Authentic Learning

In an amazing experiment a Delhi-based IT professional has proved that kids can learn computer skills on their own. Over the years the results of Dr. Mitra’s experiments have been so spectacular that the National Geographic Channel has made a film on his unique research.

Again, to his surprise he discovered that the slum kids quickly taught themselves how to surf the Internet, read news and download games and music. Dr. Mitra then replicated the experiment in other locations, with the same results---within hours the children would teach themselves how to use the Net.

Teachers and lecturers are getting the lowdown on how to use social networking sites such as Facebook and Bebo in an educational way.Most schools and colleges in the UK block access to the websites but they are missing out on their potential for education, a government-funded guide says.The report for Childnet International and funded by Becta, the government body for technology in learning, says while teachers and lecturers may be using social networking services they may not recognise the educational potential for their students.Schools could help students develop "e-portfolios" where learners can record their achievements and collect examples of their work, the guide suggests. Or teachers could use social networking services to set up groups that "semi-formalise" students' online communications and "document discussions and milestones as they go".Young people are more likely to have learned their social networking skills from their friends or classmates than from any formal instruction or support from adults.

In Finland the educational system, as it is today, was build slowly. It is still strongly relying on the work of Uno Cygnaeus ( 1810-1888 ) who was influenced by the early European “constructivist” Pestalozzi ( 1746–1827 ) and Froebel ( 1782 –1852 ). The idea that children learn the best when they areactive and build things was not really invented by John Dewey or Piaget – they only were able to present the idea in a language of positivist science, when the earlier thinkers thought themselves as “pedagogues” or educational philosophers.