themselves lots of things without adult instruction."

Mitra's work has already drawn wows internationally. He says poor students
-- from anywhere -- take about an hour to learn basic operations of the
computer like getting things running. In one day's time they begin to locate
games or painting-programmes. 

In doing so, they're also learning how to 'self organise' themselves, setting
norms of group behaviour, setting their own goals, and segregating between
girls and boys. (ENDS)

------------------------------------------------------------------------
PLEASE USE THIS AS A SEPARATE BOX ALONGWITH STORY...
------------------------------------------------------------------------

M i t r a s p e a k : Looking back, looking ahead...

WHAT MAKES HIM PROUD: The realisation that it now seems to be much more than
what we started out to show...

WHAT THE INITIAL GOALS WERE: That children can teach themselves how to use a
computer without intervention. What we seem to be ending up at is that
children can teach themselves a lot of (other) things without adult
intervention.

ON WHAT THIS COULD MEAN FOR OUR EDUCATIONAL SETUP: In a worst case, it would
mean substantial change in the way in which computer usage is taught to
children. Very substantial changes. In a best case, it could help evolve an
alternate model to primary education. What will perhaps actually evolve
would be like the truth which lies somewhere in between.

ON WHAT RESPONSE THIS PROJECT HAS EVOKED SINCE 1999:  There has been a lot
of excitement among education reformers, and from off-the-track quarters.
There has also been a lot of interest (not so much excitement) from the
field of mainstream education. Then, there has been plenty of unsolicited
media interest. 

Lastly, there was a mixture of disbelief and helplessness from the
educational administration. They came to see, but didn't know whether to
believe it, and were undecided about what to do about it, because of the
huge formal educational infrastructure that is already in place.

One reaction too... including from NGOs, was disinterest even verging on
disdain for the whole activity. 

ON THE RESPONSES FROM SLUMS AND FIELDS: In terms of the children, from what
we've completed so far, it has been rather uniform (whether in slum areas in
Delhi or in rural fishing-farming villages of Maharashtra and elsehwere).
But that's the purpose of the whole exercise. To show that it is uniform
(and that the kids can learn by themselves).

ON THE STUDENTS' LEARNING CURVE: Roughly, it takes then one hour to learn
basic operations -- in some cases, even as little as fifteen minutes. Then
it takes then one day to find thhe things the like, like Paint or games. 

In one month's time, everyone knows all of that. Behavoural changes start
showing up around that time. There's the business of self-organising (of how
to share the PCs), or setting norms, and the separation of boys and girls as
computer users.