Experiments in self-learning

Sugata Mitra's new experiments in self-teaching

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk60sYrU2RU

Charles, it is very interesting.

Bill

Enjoyed it thoroughly and while watching-- remembered when in the mid 80's I attended Mac user groups in my town. We had that group learning and sharing experience. It definitely was powerful and fun learning experience that stays with you forever.

Thanks for sharing Charles!
I think video is becoming ever more relevant as education and online resources are nowadays easily accessible and often free, with the only limitation being the students self-motivation to learn.
With the rise of new online educational resources like KhanAcademy, Udemy, StudyPug, MIT OCW, etc., I think in the very near future there will be a decrease in the need for classroom learning. If we integrate AI to tailor education to students (which research has shown to be more effective) we would be phasing out older education systems/replacing inadequate teachers.

Nice video. I saw a computer first, when i was 12. It was a DOS machine. One of my distant relative uses that pc with a BW 10 inch monitor. At that time, i know nothing about a computer. All i heard was its a magic machine. But i didnt see any magic on that DOS machine except some text commands. But surely, abandoned floppy disks attracted me more. I collected all of them to play later. 3 years later, in 1997, one of my friends show me an internet cafe on vacation time. I wondered because,it has color monitor and colourful guis and it plays mp3s and videos. It has a Windows 96 OS. I fell in love with that PC. At that time it took 30 Rupees (about 0.65 dollar at that time) per hour for using that pc and internet. It was really a luxury for me at that days. Again 3 years later in 2000, My friend invited me to his home. The last time i went to his home was 5 years ago. But this time he started his bachelors degree in computer science and he owns a pentium 3 computer with 128 MB Ram. He showed me lot of interesting stuff including photoshop, MS Word, Paint and Solitaire game. I wondered and asked him that how to make these programs, they are quite interesting. He showed me a book of Visual Basic 6. From the next day, i started learning vb6 at his home. Every evening 1 hour learning. My friend took the roll of my teacher. But after a few weeks, his exams started and he become busy. So my study got freeze. I was a goldsmith at that time. So i dont need a computer but visual basic 6 made me love computer more and more. So i planned to change my profession to something related with computers so that i can play with lot more. In 2003, i got a data entry job and i rent a computer for 1500 Rupees (32 dollar at that time) per month. I got fired from that job after a weak because i have not enough speed to do that typing job. But i played with that computer and practiced vb6 more and more. I didn't have any internet connection at that time. After one month, i succeeded making a calculator in vb6. I remember that was the easiest exercise on that book which i borrowed from my friend. After one month i returned that computer. Then i joined a software company as a Marketing Executive. There was a training session for me to learn about the software which i need to sell. Two programmers from that company has responsible for teaching me. They used vb6 for writing that program. I showed more interest to learn vb6 than understanding the company's product. But those guys discouraged me. They told me that thats not my cup of tea. I got fired from that job for not selling the product after 3 months.
After a long time, in 2009, i bought my first computer. It costs 13000 INR (About 267 dollars). I lent money from a Shylock. AMD Sempron 2.2 Ghz processor, 1 Gb Ram, 250 GB HDD, 15 inch CRT monitor. It took one year to get an internet connection in my house. From 2010 onwards, i am connected to this big world and learned a lot of things.