Minimally invasive education

If you say it for me, If you write it for me, If you draw if for me, All I learn is that you are better than me.

Via Karen Boyes from a teacher at Manuwera Intermediate

NOTE TO READER: Jan 4 2012

This wiki started over a year ago with the intention to share stories in relation to MIE and Sugata Mitra. As time has gone by other influences have emerged that follow the MIE pedagogy. NZ Government policies have also emerged that have taken the direction of our fantastic flexible NZ curriculum to one of prescriptive standardisation and compliance. This is very far removed from MIE ideas and even more reason to keep sharing these narratives.

Tara TJ

My MIE presentation to the Emerging Leaders Symposium May 2011 - Tara's ELS talk

=How children learn in unsupervised environments=

Children will learn to do what they want to do ... Dr Sugata Mitra

If you truly want to engage pupils, relinquish the reins and give them the chance to learn by doing - Ewan McIntosh

Minimally Invasive Education (MIE) is often associated with the research of Dr Sugata Mitra and his The Hole in the Wall experiments. Mitra found that when children are given free public access to a resource (in his case a computer) that they can "become computer literate on their own". He made many other discoveries (see Sugata Mitra Wiki).

The findings of particular interest to me, are that the children taught themselves English so that they could use search engines. He also argues that they improved their English pronunciation on their own. As a teacher in a school with a predominant Pasifika roll, I wondered if I could use this emerging pedagogy to improve the oral language skills of my students.

I had already been playing around with the use of video technology (as a part of my 2010 eFellowship research). Here I used the magic of video to enable children to self reflect and improve upon their spoken language. As a result of this research I also discovered that the use of cameras in the classroom can enable children to reflect on their group participation skills. This meshes very well with Dr Mitras research in that he also focuses on the importance of social interaction skills and value systems.

"Talent [can] blossom into something extraordinary if nurtured. When mentors serve this function - either turning a light on a new world or fanning the flames of interest into genuine passion - they do exalted work..." Sir Ken Robinson - The Element

Sugata Mitra Blog

Sir Ken Robinson - The Element

=My phone is a mine of MIE anecdotes=

Here is one that must be shared! Thinking outside the square with musical instruments I'm loving that there is some kind of success criteria...

The importance of SOLEs


Education is a self organising system where learning is an emergent phenomenon - Dr Sugata Mitra

SOLEs (Self Organized Learning Environments) have been built my Sugata Mitra to achieve MIE. These environments enable children to sit in front of large screens with fast broadband. Furniture needs to be arranged so that children can sit in groups. The discussion between children is a crucial ingredient of MIE.

This TED Talk illustrates the remarkable self-learning that can take place in this kind of environment.

While the average classroom cannot achieve the fabulous learning spaces seen in this video, consider spreading your computers around the classroom so that children can learn around computers in small groups (as opposed to having all computers in one area). If you are in a 1:1 setting ensure that children are still organised in groups so that they can discuss and share what they are learning. Mobile devices such as smartphones and capacitive touch screen tablets are great for this because they allow the learners to easily share and view their devices in small learning groups. The pictures below illustrate that this small group self-learning can be achieved easily with both desktop computers and laptops also.

Learning about Argentina in a SOLE in 20 minutes


This term, like many New Zealand Primary School classes, my class is learning about the Rugby World Cup. Areas within NZ have been allocated countries to study. Our country is Argentina. Given that I know very little about Argentina, I thought that this would be a fantastic opportunity to 'try out' Sugata Mitra's SOLES in the way he referred to it in this talk when he went to Turin, Italy (you can view this at 14:19).

So following the Mitra recipe, the children self grouped themselves in groups of 4. They were told that they were able to wander around the room, and take other group's ideas back to their own groups. They were asked to find out information about Argentina.



