What rules you need to follow to create a MIE?

These are excerpts from i4donline.net Centre for Science, Development & Media Studies

A set of guidelines have been developed that enables educators to set up their own MIE kiosk facilities. These include:

General instructions

• Site selection
• Architectural plans
• Purchases required including proprietary pointing and remote sensing hardware and software
• Electrical installation
• A portal to help children navigate to sites and applications
• Downloadable utilities
• Downloadable games
• Educational tests and remote sensing data analysis tools
• Legal and safety related issues

Based on the experience and data gathered over the last four years, it can be argued that such “playground” access points should be a part of every primary school. Where primary schools are not available, such facilities could provide even more vital “emergency” educational inputs. MIE for children through public Internet kiosks should form an integral part of primary education in the 21st century. It has the potential to not only close the “digital divide” rapidly, but also to unlock the creative potential for self-development of children that eminent educationists have sought to do for over a century.

How does Minimally Invasive Education work?

These are excerpts from i4donline.org....

How does it work?Learning process in a Minimally Invasive Environment (MIE)Certain common observations from the experiments reported above, suggest the following learning process when children self-instruct each other in computer usage:

• One child explores randomly in the user interface, others watch until an accidental discovery is made. For example, when they find that the cursor changes to a hand shape at certain places on the screen.
• Several children repeat the discovery for themselves by requesting the first child to let them do so.
• While in step 2, one or more children make more accidental or incidental discoveries.
  All the children repeat all the discoveries made and, in the process, make more discoveries and start to create a vocabulary to describe their experience.
• The vocabulary encourages them to perceive generalisations (“when you right click on a hand shaped cursor, it changes to the hourglass shape for a while and a new page comes up”).
• They memorise entire procedures for doing something, for example, how to open a painting program and retrieve a saved picture. They teach each other shorter procedures for doing the same thing, whenever one of them finds a new, shorter, procedure.
• The group divides itself into the “knows” and the “know nots”, much as they did into “haves” and “have nots” in the past. However, they realise that a child that knows will part with that knowledge in return for friendship and exchange as opposed to ownership of physical things where they could use force to get what they did not have.
• A stage is reached when no further discoveries are made and the children occupy themselves with practising what they have already learned. At this point intervention is required to introduce a new “seed” discovery (“did you know that computers can play music? Here let me play a song for you”). Usually, a spiral of discoveries follow and another self-instructional cycle begins.

What do kids learn from HiWEL experiment ?

Following are the excerpts from a research finding published in i4donline.org (Centre for Science, Development & Media Studies). Read this impressive list of learnings from MIE. Specially the behavioural changes in kids ( i am more excited about these behavioral changes that enable kids to learn well in school)..

• An estimated 100 children can learn to do most or all of the following tasks in approximately three months, using the “hole-in-wall” arrangement with a single PC:
• All windows operational functions, such as click, drag, open, close, resize, minimize, menus, navigation etc.
• Draw and paint pictures on the computer
• Load and save files
• Play games
• Run educational and other programs
• Play music and video, view photos and pictures
• Browse and surf the Internet, if a connection is available
• Set up e-mail accounts
• Send and receive e-mail
• Chat on the Internet
• Do simple troubleshooting, for example, if the speakers are not working
• Download and play streaming media
• Download games

In addition to the above task achievement, local teachers and field observers often note that the children demonstrate improvements in:

• School examinations, particularly in subjects that deal with computing skills
• English vocabulary and usage
• Concentration, attention span and problem solving
• Working together and self-regulation

Few Projects undertaken by HiWEL till date

Am posting this stale data since it contains projects undertaken untill 2004. Several projects have been initiated since then and are not included in the following list:

