CHILD DRIVEN EDUCATION

I should say that there is wisdom to the experiment conducted by education scientist Sugata Mitra.  Our world is continually changing and one evident aspect of this change is the advancement of our technology.  It is imperative therefore to embrace this change or we become irrelevant and obsolete in the future.

However, in educating our children we should take a closer look at their attitude towards this new technology.  There are students who have innate exploratory character.  They have the inclination to tinker the computer immediately and be able to explore and unravel its different applications and usage in no time while some are indifferent and uninterested towards this technology.  You see, the problem here is not the motivated students but the unmotivated one.  This program could work very well for young curious minds but could prove disastrous to unresponsive learner.  More so, what will happen to the children who will extract data from the internet unsupervised?  How can he draw the line between factual and fictional data?  Is there a way for him to validate the truthfulness of the content if he is googling information over the internet alone?  Certainly, the vastness of the internet will bring up tons of information and I believe that we need our teacher to do the job of sorting which data is meaningful and relevant.  Yes, we can access any information immediately over the internet but a sole/lone learner let alone elementary pupil can be able to identify appropriate and significant data.

 In a nutshell, I am still a firm believer of traditional, face to face teaching where a competent, caring, kindhearted teacher will guide and supervise every learner.  We cannot discount the contributions of a teacher in molding the minds of our children.  Moreover, a computer has its limitations like the inability to give reasons in certain situations and to empathize when a student is experiencing difficulties in his lessons.  The essence of true learning is not our mastery in arithmetic nor expertise in the field of science but our evolution into becoming a real person and only a compassionate and loving teacher can do it.