BBC News: Using Computers To Teach Children With No Teachers

[DaveP]

Link: BBC News - Using computers to teach children with no teachers

I liked this passage:

"I told them: 'there is some very difficult stuff on this computer, I won't be surprised if you don't understand anything'."

Two months later, he returned.

Many initiatives aim to put computers in the hands of children

Initially the children said they had not learnt anything, despite the fact that they used the computers everyday.

"Then a 12-year-old girl raised her hand and said 'apart from the fact that improper replication of the DNA contributes to genetic disease - we've understood nothing else'."

Fantastic! How many students being taught in conventional lessons would have picked up that detail? Also what else have they picked up [the students involved in this study] without being aware of it?

Edit:

Although there is this thought provoking quote to consider:

Any teacher that can be replaced by a machine should be.

Arthur C Clarke

[Kipling]

To his surprise, the children quickly figured out how to use the computers and access the internet.

They are not learning to use computers – they are teaching themselves to use programs which are designed from the ground up to be self taught! No magic there. And they do have a teacher – it’s the programs and OS; by not letting you do anything too stupid and rewarding you (by working) when you get it right.

Its nothing more than giving them a skipping rope, they will learn how to skip because the rope won’t let them 'skip wrongly'.