The School in the Cloud

List of Figures List of Companion Website Resources Foreword John Hattie, Class 3G, Belleville Primary School Acknowledgments About the Author Prelude: A Matter of Imagination The School in the Cloud: A Chronology PART I: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN CHILDREN MEET THE INTERNET? Chapter 1: Self-Organizing Systems in Learning 1999-The Hole in the Wall Can Children Learn With Technology? 2007-The Gateshead Experiments 2009-The Granny Cloud Admiration as Pedagogy: The Kalikuppam Experiment Skype Grannies The Hyderabad Project, 2007-2009 The Atlas Learning Centre (ALC) in Gosavi Vasti, India, 2012 2010-When the Rubber Hits the Road: Implementation Around the World Chapter 2: Schools in the Cloud TED: An Idea (I Hope Was) Worth Spreading The Schools in the Cloud PART II: SCHOOLS IN THE CLOUD Chapter 3: Area Zero: Gocharan, the Baruipur Municipality, Bengal, India Learning and Some Huge Challenges Results Chapter 4: Area 1: Korakati, the Sundarbans, Bengal, India Results Chapter 5: Area 2: Chandrakona, West Midnapore, Bengal, India Learning and Some Challenges Chapter 6: Area 3: Kalkaji, New Delhi, India The Early SOLE at GGSSS/GBSSS Learning Results Chapter 7: Area 4: Phaltan, District Satara, Maharashtra, India Making Sense of the Data From Phaltan What the Phaltan Data Said Chapter 8: Area 5: Killingworth, North Tyneside, England Chapter 9: Area 6: Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, England Chapter 10: How to Build Your Own School in the Cloud Why Would You Want to Build a School in the Cloud? Will the Internet Ever be Allowed During Examinations? Space Furniture Computing Equipment Power, Internet, and Climate Control The Dasghara Model Using the School in the Cloud Creating and Posing Big Questions When SOLEs Go Wrong PART III: GLIMPSES OF THE FUTURE OF LEARNING Chapter 11: What Did We Learn From the Schools in the Cloud? How Much Can We Rely on the Research? What Did We Learn From the Schools in the Cloud? Chapter 12: Is No Pedagogy Good Pedagogy? Minimally Invasive Education Education Education and Cognition Using the Past Assessment A Different Type of Exam Curriculum Chapter 13: Where Are the Schools in the Cloud Now? An Uncertain Future What Is Happening With the Schools in the Cloud? Schools in the Cloud Spreading Around the World Chapter 14: Projection, Prediction, Prophecy, and Phantasy Looking for the Future Projection Prediction Prophecy Phantasy Spontaneous Order Epilogue Documentary Discussion Guide References Index

Professor Sugata Mitra's cur-rent work is on the internet and children's learning. He retired in 2019 as Professor of Educational Technology, Newcastle University. He conducted the Hole-in-the-Wall (HIW) experiment in 1999, embedding a computer within a wall in an Indian slum at Kalkaji, Delhi; children were allowed to use this computer freely. The experiment aimed at proving that kids could be taught computers very easily without any formal training. Mitra termed this minimally invasive education (MIE). The experiment has since been repeated at many places. He is the recipient of many awards and honorary doctorates from India, the United Kingdom, the United States, and many other countries in the world. His interests include children's education, remote presence, self-organizing sys-tems, cognitive systems, complex dynamical systems, physics, and consciousness. The Hole-in-the-Wall experiment has left a mark on popular culture. Indian diplomat Vikas Swarup read about Mitra's experiment and was inspired to write his debut novel that went on to become the Oscar-winning movie of 2009-Slumdog Millionaire. Mitra holds a PhD in physics and is credited with more that 25 inven-tions in the area of cognitive science and educational technology. He was conferred the prestigious Dewang Mehta Award for Innovation in Information Technology from the Government of India in the year 2003. Amongst many other awards, he received the first ever million-dollar TED Prize in 2013. Recently, he used the money he was awarded when he received the TED Prize to put his educational ideas together to create seven laboratories called "Schools in the Cloud." Here he studied learning as emergent phenomena in an educational self-organizing system. These results question the ideas of curriculum and exami-nations, as well as the meaning of "knowing" itself, in the internet world of the twenty-first century. The effects of Sugata Mitra's work on the lives of people and the economies of the countries in which his "Schools in the Cloud" have existed can only be guessed at.