1 00:00:10,833 --> 00:00:12,933 Diego Golombek: (Spanish) Sugata, it's an honor 2 00:00:12,934 --> 00:00:16,733 to have you here at TEDxRíodelaPlata. 3 00:00:17,111 --> 00:00:22,371 I think that many of us surely know you from your former experiments. 4 00:00:22,371 --> 00:00:25,073 Remember "A hole in the wall," right? 5 00:00:25,073 --> 00:00:28,829 That one about a computer suddenly appearaing in a village. 6 00:00:28,829 --> 00:00:32,945 But now I want to ask you about what's going on at the moment with SOLE, 7 00:00:32,945 --> 00:00:36,426 about what happened with the TED Prize: How is the implementation going? 8 00:00:36,426 --> 00:00:39,222 How is it making progress? What is your assessment of it? 9 00:00:39,222 --> 00:00:44,906 Sugata Mitra: I think he wants to know what happened after that film. 10 00:00:44,906 --> 00:00:48,000 So, let me tell you what happened. 11 00:00:49,338 --> 00:00:53,078 We built seven Schools in the Cloud. 12 00:00:53,711 --> 00:00:58,696 Five in India and two in England. 13 00:00:59,601 --> 00:01:01,883 What is the School in the Cloud? 14 00:01:02,603 --> 00:01:05,889 Well, let me give you a small example. 15 00:01:06,652 --> 00:01:10,734 You know, people used to travel from one place to another 16 00:01:10,734 --> 00:01:15,569 in a horse-drawn carriage for thousands of years, 17 00:01:15,569 --> 00:01:19,370 until the automobile was invented. 18 00:01:19,370 --> 00:01:24,927 When the automobile was invented the horse and carriage went away 19 00:01:25,607 --> 00:01:29,669 and the coachman, the man who used to drive the horse and carriage, 20 00:01:29,669 --> 00:01:31,950 he also went away 21 00:01:31,950 --> 00:01:35,290 and the passengers became the drivers. 22 00:01:35,290 --> 00:01:40,451 In the School in the Cloud what we are trying to find out is: 23 00:01:41,071 --> 00:01:45,880 Is it possible in our education systems -- 24 00:01:45,880 --> 00:01:50,593 has the time come to make the passengers drive? 25 00:01:51,547 --> 00:01:54,621 So, we launched these seven schools. 26 00:01:54,626 --> 00:01:57,961 The most distant one had nothing: 27 00:01:57,961 --> 00:02:01,385 no electricity, no health care, no schools. 28 00:02:02,238 --> 00:02:05,485 The best ones, in England, had everything. 29 00:02:06,181 --> 00:02:10,050 And then, we let the learners drive the car. 30 00:02:11,032 --> 00:02:13,243 What happened? 31 00:02:14,248 --> 00:02:19,771 You might think that I am going to say something romantic, but I am not. 32 00:02:20,177 --> 00:02:24,229 I got bitten by one million mosquitoes. 33 00:02:24,838 --> 00:02:26,268 (Laughter) 34 00:02:27,019 --> 00:02:28,499 (Applause) 35 00:02:34,599 --> 00:02:38,798 And then, the children began to change. 36 00:02:39,646 --> 00:02:43,372 In England, the students wrote me an e-mail 37 00:02:43,372 --> 00:02:46,858 saying "Why are they teaching?" 38 00:02:47,544 --> 00:02:52,474 In Korakati, the most distant of our Schools in the Cloud, 39 00:02:53,238 --> 00:02:55,748 the children said, 40 00:02:55,748 --> 00:03:02,325 "Why does the skyped in Granny speak such simple English? 41 00:03:03,070 --> 00:03:05,770 Doesn't she know that we understand her?" 42 00:03:06,315 --> 00:03:07,445 (Laughter) 43 00:03:08,044 --> 00:03:11,150 In another Bengal village, Chandrakona, 44 00:03:11,150 --> 00:03:14,830 I noticed a distinct Birmingham accent. 45 00:03:15,530 --> 00:03:16,959 (Laughter) 46 00:03:16,959 --> 00:03:21,179 It was faster than anything that I had expected. 47 00:03:21,179 --> 00:03:24,031 I don't know if you are going to believe this: 48 00:03:24,031 --> 00:03:29,679 in Korakati, the village where the children know no English at all, 49 00:03:29,679 --> 00:03:32,279 on day number three, 50 00:03:32,279 --> 00:03:36,186 one of the English teachers who skyped in said, 51 00:03:36,186 --> 00:03:40,686 "You know, those children are very sweet, they said 'When are you coming back?'" 52 00:03:41,576 --> 00:03:45,149 I said, "In what language did they ask you?" 53 00:03:45,149 --> 00:03:49,489 And she said: "In English." Three days. 54 00:03:50,125 --> 00:03:53,925 (Applause) 55 00:03:53,925 --> 00:03:56,003 Thank you. 56 00:03:58,750 --> 00:04:02,728 So, I asked the children, 57 00:04:02,728 --> 00:04:07,066 "How did you learn to speak in English so quickly?" 58 00:04:07,956 --> 00:04:10,659 And they looked at me and said, 59 00:04:11,459 --> 00:04:14,609 "You know that woman who comes on the screen? 60 00:04:14,609 --> 00:04:18,599 She doesn't understand anything other than English." 61 00:04:18,599 --> 00:04:20,889 (Applause) 62 00:04:25,845 --> 00:04:28,381 Now, for the bad news. 63 00:04:28,381 --> 00:04:32,681 The seven laboratories have seven different kinds of problems. 64 00:04:32,681 --> 00:04:38,745 The biggest problem is not pedagogy, it is not teaching and learning, 65 00:04:38,745 --> 00:04:40,629 it is technology. 