After 20 minutes they reported back to the whole class. In 20 minutes they:
 * Found what the Argentina flag looked like
 * Found Argentina on the world map
 * Discovered that Argentina had two languages
 * Found pictures of food from Argentina
 * Found pictures of the Argentina landscape and wondered if they snow-boarded
 * Found the Argentina National Anthem
 * Translated the Argentina National Anthem on Google Translate
 * Made connections with NZ and Argentina's National Anthem (they both had themes of Royalty and Freedom)
 * Found pictures of Argentina houses and thought they looked colorful
 * Wanted to know if the children in Argentina had laptops



The Changing Role of the Teacher
At Educamp Aucklandsome like-minded educators and I discussed how tragic it would have been if I had planned a 'unit' that spanned an entire term where children had to sit through me telling them what they were all able to access and recall in a mere 20 minutes. Several similar anecdotes were shared in this forum.

We discussed how this is a fine demonstration of how our role as teachers MUST change. In this context, my role is to find connections and more authentic learning about Argentina. My mission is to connect my kids with a school from Argentina using video conferencing and movie making.

I will not be wasting my student's time by 'teaching' them banal content knowledge and 'facts' about Argentina. This is quite simply because (as the late Arthur C Clarke said to Sugata Mitra): If a teacher can be replaced by a machine, they should be... In a business week online briefing Mitra is careful to point out that his findings do not show that teachers can be replaced by machines. However, our role is dramatically changing: If computer literacy is defined as turning a computer on and off and doing the basic functions, then this method allows that kind of computer literacy to be achieved with no formal instruction. Therefore any formal instruction for that kind of education is a waste of time and money. You can use that time and money to have a teacher teach something else that children cannot learn on their own.

Later in the interview he goes on to say:

Remember the stories one used to hear about people finding lost tribes and introducing them to Coca-Cola? I'm really seriously scared about what would happen if suddenly the whole wide world had access to these kids. I don't know who would talk to them for what purpose.

When we bring these two points together it is chilling stuff with implications for all of our learners. As educators we need to stop wasting our children's precious time and money with formalised "computer science" teaching. Such as:
 * touch typing
 * hardware identification
 * how to insert a picture



The learners can and will learn this by osmosis. What we can do with this extra money and time is change the role of computer literacy to encompass deep learning issues, some examples include:


 * How do we behave responsibly both online and offline? (Teach it! Talk about the hard issues! Make them explicit! Don't BLOCK it with gated environments!)
 * What should I do if I am in a dangerous online situation?
 * Where do the computers I am using come from?
 * What happens to my computer when it is broken?

Why are we obsessed with computer terminology and English?
Another great point that came out of this interview was our obsession that learners use the correct vocabulary (preferably in English) otherwise how will we know that they are learning? Mitra points to a wonderful example where the New Deli children used metaphors and made connections from their own lives to explain the 'mouse' and 'hourglass' on our western assembled machines.

They invent their own terminology for what's going on. For example, they call the pointer of the mouse sui, which is Hindi for needle. More interesting is the hourglass that appears when something is happening. Most Indians have never heard of an hourglass. I asked them, "What does that mean?" They said, "It's a damru," which is Hindi for Shiva's drum. [The God] Shiva holds an hourglass - shaped drum in his hand that you can shake from side to side. So they said the sui became a damru when the "thing" [the computer] was doing something.

Patricia Ryan also discusses the dangers of this Insistence on English in this Ted Talk

Can children self-learn Spanish in 6 weeks?
Sugata Mitra argues that children can teach themselves English in SOLES. To test this theory in a NZ context I have challenged my children to teach themselves Spanish in 6 weeks. Their mission is to create a movie for a school in Argentina. The tricky part is that they are only to use the Spanish Language.
 * Student: How will we do that?
 * Me: (In true Mitra fashion) I don't know?
 * Student: Can you speak Spanish?
 * Me: Nope
 * Student: Then how will you know if we are right?
 * Me: The children in Argentina will tell me!

Friday 1 (11 August 2011)

Friday 2 (18 August 2011)

MIE does not have to be confined to ICT alone. One of my students was discussing the Spanish project with his SLS teacher and discovered that she spoke Spanish too. She listened to his "Hello my name is ..." and gave him some pointers re sentence structure. It would be more correct to use: "I am called..."

