In a recent interview published on the Association for Learning Technology website, Sugata Mitra tells about of some of his work in education, especially with poor children in India. Here are some of the amazing conclusions from his research - which just goes to show the power of children to learn, and the power of learning outside the classroom with technology:

“We needed to know how far does it go? We could not understand how this happened. It took us five years of measurements across the Indian subcontinent to verify the results amongst 40,000 of the world’s poorest children. We found that children given unsupervised access to computers mainly located in a government school playground or in similar safe, public areas, would become:

1. computer literate – in their own way, with their own vocabulary, but highly effective nevertheless;
2. better at maths and English – I do not know why, maybe because they learn to analyze and solve problems in groups;
3. more social and cooperative – because they learn that knowledge, unlike material objects, grows with sharing;
4. more interested in school – if the computer is near or in the school premises;
5. less likely to drop out of school – because they want access to their computer;
6. less interested in petty crime – mostly because all their free time is spent at the computer;
7. viewed with more local goodwill – parents and others like the idea that the child is learning something and not creating trouble at home.

The measured outcomes showed:

* acquisition of functional computer literacy;
* improvement in academic performance;
* increase in confidence and self esteem;
* increased collaborative behaviour.

amazing, isn’t it?