I work at an elementary school, and what I have found is if you give the kids something to work towards, they will find a way to get there if you don't help them out, or just barely push them along. That video and talk really showed that kids have such an imagination, that if they want to get somewhere, they will find a way even if they have no idea how to work something, if they care about it enough they will work for it.
I think that is what I took away from this more than the fact that "teachers aren't needed", because I think teachers will always be needed, sure students can learn certain things by figuring it out themselves, but I feel as if not everything that is needed when you are an adult can be taught to yourself. What I took away from it more is that we 1) need a less structured classroom and education system and 2) that we have to give the students the power to want to learn. If we just tell them they have to learn a, b, and c, they won't want to and will have problems with it, but if you find something they want to achieve or learn about, they will be more likely to learn it their own way.
I work at a private school, so most of the kids have both parents. However, when their parents pick them up most are talking on the phone, in a rush, and/or ignore their kids. I sometimes think I spend more time with them than their parents do. You can tell that the kids just want their parents to notice them, and it breaks my heart when a pre kindergardener wants to show off her finger painting and the parents just rolls their eyes and talks on the phone, you can tell that the kid probably doesn't want to work to anything because she thinks she isn't good at that. So the granny cloud I think is the best part of that video, because it gives kids what they want, and that's attention and acknowledgment that what they are doing is cool, and will work.
I found it inspirational how Sugata Mitra just put computers in the slums, and how kids found a way to work them without knowing anything. That shows me that we need to be getting creativity from all kids, and keeping them creative. It also shows me that those children in not well off places have such a desire to learn, and it makes me want to hop on a plane and jet off to the slums and just start teaching them what they want to learn, because seeing their smiling faces and seeing themselves so proud of learning how to do something on the computer reminds me of why I want to be a teacher.
I think that is what I took away from this more than the fact that "teachers aren't needed", because I think teachers will always be needed, sure students can learn certain things by figuring it out themselves, but I feel as if not everything that is needed when you are an adult can be taught to yourself. What I took away from it more is that we 1) need a less structured classroom and education system and 2) that we have to give the students the power to want to learn. If we just tell them they have to learn a, b, and c, they won't want to and will have problems with it, but if you find something they want to achieve or learn about, they will be more likely to learn it their own way.
I work at a private school, so most of the kids have both parents. However, when their parents pick them up most are talking on the phone, in a rush, and/or ignore their kids. I sometimes think I spend more time with them than their parents do. You can tell that the kids just want their parents to notice them, and it breaks my heart when a pre kindergardener wants to show off her finger painting and the parents just rolls their eyes and talks on the phone, you can tell that the kid probably doesn't want to work to anything because she thinks she isn't good at that. So the granny cloud I think is the best part of that video, because it gives kids what they want, and that's attention and acknowledgment that what they are doing is cool, and will work.
I found it inspirational how Sugata Mitra just put computers in the slums, and how kids found a way to work them without knowing anything. That shows me that we need to be getting creativity from all kids, and keeping them creative. It also shows me that those children in not well off places have such a desire to learn, and it makes me want to hop on a plane and jet off to the slums and just start teaching them what they want to learn, because seeing their smiling faces and seeing themselves so proud of learning how to do something on the computer reminds me of why I want to be a teacher.
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