New experiments in self-teaching | Sugata Mitra

翻译人员: Yujian Li 校对人员: Tony Yet

Well, that's kind of an obvious statement up there.

嗯，这好像是个显而易见的观点。

I started with that sentence about 12 years ago,

我在12年前根据这句话开始实验，

and I started in the context

我开始在发展中国家

of developing countries,

的环境中开始，

but you're sitting here from every corner of the world.

但诸位是从世界各地来此的。

So if you think of a map of your country,

所以如果回想一下你国家的地图，

I think you'll realize

我想你会意识到，

that for every country on Earth,

在地球上的每个国家的地图上，

you could draw little circles to say,

你都可以圈出一些地方说，

"These are places where good teachers won't go."

“好的教师不会去这些地方。”

On top of that,

而这些地方

those are the places from where trouble comes.

往往容易产生问题。

So we have an ironic problem --

那么我们就面临一个很讽刺的问题。

good teachers don't want to go

好教师不想去

to just those places where they're needed the most.

最需要他们的地方。

I started in 1999

我从1999年开始

to try and address this problem with an experiment,

试图用实验解决这个问题，

which was a very simple experiment in New Delhi.

我当时在新德里进行了一个非常简单的实验。

I basically embedded a computer

基本上，我在新德里贫民窟

into a wall of a slum in New Delhi.

的一个墙壁上嵌入了一个电脑。

The children barely went to school, they didn't know any English --

这里的孩子很少上学。他们一点儿也不懂英文。

they'd never seen a computer before,

他们以前从未见过电脑，

and they didn't know what the internet was.

并且他们不知道什么是互联网。

I connected high speed internet to it -- it's about three feet off the ground --

我把电脑接入高速互联网——大约离地面3英尺高——

turned it on and left it there.

打开电脑然后离开了。

After this,

之后，

we noticed a couple of interesting things, which you'll see.

我们注意到一些有趣的事情，你们等一下会看到。

But I repeated this all over India

我在印度各地

and then through

以及世界上许多地方

a large part of the world

重复这个实验，

and noticed

我们发现

that children will learn to do

孩子们会学习

what they want to learn to do.

他们想学的东西。

This is the first experiment that we did --

这是我们做的第一个实验——

eight year-old boy on your right

在右边是一个8岁的男孩

teaching his student, a six year-old girl,

教他的学生，一个6岁的女孩，

and he was teaching her how to browse.

他在教她如何浏览网页。

This boy here in the middle of central India --

这个男孩生活在印度中部——

this is in a Rajasthan village,

这是在Rajasthan村，

where the children recorded their own music

孩子们在录制他们自己的音乐

and then played it back to each other

并互相放给对方听，

and in the process,

在这个过程中，

they've enjoyed themselves thoroughly.

他们完全沉浸在欢乐中。

They did all of this in four hours

他们在第一次见到电脑

after seeing the computer for the first time.

4小时后做了这些。

In another South Indian village,

在另一个南印度的村落，

these boys here

这些男孩

had assembled a video camera

组装了一个录像机

and were trying to take the photograph of a bumble bee.

并试图拍一个大黄蜂。

They downloaded it from Disney.com,

他们从Disney.com或这些网站的其中一个

or one of these websites,

下载了它，

14 days after putting the computer in their village.

这发生在把电脑放在他们村里的14天后。

So at the end of it,

因此，最终我们得出一个结论，

we concluded that groups of children

那就是成组的孩子

can learn to use computers and the internet on their own,

可以自己学习如何使用电脑和互联网，

irrespective of who

任何地方的任何孩子

or where they were.

都可以。

At that point, I became a little more ambitious

到这时，我的野心更大了一点，

and decided to see

并决定看看

what else could children do with a computer.

孩子们还能用电脑做什么。

We started off with an experiment in Hyderabad, India,

我们在印度的海得拉巴市开始了这个实验，

where I gave a group of children --

我把一台电脑给了一群孩子——

they spoke English with a very strong Telugu accent.

他们讲英语时带着

I gave them a computer

很强的泰卢固语口音，

with a speech-to-text interface,

电脑里有语音文字转换界面，

which you now get free with Windows,

现在这个功能在Windows里是免费的，

and asked them to speak into it.

我让他们对着电脑说话。

So when they spoke into it,

当他们对着电脑说的时候，

the computer typed out gibberish,

电脑打出了毫无意义的乱语，

so they said, "Well, it doesn't understand anything of what we are saying."

然后他们说，“电脑一点都不知道我们在说什么。”

So I said, "Yeah, I'll leave it here for two months.

我就说，“是啊，我把电脑放这儿两个月。

Make yourself understood

你们设法让电脑知道

to the computer."

你们在说什么“

So the children said, "How do we do that."

然后孩子们问，”我们要怎么做啊？“

And I said,

我说，

"I don't know, actually."

”其实我也不知道。“

(Laughter)

（笑声）

And I left.

