Self-Organized Learning Environments - A Conversation with Professor Sugata Mitra

Prof. Sugata Mitra is Professor Emeritus at NIIT University,
India. He retired in 2019 as Professor of Educational Technology
and Principal Research Investigator in the School of Education,
Communication and Language Sciences at Newcastle University, UK.
In 2012, he was Visiting Professor for the MIT Medialab in
Massachusetts, US.


In 1999, Sugata began the now world-renowned ‘Hole in the Wall
(HIW)’ experiment, when a computer was embedded within a wall in
an Indian slum at Kalkaji, Delhi and children were allowed to
freely use it. The experiment aimed at proving that kids could be
taught computers very easily without any formal training. Sugata
termed this as Minimally Invasive Education (MIE). The experiment
has since been repeated in many places around the world.


Sugata is the recipient of many awards from India, the UK, USA
and many other countries in the world and has conducted research
that has pushed the boundaries of many disciplines including
electrical engineering, medicine and computer science.


He has a PhD in Physics and is credited with more than 25
inventions in the area of cognitive science and educational
technology. He was conferred the prestigious Dewang Mehta Award
from the Government of India for Innovation in Information
Technology in 2003. Amongst many other awards, he was also
awarded the 1 million dollar TED Prize in 2013.


In 2006, Sugata invented Self-Organized Learning Environments
(SOLEs), now in use throughout the world. In 2009, he created the
Granny Cloud, of teachers who interact with children over the
Internet.


Since the 1970s, Professor Mitra’s publications and work has
resulted in training and development of perhaps a million young
Indians, amongst them some of the poorest children in the world.


Sugata published hundreds of ground-breaking academic papers, and
in 2019 pulled many of his ideas together into his book, The
School in the Cloud: The Emerging Future of Education.


Social Links


Twitter: @sugatam


Web: www.cevesm.com