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The findings of an experiment conducted by Dr Sugata Mitra suggest that groups of children can learn to use computers and the Internet on their own, irrespective of their level of education, background or living conditions
Dr Sugata Mitra, the Indian scientist who pioneered the use of computers and the Internet to educate slum children, has been awarded this year's Dewang Mehta Award for Innovation in Information Technology by the Indian government.
The award, which honours individuals from technology-related sectors for work that has the potential of making an impact on national development, was conferred on Mitra, a National Institute of Information Technology (NIIT) scientist for "the discovery of the pedagogy, science and technology of minimally invasive education," an official statement said on April 3.
Mitra's minimally invasive education technology (popularly known as the hole-in-the-wall experiment) is the result of over 15 years of intensive testing and is based on the premise of incidental learning with minimum human guidance.
In an experiment conducted in 1999 by Mitra, a computer connected to the Internet was embedded in the wall of a slum and left unsupervised to be used by children in the neighbourhood.
The findings of the experiment suggested that groups of children are able to learn how to use computers and the Internet on their own, irrespective of their level of education, background or living conditions, thereby truly bridging the digital divide. "Using the minimally invasive education method, six-to-thirteen-year-olds can teach themselves to use computers regardless of their social, economic, ethnic and even linguistic status," Mitra says. "We always underestimate their abilities."
Mitra and his team subsequently verified their theory through a large-scale experiment across India and Cambodia. In villages located in remote areas from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, researchers reported hundreds of children teaching each other to use computers through the NIIT's minimally invasive education kiosks.
In 2001, the World Bank formed a joint venture with NIIT to take the project to over 30 locations across India. The computers are put up in safe, public, outdoor spaces through innovative technologies developed by NIIT's Centre for Research into Cognitive Sciences. All activities at the kiosks are monitored remotely through the Internet from Delhi.
The Dewang Mehta award was instituted by the Indian department of information technology (DIT) in 2001, in memory of one of the country's IT pioneers, the late Dewang Mehta, former head of the National Association of Software and Service Companies. Previous recipients of the award include Rajesh Hukku of i-Flex and the team led by Vinay Deshpande that developed the Simputer, an easy-to-use, low-cost, hand-held computer.
Source: PTI, April 5, 2005
www.agencyfaqs.com, April 5, 2005
Indo-Asian News Service, April 3, 2005
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