Dr. Sugata Mitra is a TED Prize winner, Professor Emeritus of Educational Technology, and a globally recognized innovator at the forefront of a new approach to education. His research fundamentally challenges traditional teaching methods by demonstrating that children's learning is magnified when they are given the freedom to explore the internet in small groups. His pioneering work is encapsulated in his ongoing initiative, The School in the Cloud.
Mitra's groundbreaking work began with the famous Hole in the Wall experiment in Delhi in 1999, which inspired the book Slumdog Millionaire and the Oscar-winning film. This experiment, which was successfully replicated globally, demonstrated that children, regardless of their background, can competently teach themselves complex subjects and draw rational conclusions by exploring the internet in collaborative, self-organizing systems. This challenged key assumptions of formal education by proving the power of curiosity and peer-shared knowledge.
His further research, which showed that removing the teacher entirely was not the optimal solution, led to the creation of the "Granny Cloud." This innovative program leverages the wisdom of retired teachers in the UK who interact with children in remote areas of India via Skype, providing crucial adult encouragement and highlighting the importance of supportive adult presence in self-directed learning environments (SOLEs).
Now retired as Professor of Educational Technology at Newcastle University and a former Visiting Professor at MIT, Mitra has dedicated his focus to The School in the Cloud. This endeavor is the culmination of his decade-plus research, designed as a community and experience to discover and explore children's learning as a self-organizing system, offering a clear vision for how we must adapt our teaching methods for a technological age.