This highlights the importance of children interacting with 'experts' rather than just their classroom teacher. Again emphasizing the importance of the 'Granny Cloud' and the shifting role of the teacher.

After 6 weeks the students were certainly not fluent in Spanish, however they are aware of basic differences in sentence structures. They have picked up a variety of Vocab words and have cut a film for an Argentina class which is awaiting voice over. Interestingly the children were more concerned with the social aspects of Argentina rather than the language. Their main interest was whether or not kids from Argentina were rich or poor and what kind of sports they played. They very much enjoyed hearing their name used in spanish sentences. For me, this highlights the importance of using our technology to connect our students with 'real-life' perspectives and contacts (e.g video-conferencing an actual classroom rather than relying on adult-made tools). Again, our role as teachers is changing!

=MIE - The Adapted Granny Cloud - =

Mitra also discusses the notion of the "granny cloud" where Grandmothers from the UK use video chatting software (such as google video chat and skype) to read to children in India Mitra and the Granny Cloud.

My Australian colleague and I wondered if we could revise this approach using students teaching each other. We discovered that this had significant effects on both groups oral language and camera presentation skills. Children gave each other written feedback via their classroom blogs. Interestingly we noticed that the feedback they were giving each other were skills that they had to work on themselves (looking at the camera, speaking clearly, keeping still and so on). As time went on, the two groups created a shared understanding of what a classroom news show should look like without explicitly saying so.

Here is a video showing around 6 months of progressprogress vid. A lot more has happened since then. For example, the kids now share video footage so that they can use each other as guest reporters in their reports (again a mainstream media influence at play).

Using lights, cameras and action -
The creation of a TV News show. Interestingly the students have come up with a format organically. They have obviously been highly influenced by the mainstream media. The format goes News> Sports > Weather.

The beauty of running this as an afterschool club means that I have the freedom to be completely Minimally Invasive. However time constraints have meant that I have put my finger in the pie, when it comes to editing.

For examples of this work see

Just recently the students have started moving away from their set format. Instead of the standard news, sport, weather regular features have emerged such as Chocolate Vanilla Swirl, Word on the Street and even the weather seems to have taken a life of its own on. This has evolved over a year. Here you can see the

Letting go of the editing
This term two authentic opportunities have arisen where I have had the opportunity to be even more minimally invasive.

School is cool competition

 * Replicating an RSA animate!

A great opportunity to 'let go'. This was a very long term process (took approximately 5-6 weeks of 15-20 min sessions in the afternoons). The NZEI school is cool competition featured Sir Ken Robinson's RSA animate and when the children saw that, they tried to replicate it. I found this to be remarkable how they problem solved and found a way to do this with minimal equipment and instruction. As you can see (on the movie and in the picture above) the animation sequence was achieved with a semi open lap top with a webcam, a permanent marker, and a very persistent little artist. When my student presented this to her father he had a tear in his eye. He asked repeatedly "did you really do this?". The only instruction they have had with movie editing is shoulder surfing, chatting with me, and making decisions when editing our news shows. As Sugata Mitra would say, this shoulder surfing is clearly valuable.

The brief the children were given was: The minister of education thinks that you should be solely judged on Reading, Writing, and Maths - how can you convince her otherwise?

Students have also had discussions re creative commons licensing - they are fine with people learning, remixing, and have waived the non commercial clause. They would prefer that people who gain commercially are poor and not rich...

The Finger
One of our students badly damaged her finger in a door at school. This provided an authentic opportunity to create something special for the injured student. It was the last week of term so the students had the opportunity do some intensive MIE movie making. Note the soundtrack levels going up and down. I asked them how they did it. They looked at me sympathetically and said, "uh, ducking..."

The point I am trying to make here is not so much about the content of the film, but that the skills that the students have acquired in movie editing have been achieved with minimal instruction. They have used trial and error to learn basic editing skills. They found Ducking through curiosity - they liked the sound of it so they applied it to see what it did. Then when they had an opportunity to use it - they remembered where it was and how it worked. It is also important to mention that this discovery took place in a group of 3-4 students. It was the conversation of "what's that for?" "I dunno try it..." "What did it do?" that enabled this real learning to take place. when they got better than me

From Oral Language to Written Language

 * Is Technology Culturally Neutral?

