Sugata Mitra is an education researcher who has a new idea for how we can learn better. He thinks we can do it by working together and encouraging each other. He tried out his idea using computers in poor areas of India. They were called "Hole in the Wall" computers. He also started something called Self-Organized Learning Environments (SOLEs) all over the world. Mitra wants to make a place called "School in the Cloud" where people can learn this way. He also wants people all over the world to start SOLEs and help make learning better for everyone.

Detailed Summary for Sugata Mitra: Build a School in the Cloud by Monica

00:00 The current education system was designed by the Victorians to produce identical people for the bureaucratic administrative machine.

• The Victorians created a global computer made up of people to run the entire planet without computers or telephones.
• Schools were created to produce identical people who would become parts of the bureaucratic administrative machine.
• The schools must produce people who could write well, read, and do multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction in their heads.

03:15 Present-day schooling is not preparing students for future jobs, which are unknown, and requires discerning reading skills.

• Clerks are now computers, and people guide them to do their jobs.
• Future jobs require working from anywhere, anytime, and in any way.
• Sugata Mitra discovered the need for computer education while working in New Delhi.
• He discovered that only rich kids were considered gifted in computer skills.
• He placed a computer in a slum to see what would happen if children who never had one were given access.

06:24 Children in India taught themselves English using a computer and speech-to-text engine

• Children at the Hole in the Wall taught themselves English to use a computer
• Experimented with other subjects such as pronunciation
• Gave children a speech-to-text engine to improve their English pronunciation
• One girl who used the computer to improve her English accent now works at a call center in Hyderabad

09:37 Using his new pedagogical method, Sugata Mitra was able to teach children complex concepts in English despite the language barrier.

• Sugata Mitra left the children with a difficult task in English for two months.
• Upon his return, the children had only understood a small part of the task.