Teacher vs. Learning Facilitator

 In Sugata Mitra's TED Talk, "Build a School in the Cloud" he starts by talking about how 300 years ago the British Empire "created a global computer made up of people". A bureaucratic administrative machine in which all people were the "parts" and needed to be identical. They only needed to be able to have good handwriting, be able to read, and must be able to do the four basic math operations in their head.  Schools were designed to create these people and unfortunately this same system is still around today except this is not what is needed for the jobs that are currently in our community or the jobs in our future.

Sugata Mitra started an experiment to find out what children would learn by providing technology with zero instruction. "A group of children left alone with a computer in any language will reach the same standard as an office secretary in the West. I'd seen it happen over and over and over again." (7:14). Left completely alone, students went from a score of 0 to a score of 30.  Using an approach called "method of the grandmother" in which someone looked over the students shoulder and asked questions or said comments such as "when I was your age, I could have never done that", students reached a score of 50, which matched those of students being taught by a certified teacher.

He expresses that encouragement seems to be the key in kids learning any content, even topics that are deemed to be for those 10 years older than them.  One thing that he said that really stood out to me was "It's not about making learning happen. It's about letting it happen" (16:12).  It helped reinforce my thoughts that teachers need to not focus on teaching students WHAT to think but HOW to think. Being a learning facilitator would be more beneficial than that of a "traditional teacher" (one that just lectures and then gives classwork and tests). What I am struggling with though is finding a way to become more of a facilitator when we have a society so ingrained in the traditional school way of thinking, students who lack the intrinsic motivation, and a current system that does not grant teachers the ability to stray from the curriculum given in fear of losing their jobs for "not meeting contractual obligations".

Sugata Mitra's wish to build a school in the clouds "to help design a future of learning by supporting children all over the world tap into their wonder and their ability to work together" (19:21) connects with Ken Robinsons 3 principles that he says is crucial for the human mind to flourish; "diversity (as a strength to embrace) vs conformity, curiosity (as the engine of achievement) vs compliance, and creativity (to allow flexibility and thinking outside the box) vs standardization.

The teaching profession is far from perfect but for now, I will keep educating myself and making small changes in my classroom to create a better environment to help foster curiosity and creativity for my students.