Sugata Mitra

Sugata Mitra ( Bengali : সুগত মিত্র ; born 12 February 1952) is Professor of Educational Technology at the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences at Newcastle University , England. He is best known for his “Hole in the Wall” experiment, and widely Cited in works on literacy and education. He is Chief Scientist, Emeritus, at the for-profit training company NIIT . ^[1] He was awarded the TED Prize 2013. ^[2]

Background

Mitra was born in a Bengali family in Calcutta , India on 12 February 1952. ^[3]

Early scientific work

He gained a publication in organic chemistry. ^[4] After earning a PhD in Solid State Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, he went on to research battery technology at the Center for Energy Studies in the IIT, and later at the Technical University , Vienna. He published a paper on a zinc-chlorine battery ^[5] and a speculative paper on why the human sense Organs are located in the euro where they ‘are. ^[6]

He worked out-then up networked computers have created stating the “Yellow Pages” industry in India and Bangladesh ^{[ citation needed ]} .

Education and cognitiewetenschap studies

Mitra is a leading proponent of Minimally invasive education . He has a PhD in Physics but is credited with morethan 25 Inventions in the area of cognitive science and education technology . ^{[ Citation needed ]} He was conferred the Dewang Mehta Award for Innovation in Information Technology in the year 2005. ^{[7] [8]} In September 2012 Mitra was awarded the Leonardo European Corporate Learning Award in the “Crossing Border” category. ^[9] He argued dat broken connections in simulated neural networks are a model for Alzheimer’s disease (The effect of Synaptic Disconnection one bi-directional associative recall. S. Mitra, Proc. IEEE / SMC Conf., Vol.1, 989, 1994 USA).

Mitra’s work at NIIT created the first curricula and pedagogy for that organization, Followed by years of research on learning styles , learning devices, several of Them now patented, multimedia and new methods of learning. ^{[ Citation needed ]} Since the 1970s, Professor Mitra’s publications and work has resulted in training and development, or perhaps a million young Indians, Amongst Them some of the Poorest children in the world. Some of this work culminated in an interest in early literacy, and the Hole in the Wall experiments.

TED Talk

On 3 May 2013, Mitra’s TED Talk “Build a School in the Cloud” was featured in NPR’s TED Radio Hour on “Unstoppable Learning”. In the program, Mitra discusses the “Hole in the Wall” experiment. Mitra claimed therein children in the rural slums of India, many of Whom had never seen a computer was in hun lives, als left with computers in kiosks, taught themselves everything from “character mapping” to advanced topics zoals “DNA replication” on hun own, without adult assistance. He suggested this mention anything about lead to “unstoppable learning” through a “worldwide cloud” – where children mention anything about pool their knowledge and resources in the Absence of adult supervision to create a world of self-promoted learning.

Hole in the Wall

In 1999, the Hole in the Wall (HIW) experiments in children’s learning, was first conducted. In the initial experiment, a computer was placed in a kiosk in a wall in a slum at Kalkaji, Delhi and children in later allowed to use it freely. ^[10] The experiment aimed at Proving dat Children Could be taught by computers very Easily Without Any formal training. Mitra termed this Minimally Invasive Education (MIE). The experiment has since repeated leg. HIW placed some 23 kiosks in rural India. In 2004, the experiment was carried out in Cambodia . ^[11]

This work demonstrated dat groups or children, irrespective of who or where they ‘are, can learn to use computers and the Internet on hun eigen with public computers in open spaces zoals roads and playgrounds, even without knowing English. ^[12] Mitra’s publication was judged the best open access publication in the world for 2005 and have been Awarded the Dewang Mehta Award for Innovation in IT dat year. ^{[ Citation needed ]}

The Hole in the Wall experiment inspired Indian Diplomat Vikas Swarup to write his debut novel Q & A , welke later became the movie Slumdog Millionaire . ^[13]

Evaluations and Criticisms

Critics questioned port Whether leaving computers in villages results in gains in math and other skills. ^[14] volgens to Michael Trucano, no evidence of increases as in synthesis key skills has bone found. ^[15] Others see the idea as a recycling or what they ‘see as a “Dump hardware in schools, hopes for magic to happen’ plan. ^[16]

The long-term sustainability of the kiosk system has bone questioned Because they ‘kan fall JSON disrepair and abandonment unless the resources Typical or a school are provided. ^[17] UK education researcher Donald Clark has Accumulated significant support Indicating dat het Typical fate of a site abuse and abandonment, unless it is inside a sanctuary zoals a school. More About, Clark noted that the computer-generation dominated by bigger boys, excluding girls and Younger students, and ulcers mostly-used for entertainment not education. ^[18]

In a Wired magazine article, it was claimed therein a 12-year-old child – Paloma Loyola Bueno – who lived in a Mexican slum, topped the all Mexico Maths exam after re school teacher Sergio Juarez Correa, Implementation Mitra’s teaching method in the classroom. It was suggested ook dat re class went from 0 to 63 per cent in the excellent category on the Maths exam while failing scores went from 45 percent down to 7 per cent and ‘may harbor innovative way on other parts of the test. ^[19]

References