In addition to this, we have had some MIE success using the adapted Granny cloud by way of Google Docs and WallWisher. The children in Geelong were learning about culture. My class has an extremely rich cultural mix (NZ Maori, Cook Island Maori, Tongan, Samoan, and Nuiean). We did not formally teach our children how to use the google doc. Instead we spent time talking about the more deeper issues (appropriate online behaviour etc) and then let them go for it. The children first discussed the usual themes (food, religion, clothes, jewellery etc).

Then for some reason one of my students very briefly referred to a Cook Island legend. The children from Geelong asked a couple of questions about it. The student couldn't remember all of the details from the story, but other children from the Cook Islands could remember parts of it. They looked for it on the Internet but found nothing (with the exception of a performed dance of the legend at a polyfest festival).

This brings up an interesting point that Puti Gardiner makes (she uses Te Reo Maori as an example). Is digital technology culturally neutral?

Her children came across the same phenomena when they googled Maori Technology the results that they received were of traditional fishing tools, waka, and weaving and there was very little information on Maori and the use of contemporary technology. After discussing this with her kids they decided to start making digital stories, films, blogging and wikiing, therefore contributing their contemporary stories to the digital world. It seems that in this digital age, it is essential that a digital footprint is created so that language, stories, and culture can be sustained.

Why is it not so easy to find my student's stories on the web, when finding European stories (contemporary and Traditional) is so easy? Who is responsible for rectifying this? Can I encourage my students to contribute their stories and narratives while maintaining their integrity? Is this okay?

My kids talked about how their stories are shared orally to them. This is often through their Grandparents and that is how stories are passed on throughout their culture. There are, of course, variations to each story depending on whose Grandparents version we listen to. The story that was referred to, for example, had many variations within my classroom where debates raged about whether or not the main character wore the skin of a goat and so on.

The use of a shared google doc was brilliant for this phenomenon. The flexibility and collaborative nature of it allows multiple perspectives to come through. When my children come back to school with the varied versions of the same story from their Grandmas, we were be able to see these differing points of view and piece together common themes.

The children were able to record and share their versions of the story with their Australian friends who were then able to draw their own conclusions (given that they had observed the drafting and sharing process).

This example also highlights how our role as teachers are changing. Even for the areas such as reading and writing. I am no longer selecting writing topics and providing stationery. I am working 24/7 to provide authentic and interactive audiences. Studying cultures is not confined to generalist books but providing learners with opportunities to collaborate with other learners from around the world.

=MIE - Minimally Invasive Content - =

We had a wonderful experience at the end of this year achieving a successful MIE experience where the children delivered and drove the curriculum for two weeks!

Term 4 has always been a mad time of year for my Year 5-6 class. We have so many prescribed activities that it is always difficult to start long-term meaningful activities without constant interruption for various (and very necessary) whole-school activities (sports, cultural performance, graduation dance, and prizegiving). Our blog posts and movie making began to get few and far between and this was not helped by a spate of three robberies in a row. By the end of the year we had only my laptop and 3 old desktops that I had acquired from the storage room in the library.

Meanwhile, I had had the absolute privilege of being a part of the Emerging Leaders Symposium where we met once a term to share ignite talks. One such ignite talk was Mark Osborne's talk on Un-Conferences for teacher PD. So a colleague Tim Kongand I decided to have an Un-Conference in our classrooms. All the practices were coming to an end, I had no ICT gear, the art supplies were dismal, and quite frankly the year 6s were pretty much 'over' their primary school experience. What did I have to lose?

The process went basically like any other Un-Conference: A short time to prepare what workshop you would like to teach.


 * Student: "Can it be on anything Miss?"
 * Me: "Yes, anything you want to teach them"
 * Student: "Ha ha, I'm going to 'teach them how to dougie'
 * Me: "You're on - you can go in the first session time"
 * Student: "Aw - I was only joking, Miss"
 * Me: "Go do your research"
 * Student: "I'll need your computer, it's on YouTube"
 * Me: "Go for it!"