然后我走了。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Two months later --

两个月后——

and this is now documented

现在这项研究刊登在

in the Information Technology

《国际发展领域的信息技术应用》

for International Development journal --

这本杂志上——

that accents had changed

他们的口音变了

and were remarkably close to the neutral British accent

变得非常接近我在语音文字合成器中设定的

in which I had trained the speech-to-text synthesizer.

正规英国口音。

In other words, they were all speaking like James Tooley.

也就是说，他们说得都跟James Tooley似的。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

So they could do that on their own.

所以他们可以靠自己完成。

After that, I started to experiment

然后，我开始实验让

with various other things

他们做一些可能靠自己做到的

that they might learn to do on their own.

其他不同的事情。

I got an interesting phone call once from Columbo,

我曾接到来自Columbo现已去世的

from the late Arthur C. Clarke,

科幻小说作家Arthur C. Clarke的一个有趣的电话，

who said, "I want to see what's going on."

他说，“我想亲自看看实验进展。”

And he couldn't travel, so I went over there.

因他无法旅行，所以我到他那里去。

He said two interesting things,

他说了两件有趣的事情，

"A teacher that can be replaced by a machine should be."

“一个可以被机器替换的老师应该被替换。”

(Laughter)

（笑声）

The second thing he said was that,

他说的第二件事是，

"If children have interest,

“如果孩子们有兴趣

then education happens."

那么教育就会自然发生。“

And I was doing that in the field,

而我正将此付诸实践，

so every time I would watch it and think of him.

所以每次我都会看这个录像并想到他。

(Video) Arthur C. Clarke: And they can definitely

（录像）Arthur C. Clarke：它们肯定会

help people,

对人们有帮助，

because children quickly learn to navigate

因为孩子们很快学会如何浏览

the web and find things which interest them.

并找到他们感兴趣的东西。

And when you've got interest, then you have education.

当他们产生兴趣时，教育就自然发生了。

Sugata Mitra: I took the experiment to South Africa.

Sugata Mitra：我在南非进行了这个实验。

This is a 15 year-old boy.

这是一个15岁大的男孩。

(Video) Boy: ... just mention, I play games

（录像）：男孩：……顺便提一下，我像

like animals,

动物一样玩游戏，

and I listen to music.

并且我听音乐。

SM: And I asked him, "Do you send emails?"

SM：然后我问他：”你发送电子邮件吗？“

And he said, "Yes, and they hop across the ocean."

他说，”是的，它们会跨越海洋。“

This is in Cambodia,

这是在柬埔寨，

rural Cambodia --

乡下似的柬埔寨

a fairly silly arithmetic game,

这是一个比较愚蠢的算术游戏，

which no child would play inside the classroom or at home.

没有孩子会在教室或家里玩它。

They would, you know, throw it back at you.

他们会把它扔回来给你。

They'd say, "This is very boring."

他们会说，”这很无聊。“

If you leave it on the pavement

如果你把它留在道路上，

and if all the adults go away,

如果大人们都走了，

then they will show off with each other

然后他们就会互相炫耀

about what they can do.

他们能做到的东西。

This is what these children are doing.

这是这些孩子正在做的东西。

They are trying to multiply, I think.

我想他们正在试图乘数。

And all over India,

在印度各地，

at the end of about two years,

快到两年的时候，

children were beginning to Google their homework.

孩子们开始用谷歌搜索他们的作业。

As a result, the teachers reported

结果是，老师们反映他们的

tremendous improvements in their English --

英文进步巨大

(Laughter)

（笑声）

rapid improvement and all sorts of things.

其他方面的进步也很快。

They said, "They have become really deep thinkers and so on and so forth.

他们说，”孩子们的思维变得很深刻，诸如此类。“

(Laughter)

（笑声）

And indeed they had.

的确是这样的。

I mean, if there's stuff on Google,

我的意思是，如果这东西在谷歌上有，

why would you need to stuff it into your head?

何必要在脑子里记住？

So at the end of the next four years,

又过了将近四年，

I decided that groups of children can navigate the internet

我认为这些孩子可以自行通过浏览网络

to achieve educational objectives on their own.

来达到教育的目标。

At that time, a large amount of money

那时，纽卡斯特大学接到了

had come into Newcastle University

一大笔捐款

to improve schooling in India.

来改善印度的学校。

So Newcastle gave me a call. I said, "I'll do it from Delhi."

于是纽卡斯特大学给了我一个电话。我说，”我会从德里开始。“

They said, "There's no way you're going to handle

他们说，"你不可能坐在德里

a million pounds-worth of University money

来处理上百万英镑

sitting in Delhi."

的学校经费。"

So in 2006,

于是在2006年，

I bought myself a heavy overcoat

我给自己买了一件厚重的大衣

and moved to Newcastle.

来到纽卡斯特。

I wanted to test the limits

我想测试这个系统

of the system.

的极限。

The first experiment I did out of Newcastle

我在纽卡斯特之外做的第一个实验

was actually done in India.

其实是在印度。

And I set myself and impossible target:

我为自己制定了一个不可能的目标：

can Tamil speaking

让一群南印度村落

12-year-old children

里说泰米尔语的

in a South Indian village

12岁的孩子们

teach themselves biotechnology

靠自己用英语

in English on their own?

