Sugata Mitra & Ken Robinson

This post was initially just going to be about Sugata Mitra, with a separate post on Sir Ken, but after thinking about it I decided to write on both. Earlier this year I attended a conference that featured both Sugata Mitra and Sir Ken giving keynotes, and to certain educationalists (note – I did not say teachers) that’s a combination that sends paroxysms of delight shivering down their spines, equivalent to the shivers the teenage girls I teach would get at the thought of attending a 1D/5SOS double bill concert.

Now we all know Sir Ken, as his bio on his personal website begins:

“If there was a moment when our crisis in education hit critical mass it may well have been the date Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk went up on YouTube. In just 19 minutes his wry but eviscerating presentation gave voice to what so many of us are living through: our schools are failing to recognize creativity; we’re failing to prepare the next generation for the challenges that lie ahead.”

Hubris, anyone? (and guess – does he call his site kenrobinson.com or sirkenrobinson.com?)

However, it is true that among the people reading this roughly 100% will have seen his famous TED talk, and I’m ashamed to admit that I was once once of those self-important w@ankers that played it at a staff meeting and forced the whole staff to watch (but on the plus side I got years of bankable credit with the Art department). When you think carefully about what Sir Ken is saying you realise it can be summed up in the phrase:

“all teachers are shit”

Yes, Sir Ken believes everything we are doing is wrong, and we are ruining the current generation just as surely as we ruined generations past – setting them up to fail, and at the same time destroying the future economies of our respective countries, because what we are producing is not what is, or will be, required.

Now why Sir Ken is wrong has been expressed much more eloquently than I could here and here (but I will say that if he truly believes schools are killing creativity or do not provide enough time for the arts he must be willfully blind whenever he sets foot in a school) but the interesting thing is how believable he is. He does have a special gift when talking, with lots of wry little comments and self-deprecating jokes. Here’s an example from an interview he gave:

“It’s always important for adults to remember they were once children themselves. I mean, I was. I have to admit to this. I spent my early life as a child.”

He’s just so cuddly I could just eat him up. At the conference he was equally wryly amusing, and had the audience eating out of his hand, nodding sagely at points he made, live tweeting “I’m listening to SIR KEN ROBINSON!!!!!!!”  and laughing after every little joke – in some cases laughing before every little joke because we knew what was coming. And at the end of his talk (summary “you are doing everything wrong”) he received a standing ovation from the thousands (literally – it was a big conference) in the audience.

Can you picture that – thousands of teachers applauding a man who had very nicely told them they had been approaching their life’s vocation completely the wrong way. To be fair much of the audience were administrators or other educationalists (because most teachers don’t get to go to interstate conferences) and among that audience saying “your teachers do everything wrong” was preaching to the converted.

Equally as amusing was the hero worship that preceded and followed Sir Ken’s talk – most subsequent speakers managed to drop the lines “as Sir Ken said at dinner last night” or “talking to Sir Ken at drinks yesterday” or “as Sir Ken also believes” etc etc ad nauseam. I was waiting for the “as Sir Ken said while we were standing at the urinals…” but alas, it never came.

But if Sir Ken was top of the bill at the conference a close second was Sugata Mitra. If you ever get the chance to hear Sugata at a conference watch his TED talk first, then save your time and money as you’ll just hear the same thing.

Sugata is famous for his Hole in the Wall experiment where computers were placed in the wall of buildings in poor Indian townships, and then left there with no instructions or explanation. When the researchers revisited they discovered that the children had a) taught themselves to use the computer and the internet, b) taught themselves English and c) taught themselves advanced genetics. From this experiment Sugata concluded that students do not need teaching or teachers – their natural curiosity coupled with internet access will lead to all the learning they need. A nicely written alternative view of the experiment is here.

A subsequent development has been his idea of “Self organised learning environments (SOLE)” which is at its simplest groups of students with internet access, and occasional skype sessions with a “skype granny” to aid the learning process. Again, naturally curiosity will lead students to the learning they need.

So unlike Sir Ken, Sugata doesn’t (necessarily) believe that teachers are shit, just that they are unnecessary. However, luckily for him Professors of Educational Technology at Newcastle University are in demand, so there’s career hope for us yet.

As it happens I have been part of a massive experiment – in this experiment tens of thousands of students were not given access to a lousy computer in a hole in a wall, but were given their own laptop! I am in daily (yes daily) contact with a subset of these students and I would like to report the following results:

a) all students have learnt how to use the machines (so Sugata & me best buddies on this)
b) no students have taught themselves a foreign language 😦
c) advanced genetics nowhere to be see 😦

However

a) advanced game playing much in evidence
b) advanced k-pop listening and viewing also in evidence

The students do use their laptops to extend learning initiated by teachers and teaching, but this sort of thing doesn’t count in Sugata’s view (I assume!). But saving Sugata’s bacon I have discovered that sometimes students look things up that interest them without teacher initiation. This is a completely new development because before the laptop initiative no students anywhere had ever looked things up in, say, a book.

I have also been part of a concurrent initiative where adults have been given access to a laptop, and have daily interaction with other adults who are expert in certain fields. This experiment took place in a “school”. I’m sorry to report that none of the adults in this experiment that were, say, History experts, have had their natural curiosity and access to other experts lead them to learn Physics. As it happens none of the Physics experts have learnt any Art History. And most shockingly, none of the Drama experts have learnt any advanced Mathematics – and vice versa!

The only conclusion is, pace Ken Robinson, that schools have killed their natural curiosity and creativity. He is right, after all.