• The Shivpuri (1999) experiment- one computer in the state of Madhya Pradesh, funded by NIIT Limited
• The Madantusi experiment (2000)- one computer in the state of Uttar Pradesh, funded by Dr. Urvashi Sahni and NIIT Limited.
• The Madangir project (2000)- 30 computers in six locations in Delhi funded by the Government of Delhi and NIIT Limited.
• The Sindhudurg project (2001- 10 computers in five locations in the state of Maharashtra, funded by the ICICI bank and NIIT Limited.
• The IFC project (2002)- a plan for 66 computers in 22 locations spread throughout India, of which 33 computers in 11 locations are currently functional, funded by the IFC and NIIT Limited.
• The Alexandria project (2003)- a plan for 90 computers in 30 locations spread throughout Alexandria, Egypt. The first kiosk is scheduled to be opened on October 12, 2003. The project is funded by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
• The Cambodia project (2003)- a plan for 10 computers in 5 locations in Cambodia. A gift from the Prime Minister of India to the Cambodian government. The project is funded by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), Government of India

10 line limit....

I pledge not to go beyond 10 lines in one post.....
and a beginning with two liner is as good as it gets

How is Hole-in-the-wall different from Computer aided learning(CAL) efforts of Gov,NGOs & private sector

As usual, unless i get a hang of basic questions, i feel uncomfortable about the thing.

and this is one of those basic questions buzzing in my mind now. Not that i have no idea about it but need to crystalize my thoughts a lot on it. I guess understanding CAL more would certainly help.

for one, CAL is a teacher-assisted learning program which precludes some of the basic outcomes of HITW like self learning, fun, working in team, leadership traits, invoking the curiosity of children etc. So although CAL and HITW both in the end train kids in using computers and internet, the means of doing that are quite different. I think, the HITW doesnot really aim at computer training. Computer training is just incidental outcome. The gains from HITW interventions actually happen in the overall development and accelerated learning capacity of kids.
Secondly, carrying on from first argument, since CAL requires teaching computers in a controlled and teacher assisted environment, given that teachers are reulctant to move in to rural areasm I am not sure about its scalability into deep rural pockets. HITW on the other hand, can reach the deepmost area since it is minimally invasive and completely unassisted program.

another very good and short article on HITW

The hole in the wall
No, this is not about a dutch guy who put a finger in a wall to save his town from flooding. Or about Israel and Palestine. It's about India and India. I mean uptown hyperlinked pseudo-impressive India and the real India. The Hole-in-the-wall experiment was started by Sugata Mitra, head of research at NIIT. The videos on that site (and also here) are mind-blowing; Sugata decided to put a computer (connected to the Internet) on a wall of his office building in Delhi which adjoins a slum. Only the screen was visible through a layer of some thick glass; and there was a touchpad and some coloured buttons next to it. No keyboard, no instructions.Kids from the slum were instantly attracted; That was Sugata's aim really, to see if anyone would use it. Note that these kids have little knowledge of computers, and a second hand computer would cost as much as their parents make a year. The experiment went beyond the obvious. Not only did the kids figure out the mouse tricks instantly, they soon realised how they could go on to the internet, and soon were found googling for search terms like "Aishwarya Rai but not with so many clothes". Just kidding. (I don't like the idea of kids getting unbridled internet access so I hope they have a porn filter out there)Seriously, the kids figured it all out! Soon they were visiting disney.com and playing games online and all that. Amazing, I say. We need one of these boxes in Bangalore, preferably with only links to sites like:1) How to drive.2) How to drive without having to honk incessantly.3) Running over pedestrians is a bad thing.4) Stopping at red lights: The glamour of people who do.And people should have to do this before they get a licence, renewable every year.But I digress. We need the boxes for the under-privileged in Bangalore. And in all sorts of villages - perhaps as a movable van, with a phone link on a cellphone for providing internet access. I think the video opens many eyes. And tells you the story of a real India. Lots of talent, little opportunity. Open the opportunity, and you'll suddenly see a much bigger market for both employment and for selling to. The big guys do not get it - other than Reliance. The future is in todays castaways.

