Annelle Keller responding to Sugata Mitra:  The child-driven education

Sugata Mitra embedded computers in the wall of slums in India trying to prove his theory that children can teach themselves.  This "Hold in the Wall" project proves that "children will learn through what they want to learn through".  Who would have thought that putting a computer in the slums of India without any instruction would prove to be so successful when it comes to self-directed student learning? This study proves that if "children has interest then education happens".  Not only does this TED talk covers International Education, I feel technology can be addressed as well.

Towards the end of Sugata Mitra's TED talk, he showed the following slide..."Education is a self-organizing system, where learning is an emergent phenomenon". As a middle school Science teacher who teaches students who are a lot more tech savvy than most 15-20 year veteran teachers, I strongly feel that students should be able to take charge of how they are learning using technology by "navigating the internet to achieve learning on their own". With so much technology at our children's fingertips, our roles as teachers are changing. Classrooms of the 21st century are becoming less teacher centered and more student centered. With the help of 21st Century Learning, through the use of technology, students are learning by doing, and the teacher acts as a coach, helping students as they work on projects. Students use appropriate resources and opportunities to create a learning environment that allows each child to construct his or her own knowledge while collaborating with others. The teacher acts as facilitator and is in tune with her students and knows how to pace lessons and provide meaningful work that actively engages students in their learning. Teachers will always have an important role in the classroom but as teachers our roles are changing. Our roles as teachers are changing from the primary role as a dispenser of information to orchestrator of learning, and helping students turn information into knowledge, and knowledge into wisdom.