Schools In The Cloud: How Digital Media Is Changing The Future Of Learning

In 2013, education scientist Sugata Mitra, won the $1-million TED prize to fulfill his dream of creating ‘Schools in a Cloud’ — where children could explore online resources to answer questions. It involves SOLES (Self Organised Learning Environments) fuelled by big, child-focused questions and self-discovery. Mitra concluded that working in groups help children find their own answers using the internet, supported by educators of all kinds – from Skype Grannies to parents and educators- who give them the freedom to explore their curiosity. “Give them a laptop and a group of pupils will teach themselves,” believes Mitra. His idea not only tackles one of the greatest problems of education (that the best teachers and schools don’t exist where they’re needed most), but it also involves students in both the learning and teaching process.

Following the TED prize, Mitra launched his sixth lab in India. Called Area 4 – PSS in Phaltan, Maharashtra, it is integrated with the innovative school Pragat Shikshan Sanstha and is one of the better resourced and less remote locations of the School in the Cloud. “Being the only one in Maharashtra and fourth one in India, it provides us a setting to understand the impact of the SOLE approach which includes—pedagogy, and design of the learning environment as well as the technology used—over a continuum ranging from the most remote location, all the way to the labs in the UK,” informs Suneeta Kulkarni, research director, School in the Cloud, adding that it gives them the opportunity to see how this approach could be integrated into a regular school setting. 

Area 4 – PSS is in many ways quite different from other labs in India. For starters, there is premium on children taking responsibility for different activities, as well as in their holistic approach to education. Yet, they have to operate within a system that is rigid, as well as contend with the challenges of enabling children to use technology. And at the same time all this has to be offered in a setting that has limited resources, and challenges created by an unfamiliarity with English (by far the language of the internet). “PSS is a Marathi-medium school that recognises the importance of the mother tongue while ensuring that children are not left behind because of their limited and stilted exposure to English as a frequent and ongoing means of communication,”adds Kulkarni.          

This medium enables children to operate in the real world. “Skills developed here through SOLEs makes them capable of learning what they need to learn, when they need to learn it. Using this approach and the virtual interaction with the educators as the two main pillars, children develop the capacity for scientific/ rational thinking and analysis,” says Mitra further adding,“Another advantage of this approach is that it enables children’s expression of thoughts and ideas as well as their understanding of situations, settings and cultures.”

Mitra hopes to create the seventh lab in India soon. This one will help children everywhere tap into their innate sense of wonder. Speculating about the future, Mitra says, “Urban children and those in other settings, will access the internet through a host of devices. A world in which using the internet, a learner could ‘‘pretend’’ to be educated. By ‘‘pretend’’, I mean the learner could claim to know a subject that he or she has not been taught in the traditional sense.” He further explains, “In other words, when a learner practices a set of skills without being taught but uses the internet for support, she/ he learns the subject, over a period of time. And SOLEs are the first faltering steps towards preparing our children for a future we can barely imagine,” he signs off.  

At Schools in the Cloud labs children undergo: 

[a] SOLE sessions that are part of the school time table and which are used to explore the BIG questions that build into their curiosity and lead them to exploration
[b] Curricular usage which are similar to SOLE sessions but use a theme/ topic from the curriculum to drive search
[c] Free access and use of internet where they might play games, paint or do animation etc.  
[d] Aspirational usage that opens up new horizons by encouraging them to explore the work of many different stalwarts in varied fields of study.