Heads snapped around from all corners of the classroom after that discussion and things started to hum.

The curriculum for that week was something I could have never imagined:
 * Teach me how to Dougie
 * How to do a BMX jump
 * How to power-up on Epic Duel
 * How to change a tyre
 * How to perfect side-stepping in touch
 * How to bowl a cricket ball
 * Wood carving design (part one)
 * Wood carving with real tools (part two)
 * Pasifika art and craft
 * A new song (guitar)
 * A new song (ukulele)
 * Lion King Choreography
 * Sketching
 * Taiaha

The 'tutors' wrote their work-shop up on a post-it and the kids opted in and out of what they wanted to do. Just like the adult conferences there was some angst when a 'tutor' was teaching at the same time a session they wanted to attend was running so there were many requests for repeat lessons. The Taiaha lesson was so popular that the 'tutor' was running sessions during playtime and children from other classes were signing up. I was stunned by the Maturity and Mana of our Taiaha tutor who insisted on correct Tikanga (removing student's hats and shoes as well as telling stories about feathers dropping, chiefs and other meaningful knowledges). I learned so much!

Tim and I connected our classes with a skype call and shared google forms. The adapted Granny Cloud worked nicely where his (slightly older) students modeled some great reflection of the process which my students gained from immensely. Student's Reflections

Here are a couple of short vids of the process but it really doesn't give it justice. There was just so much good things happening - I found I had to put the camera down and enjoy the experience.

Bar Camp 1

Bar Camp 2

=MIE - Goal for 2012 Making connections with Elwyn Richardson - =

Another good influence and believer of authentic and non-standardized education introduced me to Elwyn Richardson. What I think is most striking is that the fantastic and motivating stories were written in the 1950s yet those of us using these ideas are considered to be 'innovative' and 'creative'. I am absolutely frustrated with the government's direction that is leading us away from Richardson's blissful, honest and authentic pedagogy. But, that aside, there is much to be gained from his reflections, insights, and beautiful examples of how he taught back in the day.

Where Richardson used the medium of Fine Art (pottery, lino and wood cutting)to create amazing language and mathematical experiences. I have found the same experiences using video. This is not intended for me to make the bold claim that 'I am like Richardson', but that it's not about what we are teaching but how we are teaching. Where Richardson thrived in a rural environment where children observed birds and animals and harvested clay, us urbanised, suburban, (post)modernised counterparts can achieve the same. It is my intention to find these parallels to show that we can all achieve authenticity whether we are in a rural environment, purpose built 21st Century environment, or traditional cellular classroom. The point Richardson makes is not that students learn best with birds and clay but that students learn best with things that are relevant and accessible to them.

One example he refers to is that his students were able to produce beautiful poetry and artworks about native birds and plants - but not from snakes. Why? They hadn't experienced snakes. This is in the same way that my students produced their best writing about how they felt about being robbed, but not so much in response to some arbitrary text in a standardised test.

For those who like the sound of Richardson, try this vid for starters.

=MIE - Questions and my response - =

Recently I have been asked questions in relation to MIE. In the spirit of MIE I am noting some of them down here, in the hope of creating a shared response. More to come...


 * Is it possible to have MIE in a secondary school?


 * Initially I thought that MIE could be achieved better in a secondary school given that the students (generally) have the basic (reading writing and maths) skills and more freedom could possible come out of that. But unfortunately it seems that the word SCHOOL puts a spanner in the works.  I constantly have to remind myself that schools are not places for learning in NZ.  If I am going to be really cynical (and hey, i can because this is my answer) many schools are merely places for preparing students for testing, and a venue where the testing takes place.  Secondary schools seem to fall victim to this more, given that they have NCEA and other external obligations.  From what I can see (again as an outsider looking in, so correct me if I'm wrong) is that there are definitely ways around this.  If schools are to adopt a more personalized flexible curriculum as seen in places like Unlimited and ASHS then MIE can be achieved.  These models are perfectly legitimate, have powerful learning, and all it took was a few clever people to actually 'read' the curriculum with an open mind and some great analytical skills (and I am sure there are more schools doing this).


