[madtantric]

Cheap tablet with network connectivity will help self motivated students to learn by themselves. I hope that access to the Internet will get rid of the incompetent teachers from their path to knowledge. Some states have taken concrete measures to get rural India connected to the Internet. Yes, there is corruption,poverty,education,health and whole lot of other problems that India needs to solve. They need not be solved in sequential order. Bringing in the politics related to Kashmir is irrelevant to this topic. Since you mentioned it, I would like to bring in another perspective. The protesters were seen as violent anti-nationals by one group and as peaceful freedom fighters by others. Unfortunately for India, the grouping was based, to a large extent, on whether one was a Hindu or a Muslim.

[flarg]

Based on the evidence of a good friend from Nigeria, I agree. In his school the teachers took the money and disappeared, so the students got together and taught themselves. A cheap device that can access information resources on the internet would have given them access to a lot more resources then they had at the time; and he studied for and achieved a good degree in engineering.

[mnazim]

Disagree strongly. Take 10 year old boy or a girl, give him the cheap tablet and unlimited internet supply and now read your statement again.

"Cheap tablet with network connectivity will help self motivated students to learn by themselves"

and answer this. What is the meaning of self motivation for a 10 year old?

[nitrogen]

I was busy using my dad's telecommuting PC to dial BBSes and learn to code when I was 10. It bothers me to no end when people underestimate the capabilities of children.

[kristiandupont]

What do you mean? Motivation comes from curiosity and a 10 year old has that more than most! Give him an internet connection and he can learn almost anything!

[mnazim]

Agreed motivation comes from curiosity. But in case of 10 year old with all the distractions on the internet, can he/she or will he/she really spend enough time on Khan Academy to learn maths, science, language etc. on his own?

[sudhirc]

If that is the case then you should be force feeding the child to become something they never wanted to be. Children coming from poor families will focus their energies on learning especially when will head from likes of Bill Gates that khan academy is all you need to learn something.They will atleast get started and go for it. Sugata mitra is experiment[1] clearly demonstrate what childrens can do once they are left to their own devices.

Problem with children is not the desire to learn, problem is bad teachers who does nothing but inhibit and curb their student's creativity.

[1] http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_shows_how_kids_teach_t...

[mnazim]

Dear sudhirc. Please read my comments. I am constantly mentioning "primary school education".

I don't give a damn about careers, I don't give a damn about degrees; because by the time people are in (senior)high school, they are smart to use the 3 pound coconut God put on their shoulders and figure things out for themselves.

All I care about primary school education. And children NEED hand holding and general direction providing at such a nascent level which can only be provided by a trained teacher within a pedagogically sound system and can never be achieved by any level of technologically marvelous device of any sorts. Period.

That is why when I have children they are not going to school until they are at least 10 years old. :P

PS: I don't care what Bill Gates says. Since when is he an authority on education? What are his credentials/contributions in the field?