Self Organizing Leaning Environment, SOLE, is Real

In early 2016 I posted about Self-Organizing Leaning Environment better known as SOLE (see excerpt below for an explanation of what is SOLE ). I was therefore not as surprised as millions around the world when BBC News and other news sources sensitised the story of an 8-year-old boy that learnt to drive using YouTube in minutes and successfully and safely driving it to a popular fast food franchise over a mile away from his home, with his little sister as a front seat passenger. Thank God for small mercies and in this case large ones as well.

An 8-year-old boy learns to drive on YouTube to buy Burger.

This is a perfect example of the effectiveness of SOLE as an educational methodology harnessing the power of technology used for learning.  As the Digital Guru, an Educator and a Digital Technology advocate I personally love SOLE. I integrate it in most modern classroom implementations that I deploy in primary and secondary schools.

Excerpt: “To prepare for the realities of the future workplace and the rapidly changing technological landscape, it is critical for educators to invite kids to get good at asking big questions that lead them on intellectual journeys to pursue answers, rather than only memorising facts.

After a series of experiments revealed that groups of children can learn almost anything by themselves, researcher Sugata Mitra began his pursuit to inspire children all over the world to get curious and work together.In 1999, Sugata and his colleagues dug a hole in a wall bordering a slum in New Delhi, installed an Internet-connected PC, and left it there (with a hidden camera). Soon, they saw kids from the slum playing with the computer, learning English and searching through a wide variety of websites on science and other topics, and then teaching each other.

Sugata and his colleagues carried out experiments for over 13 years on the nature of self-organized learning, its extent, how it works and the role of adults in encouraging it. His innovative and bold efforts towards advancing learning for children all over the world earned him the first- ever $1 million dollar TED Prize award. At the 2013 TED conference, Sugata asked the global TED community to make his dream a reality by helping him build the ultimate School in the Cloud where children, no matter how rich or poor, can engage
and connect with information and mentoring online“.

It was a great honour and Pleasure to meet such a distinguished and profound gentleman with such a passion for the kids most people shy away from teaching.

Digital Guru, Pt. Shiva J. Maharaj (left) with SOLE Mastermind, Sugata Mitra (right)

Digital Technology at work, enhancing the way Kids learn. Subscribe to the DigitalGuru Tips Blog to keep up to date with all things Digital.