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Web-Surfing Indian Slum Kids Ask: "What's a Computer"

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the teach-a-man-to-fish dept.

chaoticset writes "An experiment in minimally directed self-learning has been going fairly well, from the article: To test his ideas, Sugata Mitra launched something 13 months ago he calls "the hole in the wall experiment." He took a PC connected to a high-speed data connection and imbedded it in a concrete wall next to NIIT's headquarters in the south end of New Delhi. The wall separates the company's grounds from a garbage-strewn empty lot used by the poor as a public bathroom. Mitra simply left the computer on, connected to the Internet, and allowed any passerby to play with it...he discovered was that the most avid users of the machine were ghetto kids aged 6 to 12, most of whom have only the most rudimentary education and little knowledge of English. Yet within days, the kids had taught themselves to draw on the computer and to browse the Net." Update: 04/17 22:23 GMT by M : Mitra has a website about his experiments.

4 of 419 comments (clear)

  1. internet connection by drink85cent · · Score: 0, Troll

    So what's their connection at?
    I bet its the good old fashiond 65 baud tin can and string.

  2. OT: Security by irony+nazi · · Score: 0, Troll
    From the website:
    Security


    The kiosks are unmanned and, therefore, require means for the safe-keeping of all the expensive hardware. The Hole-In-The-Wall kiosks have in-built security system the details of which cannot be divulged for obvious reasons.

    What obvious reasons, like it is inhumane? I've heard of various car-jacking-preventative devices in Africa that involve mounting a flame thrower below the driver's side door. Maybe I'm just a narrow-minded Brit, but doesn't India have pretty much the same crime and government as South Africa? The company probably mounted a flame thrower below the kiosk just in case little Apu tries to steal the touchpad/keyboard or if Apu tries to search for Porn. It probably even scorches him if he views images on women without Burkas. Haha.
    --

    Bringing irony to the Slash-masses
  3. Re:MIE = Unschooling by dattaway · · Score: 2, Troll

    Why is the National Endowment for the Arts pissed off about MIE or Unschooling?

    The National Educational Association, a teacher's UNION, has these few words about unschooling. It seems unschooling is not in their business strategy. Yes, its about money, while unschooling is about education.

  4. Re:MIE = Unschooling by mpe · · Score: 2, Troll

    So why are we communicating in the native language of the US over a medium invented, developed, and funded by the US on a website that resides in the US?

    Except that "the web" was invented by a Brit, at an international organisation, based in Switzerland.
    Also IIRC the US dosn't even pay half the cost of its international connectivity either.