Sugata Mitra - Charlatan or genius?

'It's quite fashionable to say that the education system is broken - it's not broken, it's wonderfully constructed. It's just that we don't need it any more. It's outdated.'

These are the radical thoughts of Professor Sugata Mitra, the doyen of innovative education and a figure of some controversy. Sugata Mitra recently won a $1 million TED prize to develop his ideas around his 'School in the Cloud' and building on his notion of minimally invasive education. Mitra told me the phrase 'minimally invasive education' came from his interest in medical procedures, where keyhole surgery was the least invasive method for surgical intervention, and caused the least amount of trauma.

What if, he argued, we could do the same thing with education? Well, many people now know the answer to that question, because he has disseminated his findings, and whatever the detractions and arguments against the Hole in the Wall projects, it has to be said that this bold experiment has some striking outcomes. Not least, claims Mitra, children when left to their own devices (in this case a computer screen and touch pad mouse in a wall) and when they are in small groups, children will teach themselves an extraordinary amount of new skills and knowledge. Whatever your views on this shade of auto-didacticism - and there have been some vociferous criticisms, do watch the video interview I did with him at this year's EDEN conference, and then make your own mind up. Is he a charlatan, or a genius?



Photo by Steve Wheeler


Sugata Mitra - Charlatan or genius? by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Land of the midnight sun

I'm very much looking forward to taking part in the EDEN Conference in Oslo between June 12-15 this year. Last year I was unable to attend EDEN, due to pressure of work. This time I made sure I would have the time, by blocking out my diary for the conference week. I'm glad I did. I have been given the honour of being invited to chair the keynote sessions of Sugata Mitra and Sir Ken Robinson, and to moderate a debate between them both on the future of education. Sir Ken will be speaking live via satellite from the USA and Sugata will be present at the conference in Norway.

Alongside a great team of people, I will also be live blogging and tweeting throughout the event, and may even get some time to interview some of the delegates, speakers and organisers. Watch this space to read my own blog posts, as well as those of the rest of the EDEN blogging team over the next few weeks in the lead up to the conference, and then during the event itself.

I'm looking forward to seeing Norway again, and my first visit to Oslo, especially during the time when the nights are at their lightest. It's always difficult to sleep in the land of the midnight sun, where in mid summer the night skies are so bright and the sun never seems to fully set. But I intend to spend as much time as possible awake anyway, so I can enjoy the conference and spend as much time learning as much as I can. If you are going to EDEN this year, I hope we bump into each other. If not, stay in touch through the EDEN conference website, to watch the live streaming, and watch this space for news, views and reports.

Photo by Marcus Ramberg on Fotopedia
This post is mirrored on Learning with 'e's


Land of the midnight sun by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.