 * But let's get back to the secondary schools that continue to adopt the traditional school model - the country is crawling with them. My own children are at them, I have friends that teach at them, they sure do exist. MIE would be very difficult in this setting because all students want to achieve is a standard.  "Do we have to write this down?" "Will it be in the test?" "Do we have to read the whole book?".  If you are in an environment where these questions are being asked (or worse - answered) then you are in for a bumpy ride.  That's okay though, bumpy rides are fun.


 * How can they teach stuff to others? How do they get knowledge to pass on?


 * To be a believer of MIE you have to abandon the 'empty vessel' pedagogy. Here we can take a leaf out of Te Whariki which has the view that students are 'competent and confident learners'.  From an epistemological point of view, a MIE must assume that learners bring with them some prior knowledge that they can work with to acquire more.  In the case of the hole in the wall studies, children had very little prior knowledge, but they at least knew that the act of pressing matter (a mouse) had a cause and effect response.  Then, through trial and error, an impetus to learn, and time on their side they were able to learn and teach each other.  They negotiated meaning and knowledge together.  Knowledge does not necessarily need to be passed on to be shared.  It can be created together.


 * How can you teach (subjects like division) if you have never been taught?


 * Authentic real contexts, a willingness to do so, and an open mind. For example how are we exploring this complex notion of MIE? Sugata Mitra has not 'taught' me it.  He has floated an idea, got me interested and I am negotiating my own meaning.  (I don't have many others to do it with at the moment but anyone who will listen is a start).  Think about the teenagers that lock themselves in their bedrooms with a guitar for 5 years and emerge playing like rock-stars!  I have friends who did that well before the internet was invented.  All it took was a chord book and time to explore.  The modern day chord book for division would be the Khan Academy.  However that could be seen as formal teaching (but in digital form) the point is though, that children have locked themselves away and taught themselves division using this resource and I am sure this would have occurred with a different kind of resource well before Khan too. Learners have reported that they prefer to go it alone at times, because they can make mistakes in private, reflect and learn from them without a 'teacher' around.  I much preferred practicing my piano when my family had left the house for the afternoon, than when I was being allegedly 'taught' by my teacher.


 * Is it possible to self teach a second language without any prior knowledge at all?


 * I do not believe that there is such a thing as "without any prior knowledge at all". If you are learning a 2nd language, then chances are you have a 1st language which means you have an idea about how to communicate and how languages work.  If you are learning a 2nd language you probably know what it is called and where it is from.  Again this comes down to a willingness and reason to learn it.  The learner would learn very quickly if trying to negotiate their way around an environment that only spoke the language.  If the learner was learning for a particular reason (eg they were going to visit the place alone, in a certain time frame) this could speed up the need and desire to learn it. If a learner was learning the language because they thought it sounded beautiful and they had a book passed down from their grandmother that they had always wanted to read and they were in no real hurry ... then yes, I think they could.


 * BUT if you are learning a second language because that is the subject you are taking for NCEA (because your Mum wants to tell her friends you are learning French) and you need to pass a series of tests, in a short space of time and you only 'learn' it when it is in your timetable, then NO! MIE is not for you... Make yourself a series of laminated flash cards and do the bare minimum!


 * I'm not convinced, kids freak out when they don't get the gist of what they are doing...


 * Ask yourself (and them) why that is the case? What makes you feel uncomfortable? Is it they want their education handed out to them quickly and efficiently? Where did that come from? How can we change this initial response as to 'what learning looks like?'

=References - =

Cappelle, F, Evers V, and Mitra, S Investigating  The Effects of Unsupervised Computer use on Educationally  Disadvantaged Children’s Knowledge and Understanding  of Computers. [http://staff.science.uva.nl/~evers/afstudeerscripties/Paper63_CappelleEvers.pdf

RICHARDSON, ELWYN. In the Early World. Pantheon Books, 1970