One believes schools are obsolete. The other believes that schools are the answer. Watch the videos below to see how two education activitist with opposite points of view collaborate in an incredible experiment in Ghana that could change the future of education in the developing world.
TWO MUST WATCH VIDEOS
Watch these two inspiring videos to see the two education activists with very different theories come together, to discuss the idea of SOLE; and collaborate on an incredible experiment in Ghana, where Sugata Mitra's 'School in the Cloud' technology is introduced into a Pencils of Promise classroom.
|
|
|
THE BACKGROUND: Sugata Mitra and Adam Braun
|
|
TED TALK (2013): Sugata MitraIn 1999, Sugata Mitra was chief scientist at a company in New Delhi that trains software developers. His office was on the edge of a slum, and on a hunch one day, he decided to put a computer into a nook in a wall separating his building from the slum. He was curious to see what the kids would do, particularly if he said nothing. He simply powered the computer on and watched from a distance. To his surprise, the children quickly figured out how to use the machine.
Over the years, Mitra got more ambitious. For a study published in 2010, he loaded a computer with molecular biology materials and set it up in Kalikuppam, a village in southern India. He selected a small group of 10- to 14-year-olds and told them there was some interesting stuff on the computer, and might they take a look? Then he applied his new pedagogical method: He said no more and left. |
Over the next 75 days, the children worked out how to use the computer and began to learn. When Mitra returned, he administered a written test on molecular biology. The kids answered about one in four questions correctly. After another 75 days, with the encouragement of a friendly local, they were getting every other question right.
“If you put a computer in front of children and remove all other adult restrictions, they will self-organize around it,” Mitra says, “like bees around a flower.”
A charismatic and convincing proselytizer, Mitra has become a darling in the tech world. In early 2013 he won a $1 million grant from TED, the global ideas conference, to pursue his work. He’s now in the process of establishing seven “schools in the cloud,” five in India and two in the UK. In India, most of his schools are single-room buildings. There will be no teachers, curriculum, or separation into age groups—just six or so computers and a woman to look after the kids’ safety. His defining principle: “The children are completely in charge.”
Mitra’s work has roots in educational practices dating back to Socrates. Theorists from Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi to Jean Piaget and Maria Montessori have argued that students should learn by playing and following their curiosity. Einstein spent a year at a Pestalozzi-inspired school in the mid-1890s, and he later credited it with giving him the freedom to begin his first thought experiments on the theory of relativity. Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin similarly claim that their Montessori schooling imbued them with a spirit of independence and creativity.
“If you put a computer in front of children and remove all other adult restrictions, they will self-organize around it,” Mitra says, “like bees around a flower.”
A charismatic and convincing proselytizer, Mitra has become a darling in the tech world. In early 2013 he won a $1 million grant from TED, the global ideas conference, to pursue his work. He’s now in the process of establishing seven “schools in the cloud,” five in India and two in the UK. In India, most of his schools are single-room buildings. There will be no teachers, curriculum, or separation into age groups—just six or so computers and a woman to look after the kids’ safety. His defining principle: “The children are completely in charge.”
Mitra’s work has roots in educational practices dating back to Socrates. Theorists from Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi to Jean Piaget and Maria Montessori have argued that students should learn by playing and following their curiosity. Einstein spent a year at a Pestalozzi-inspired school in the mid-1890s, and he later credited it with giving him the freedom to begin his first thought experiments on the theory of relativity. Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin similarly claim that their Montessori schooling imbued them with a spirit of independence and creativity.
TEDx UNLV TALK: Adam BraunPencils of Promise started from a drive to help children get access to quality education, no matter where they were born or what socioeconomic status they were born into. When backpacking through India in his early 20s, Braun asked a small boy he encountered who was begging what he would most want in the world. The boy’s response was, “a pencil.” In that moment, the idea for Pencils of Promise was conceived.
Braun has no misconceptions that despite his hard-nosed business acumen, Pencils of Promise is a mission-driven organization. But it’s a results-driven, outcome-driven, mission-driven organization. “In order for you to become successful in achieving your mission, the business has to be sound, and the stronger the business is, the more it should complement you achieving your mission and goals,” says Braun. |
|
Now in its fifth year, Pencils of Promise is turning growth numbers that would please even the most competitive venture capitalist. In 2008, Braun launched Pencils of Promise with $25 and brought in $30,000 worth of donations. In 2009, he brought in $80,000 and in 2010, the organization raised $1 million. In 2011, donations doubled to $2 million, and last year, they topped $5 million.
One way that Pencils of Promise runs like a Fortune 500 company is that its financials are transparent, available for public viewing. You can pull the each year’s financial documents up on the Pencils of Promise website.
Those financials show that 85 percent of dollars brought into the organization go directly to programmatic uses, defined as building schools, training teachers and providing students scholarships. Further, 100 percent of the money donated online also goes directly into programmatic functions.
That combination – and Pencil of Promise’s ensuing success -- has made Braun something of a rock star in the entrepreneur and nonprofit space. At the ripe old age of 30, Braun has already been named one of the first 10 World Economic Forum Global Shapers and honored at the United Nations by the Clinton Global Initiative. He has also spoken at the Google Zeitgeist conference and been named to Wired Magazine’s 2012 Smart List of 50 People Changing the World.
At the end of the day, Braun credits his company's success to its emphasis on principles that work. “We speak a language that doesn’t just appeal to nonprofits and academics and traditional NGOs. We speak a broader language that sits at the intersection of nonprofits and for-profits and invites both of them to become supportive of the work we do and adopt some of these principles that we found have allowed us to become a high-growth organization,” he says. “I look at myself as an entrepreneur. Not a nonprofit, for-profit person. It’s just that I like starting things.”
One way that Pencils of Promise runs like a Fortune 500 company is that its financials are transparent, available for public viewing. You can pull the each year’s financial documents up on the Pencils of Promise website.
Those financials show that 85 percent of dollars brought into the organization go directly to programmatic uses, defined as building schools, training teachers and providing students scholarships. Further, 100 percent of the money donated online also goes directly into programmatic functions.
That combination – and Pencil of Promise’s ensuing success -- has made Braun something of a rock star in the entrepreneur and nonprofit space. At the ripe old age of 30, Braun has already been named one of the first 10 World Economic Forum Global Shapers and honored at the United Nations by the Clinton Global Initiative. He has also spoken at the Google Zeitgeist conference and been named to Wired Magazine’s 2012 Smart List of 50 People Changing the World.
At the end of the day, Braun credits his company's success to its emphasis on principles that work. “We speak a language that doesn’t just appeal to nonprofits and academics and traditional NGOs. We speak a broader language that sits at the intersection of nonprofits and for-profits and invites both of them to become supportive of the work we do and adopt some of these principles that we found have allowed us to become a high-growth organization,” he says. “I look at myself as an entrepreneur. Not a nonprofit, for-profit person. It’s just that I like starting things.”
