The Hole in the Wall

Hello!

I would like to share something interesting with you people. First of all, let me remind you that the title of this post has nothing to do with children fantasy tales or something like ‘Alice in Wonderland’. It is actually about an experiment conducted by Prof. Sugata Mitra in the rural areas in India. The term “the hole in the wall” was used by the media the first time the experiment was conducted in Kalkaji, a suburb in New Delhi, India, where the researchers used a computer which was connected to the Internet and embedded it into a brick wall near a slum.

Sugata Mitra

Another name for “the hole in the wall” is Minimally Invasive Education (MIE). MIE is a method that uses the learning environment to generate adequate level of motivation to encourage learning in groups of children, with none or minimal intervention from a teacher. In simple words, a computer is placed somewhere accessible to the children. The curious children will be able to explore the computer by themselves and use it to browse, play games, and create documents and many more. The more curios the children, the more they can explore and the more they can learn.

The most interesting part of MIE is that the children learn on their own without the presence of adult supervision. Furthermore, the children learn by collaborating and supporting each other. The children friendly environment encourages the children to operate the computer at their own expediency, seeking and helping their peers and are not dictated by any structured settings.

The experiment was a success although conducted in the rural areas and where technology is scarce. Observations across locations show a learning process of random exploration, collaboration, discovery, vocabulary construction, generalisation, practice and peer tutoring (Inamdar, 2004). This approach helps to bridge the “digital divide” to help the people from all walks of life to achieve computer literacy.

In my opinion, I think that this “hole in the wall” can be done here in our own country. As we all know, as we are progressing rapidly in this ferocious Technology Age, there are some of us who are less fortunate. These people do not even have the privilege to own computers what not to surf Google, Facebook, Youtube or use sophisticated software to complete certain tasks. These people usually come from low income families or those who live in rural areas who cannot afford to own a computer or worse, never had the chance to have a glimpse of how to use one. This eventually creates a huge gap between the computer literate and the illiterate.

In order to bridge this digital gap, I think the government should do something similar to “the hole in the wall”. Everyone’s excited to achieve Vision 2020 and I think it is not fair if the people who live in the rural areas to be left behind. The people especially the children there are hungry for technology but they did not have the chance to taste it because their monthly family income only pays their food.

If the government implement this in our country, I think that it will benefit the less fortunate people. The less fortunate people will be able to enjoy sing the computer and Internet for free! The computers should be located in a safe public place and accessible to the children. However, adult supervision is not allowed. Given this conditions, the children will be able to work among themselves to explore the computer by themselves. The new exciting discoveries about the computer and Internet will motivate the children to explore more.

I think that Malaysia has the privilege to make this program become a reality. I’m sure that the government will not hesitate to give the same opportunity for everyone to explore technology. Let’s pray that by the year of 2020, if not 100%, 80% of the Malaysian population are computer literate. Malaysia boleh!