In this Ted Talk, Sugata Mitra shows us that all a child needs is the opportunity, motivation, and a little encouragement in order to learn. Mitra placed a hole-in-the-wall computer in a remote village in India. When the children approached Mitra, he told them he did not know how it worked, but that they were welcome to play with the computer. Mitra returned two months later to find the children complaining about the speed of the computer's processor and the outdated mouse. The children had to teach themselves English in order to operate the computer. That's amazing!
These types of experiments have been repeated with the same success, including children learning about DNA replication from a computer on the street that was not in their language. However, this might not be as effective in locations where there is not as much poverty and the children have more choices. As educators, we need to ensure that we are encouraging our students as much as we are teaching them. Mitra mentioned to an assistant to give the children the "grandma treatment". Make the kids feel like they are teaching and showing you great things. This will give them the motivation to learn even more when given the opportunity. Technology is giving us the chance to make learning more interactive and exciting.