rumbing from a MS windows lover :) on Hole-in-the-wall

Hole-in-the-wall
Filed under: random ramblings — sukrit @ 1:32 am
Came across this neat project based in India. It’s called Hole-in-the-wall. Started by Dr.Sugata Mitra, Chief Scientist at NIIT, this is an experiment is helping underprivileged kids learn to use computers. It began at a slum in New Delhi in 1999, and has come along quite nicely by now, with HiWEL (Hole-in-the-Wall Education Limited) setting up more than 23 Learning Stations across the country. In 2004 they also ventured into Cambodia.
For those curious, yes, unfortunately they are using Microsoft Windows for this purpose. But I’m sure we could get in touch with them and exchange notes on why they could/should be using open source stuff instead. I’d like to hear the reason they chose Windows, and I sure as hope it’s not because the Bill and Melinda Gates are funding their project.
This project looks rather similar to the Ubuntu Bus project [61] from Brazil. Methinks it might be a good idea to mail them and see how they respond

[61]What is that

the $100 laptop and Hole in the wall

The $100 Laptop
"Studies have shown that kids take up computers much more easily in the comfort of warm, well-lit rich country living rooms, but also in the slums and remote areas all around the developing world." -Nicholas Negroponte
And we know that Nicholas is right on the ball. Sugata Mitra with his 'Hole In The Wall' experiment confirmed the very same thing.
The $100 laptop is being developed by One Laptop per Child (OLPC), a Delaware-based, non-profit organization created by faculty members from the MIT Media Lab to design, manufacture, and distribute laptops that are sufficiently inexpensive to provide every child in the world access to knowledge and modern forms of education. OLPC is based on "constructionist" theories of learning pioneered by Seymour Papert and later Alan Kay, as well as the principles expressed in Nicholas Negroponte's book Being Digital. The founding corporate members are Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Brightstar, Google, News Corporation, Nortel, and Red Hat.
OLPC wants to distribute 100 millions of these laptops to underdeveloped countries where is not no network access and electricity. Technical breakthroughs have already driven the prototype design, but every technical breakthrough in the next five years would mean costs would continue to fall. These laptops would benefit primarily from mesh networking, as a way of sharing scarce net connections.
Although children will be able to interact with each other through the machines, education was still the priority for the laptops. But by using mesh networking, the vision is for children to interact while doing homework, and even share homework tips on a local community scale.
"Every single problem you can think of, poverty, peace, the environment, is solved with education or including education. So when we make this available, it is an education project, not a laptop project. The digital divide is a learning divide - digital is the means through which children learn leaning. This is, we believe, the way to do it." - Nicholas Negroponte
Endgadget has put up this pic which supposedly shows the 'winning designs' for these machines.

Another BBC article on HITW

A Hole In The Wall
Via the BBC:
Teach-yourself computing for kids[...]The digital divide seems at its greatest in India. On one side you have some of the most advanced work in IT taking place in cities like Bangalore or Delhi.On the other you have children who have little or no access to new technology and live in conditions where clean water and electricity are still luxuries.It is this divide that one man, Sugata Mitra, intends to bridge.He was first struck by it looking out of his office window.Breaking barriersInside his IT compound he could see the young techno-savvy professionals, belts hung with electronic gadgets.Beyond the perimeter fence, he could see the dispossessed children sleeping rough in a shanty town.He decided it was time to break a hole in the wall and give the children outside a chance to see what a computer was.He cut a hole and hooked one up. What happened next amazed him. They taught themselves how to use it.Sugata took his experiment further and set up computers amongst the underprivileged communities of Delhi.He built special kiosks where only children could reach the keyboard, and left them connected to the internet. In each case the results were the same.Without adult intervention, the children got to grips with the technology, even with their limited understanding of English.Sugata was able to make some important but controversial observations."Groups of children given adequate digital resources can meet the objectives of primary education on their own - most of the objectives."