66 00:04:40,629 --> 00:04:47,154 So, I struggle to keep those remote locations running 67 00:04:47,604 --> 00:04:52,457 but I know that I will find the way, I still have one more year to go, 68 00:04:52,457 --> 00:04:55,086 I know I will find the way to keep them running 69 00:04:55,086 --> 00:04:56,765 and I know for sure, 70 00:04:56,765 --> 00:05:00,512 and I tell you this for the first time in the world on a TED stage, 71 00:05:00,512 --> 00:05:04,640 the passengers are driving the car. 72 00:05:04,640 --> 00:05:07,885 (Applause) 73 00:05:07,885 --> 00:05:09,515 Thank you. 74 00:05:11,078 --> 00:05:15,333 So, one last little bit that I need to tell you: 75 00:05:16,273 --> 00:05:19,371 I used to get called to conferences, 76 00:05:19,371 --> 00:05:20,781 I still do, 77 00:05:20,781 --> 00:05:24,559 but for the last one year I have been called 78 00:05:24,559 --> 00:05:29,387 by the Education Department of governments of different countries. 79 00:05:29,387 --> 00:05:30,967 They are listening. 80 00:05:30,967 --> 00:05:35,550 And I have only one suggestion to them; 81 00:05:35,550 --> 00:05:39,101 something that I want some government to try, 82 00:05:39,101 --> 00:05:42,064 perhaps the government here, in Argentina. 83 00:05:42,064 --> 00:05:43,044 It is very simple: 84 00:05:43,045 --> 00:05:48,844 I want someone to allow the use of the Internet during examinations. 85 00:05:49,466 --> 00:05:51,566 (Applause) 86 00:05:57,484 --> 00:05:58,984 Thanks. 87 00:06:00,727 --> 00:06:05,345 I know there are students here, and I know that the examination 88 00:06:05,345 --> 00:06:10,801 is the only day in their life when they don't have access to the Internet. 89 00:06:10,801 --> 00:06:16,297 So I hope I will be able to change that. 90 00:06:16,297 --> 00:06:19,566 And, if the Internet enters the examination, 91 00:06:19,566 --> 00:06:22,708 the entire system will have changed. 92 00:06:22,708 --> 00:06:26,704 It would then be an idea that was worth spreading. 93 00:06:27,504 --> 00:06:31,349 DG: (Spanish) Sugata, a question that you are surely being asked all the time. 94 00:06:31,349 --> 00:06:34,516 With this about self organized learning, 95 00:06:34,516 --> 00:06:38,130 What happens with the teachers, what's left for the teachers? 96 00:06:38,130 --> 00:06:44,947 SM: You know, there is a misconception that teachers will not have a role. 97 00:06:44,947 --> 00:06:47,846 That's not true, that's not true at all. 98 00:06:47,846 --> 00:06:54,796 In a SOLE, children find the answers to questions. 99 00:06:55,758 --> 00:07:00,016 But who makes the question? Who listens to their answers? 100 00:07:00,016 --> 00:07:04,396 Who says, most importantly, "That was well done"? 101 00:07:04,396 --> 00:07:06,894 That is what the teacher has to do. 102 00:07:07,730 --> 00:07:11,380 (Applause) 103 00:07:14,840 --> 00:07:16,169 DG: (Spanish) Regarding what Sugata mentioned 104 00:07:16,170 --> 00:07:18,469 about this being implemented here, 105 00:07:18,469 --> 00:07:21,364 there's a plan for at least one school in Barracas 106 00:07:21,364 --> 00:07:24,948 that will begin soon with this SOLE system 107 00:07:24,948 --> 00:07:28,968 of self organized learning in the School in the Cloud. 108 00:07:28,968 --> 00:07:31,048 And a last question, Sugata. 109 00:07:31,048 --> 00:07:33,534 He arrived yesterday, he's being taken from one place to another. 110 00:07:33,534 --> 00:07:36,832 So it's an honor that he would spend some little time with us here. 111 00:07:36,832 --> 00:07:38,517 The last question is: 112 00:07:38,517 --> 00:07:42,266 One of your main concerns is the school of the future. 113 00:07:42,266 --> 00:07:46,361 Let's think a middle-term future, in 50 years: 114 00:07:46,361 --> 00:07:49,495 How do you imagine... how do you wish school to be? 115 00:07:49,495 --> 00:07:56,155 SM: You know... It's hard for me to say what the school will look like. 116 00:07:56,980 --> 00:08:02,520 But something much deeper will happen and it won't take 50 years to happen. 117 00:08:03,337 --> 00:08:08,570 Our definition of the word 'to know'. 118 00:08:08,570 --> 00:08:13,146 What does it mean when you say "I know something"? 119 00:08:13,146 --> 00:08:18,040 It could be something that you learned in school when you were seven years old 120 00:08:18,040 --> 00:08:21,635 or it could be something that Google told you one minute ago. 121 00:08:21,635 --> 00:08:25,088 Knowing doesn't mean anything. 122 00:08:25,088 --> 00:08:29,399 Should we feel sorry? No, I don't think so. 123 00:08:29,399 --> 00:08:33,514 Ideas, like objects, become obsolete. 124 00:08:33,514 --> 00:08:35,981 When I started, I thought... 125 00:08:35,981 --> 00:08:39,942 I was saying "schools will be obsolete". 126 00:08:39,942 --> 00:08:45,410 I am now forced to say that knowing will be obsolete. 127 00:08:45,410 --> 00:08:47,895 What we will take is this: 128 00:08:47,895 --> 00:08:52,745 the collective consciousness of seven billion people. 129 00:08:53,507 --> 00:08:59,257 (Applause)