|
NIIT's experiment with computers in Delhi's slums has now been extended to coastal Maharashtra and a village in UP. Amazingly, completely unschooled children are learning to use computers and surf the Net all on their own
NIIT's Centre for Research and Cognitive Systems conducted an interesting experiment in the slums of the capital recently. Slum children were given access to a computer and the Internet through a kiosk, though most of these children were not attending school and did not know the English language. Despite these formal handicaps, the children quickly took to the computer and began experimenting with various applications and websites. They invented their own vocabulary to describe different computer functions and quickly developed a shared information-bank on it. The experiment proved that it is not just middle class children who can learn when given access to computers. Following the success of this Minimally Invasive Education (MIE) programme, in November 2000 the Delhi government made computers and the Internet available to under-privileged citizens in several slums. The project, known as 'Hole in the Wall', is said to be the first of its kind in the world. NIIT has provided the hardware and the software, and MTNL has provided a free ISDN line. The Delhi government has bankrolled the scheme with a grant of Rs 80 lakhs. The supervision and maintenance of these cyberkiosks is being undertaken by the community itself. The project aims to provide a platform for basic literacy among slum children who don't go to school. Information is provided to slumdwellers on issues related to health, education and governance. "One kiosk, which taught some 160 children, cost 150,000 rupees (2,343) to build plus the same again for the dedicated internet connection and maintenance. If we built 100,000 kiosks it would cost US$2bn (1.4bn) to keep them running for five years. In that time, assuming 200 children learn from each kiosk each year, 100 million children would become computer-literate. The 13-year-olds of today would be 18. They would vote. I think we would have irreversible social change in India," speculates Sugata Mitra, director of research and development at NIIT. Mitra has now taken his experiment to Sindhudurg district of coastal Maharashtra and to Uttar Pradesh. The Sindhudurg experiment targets village schoolchildren and is funded by ICICI - a leading financial institution. The computer kiosks are installed in schools and keeping them functional is an uphill task, in the midst of power cuts, dead phones and the dusty, humid environs. Children fool around with the computers, playing games like 'Escaping Monkey', playing music with Real Player and Winamp, and in the process learning to create and save computer files, and even repair the machine. "When I started teaching (the syllabi) the children had already learnt part of it. So I didn't need to teach it again. I told them about the CPU (central processing unit), keyboard, mouse and they said they've already seen it. They were more enthusiastic to learn how the computer operates," says Shamsuddin Attar, the computer teacher at the Shirgaon high school. Mitra observes, "It seems to show more than we intended to show. That children can teach themselves how to use a computer without adult instruction." In Uttar Pradesh a computer with Internet was installed for free access in Madantoosi village which had never seen a computer nor had proper infrastructural facilities. Again it was the rural kids who ventured to tinker with the kiosk, while the elders adopted a wait and watch policy. After installation, Mitra and his team visited the village, wondering whether the machine would still be in place. To their amazement, the village children had learnt to browse the Net on their own, besides picking up some English words. The children had learnt simple terms like CPU, monitor, keyboard, memory, CD, etc. They were able to perform tasks like opening and closing files and creating shortcuts. Above all they had found their way to kids websites, including Walt Disney and entertainment portals. The most popular software with them was the CD-ROM on human anatomy. The children even know how to install software from CD-ROMS. Girls too participated in equal numbers and were quite comfortable using the computer. In the Madantoosi experiment no one demonstrated to the children how to use the computer. They came on their own, simply curious, and learnt by a process of trial and error. "We have got 42 computers in 13 physical locations so far. These include 31 in Delhi, 10 in coastal Maharashtra and one in Uttar Pradesh. We now plan to have 66 more such computers in 22 more MIE kiosks by 2003-end," says Mitra. A greater challenge facing Mitra is designing a machine to withstand inhospitable conditions. "This machine was built to be put in air-conditioned offices. It will take at least two years before you could write a paper on what needs to be done to keep a PC running amidst heat, dust and humidity in this (rural) area," says Mitra. The British social think-tank, the Institute for Social Inventions, has applauded Mitra's vision. It awarded the experimental project its annual prize for social invention, because of its novel method of empowering large numbers of people in a lasting way. Contact: Sugata Mitra
8, Balaji Estate
Sudarshan Munjal Marg, Kalkaji
New Delhi - 110 019, India
Tel: 91-11-620 3330 (direct)/91-11-620 3331 (secretary)
E-mail :
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
|
