P2P learning: Can children teach themselves?

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Speaking at LIFT 2007, Sugata Mitra talks about his Hole in the Wall project. Young kids in this project figured out how to use a PC on their own — and then taught other kids. He asks, what else can children teach themselves? His presentation really inspired me to learn more about how children learn.

In his presentation Mitra quotes Arthur C. Clarke who pointedly said: “A teacher that can be replaced by a machine, should be”.

The One-laptop-per-child project is all well and good, but after wathing this video presentation on Ted.com, I believe that Sugata Mitra and his Hole-in-the-wall project is a better solution, as it lets kids self organize their learning, which has value in itself, as I believe people learn better on their own, but with input from their peers. The kids even taught themselves English in order to use the computers!

And a slightly irritating presentation w/generic plingplong music:
[embed:http://www.youtube.com/v/31G4pli-bHw]

PS: The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, which aims to build low-cost mobile computing devices for students in developing countries, has announced major layoffs.