学习生物科技。

And I thought, I'll test them, they'll get a zero --

我以为，我会测试他们，他们会得0分。

I'll give the materials, I'll come back and test them --

我会给他们相关材料，并回来测试他们。

they get another zero,

他们又得了零分。

I'll go back and say, "Yes, we need teachers for certain things."

我回去说，“是的，我们需要教师来教些东西。”

I called in 26 children.

我叫了26个孩子。

They all came in there, and I told them

他们全都来了，我告诉他们说

that there's some really difficult stuff on this computer.

这电脑上有些非常困难的东西。

I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't understand anything.

如果你们一点都理解不了，我也不会感到惊讶。

It's all in English, and I'm going.

它们全部是英文的，我走了。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

So I left them with it.

然后我把电脑留给他们。

I came back after two months,

两个月后我回来了，

and the 26 children marched in looking very, very quiet.

这26个孩子排队进来，看上去很安静。

I said, "Well, did you look at any of the stuff?"

我说，“嗯，你们有没有看那些东西？”

They said, "Yes, we did."

他们说，“是的，我们看了。”

"Did you understand anything?" "No, nothing."

“你们能理解多少？”“一点也不理解。”

So I said,

然后我说，

"Well, how long did you practice on it

“那你们在电脑上操作多久以后，

before you decided you understood nothing?"

才认为你们什么也理解不了？”

They said, "We look at it every day."

他们说，“我们每天都看。”

So I said, "For two months, you were looking at stuff you didn't understand?"

然后我说，“你们这两个月一直都在看你们看不懂的东西？”

So a 12 year-old girl raises her hand and says,

然后一个12岁的女孩举起手说，

literally,

原话是，

"Apart from the fact that improper replication of the DNA molecule

“除了错误复制DNA分子会

causes genetic disease,

导致遗传疾病这个事实之外，

we've understood nothing else."

我们什么也不懂。”

(Laughter)

（笑声）

(Applause)

（掌声）

(Laughter)

（笑声）

It took me three years to publish that.

我花了三年时间发表这个研究结果。

It's just been published in the British Journal of Educational Technology.

刚发表在《英国教育科技杂志》上。

One of the referees who refereed the paper said,

其中一个审阅论文的专家说，

"It's too good to be true,"

“这太好了，不可能是真的，”

which was not very nice.

我对此不敢苟同。

Well, one of the girls had taught herself

其中一个女孩自学

to become the teacher.

成为教师。

And then that's her over there.

那边的那个就是她。

Remember, they don't study English.

不要忘记，她们没学英文。

I edited out the last bit when I asked, "Where is the neuron?"

我把最后一点删除，我问她，“神经元在哪儿？”

and she says, "The neuron? The neuron,"

她说，“神经元？神经元？”

and then she looked and did this.

然后她看了看做了这个。

Whatever the expression, it was not very nice.

这个表情可不太好。

So their scores had gone up from zero to 30 percent,

那么她们的分数从零分提高到30分，

which is an educational impossibility under the circumstances.

在这种情形下，已经达到教育上不可能达到的程度了。

But 30 percent is not a pass.

但30分还是不及格。

So I found that they had a friend,

于是我发现她们有一个朋友，

a local accountant, a young girl,

一个年轻的女孩，在当地做会计，

and they played football with her.

她们跟她经常踢足球。

I asked that girl, "Would you teach them

我问这个女孩，“你愿意

enough biotechnology to pass?"

教她们足够的生物科技知识，来帮她们及格吗？”

And she said, "How would I do that? I don't know the subject."

她说，“我怎么能做到啊？我根本不懂这门科目。”

I said, "No, use the method of the grandmother."

我说，“你是不懂，不过可以用奶奶的方法。”

She said, "What's that?"

她说，“那是什么？”

I said, "Well, what you've got to do

我说，“嗯，你要做的只是

is stand behind them

站在她们后面

and admire them all the time.

并且一直赞美她们。

Just say to them, 'That's cool. That's fantastic.

只需对她们说，‘这好酷哦。这太棒了。

What is that? Can you do that again? Can you show me some more?'"

这是什么？你能再做一遍吗？能不能让我多看一些？’”

She did that for two months.

她这样做了两个月。

The scores went up to 50,

分数提高到50分，

which is what the posh schools of New Delhi,

这分数跟新德里豪华学校的学生差不多，

with a trained biotechnology teacher were getting.

那样的豪华学校却是配备着训练有素的生物科技教师的

So I came back to Newcastle

于是我戴着这些研究结果

with these results

回到纽卡斯特，

and decided

我认为

that there was something happening here

这里所发生的事情

that definitely was getting very serious.

确实具有重大价值。

So, having experimented in all sorts of remote places,

在各种各样的偏远地区实验之后，

I came to the most remote place that I could think of.

我来到我能想到的最偏远的地方。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Approximately 5,000 miles from Delhi

距离德里大约5000英里的地方

is the little town of Gateshead.

有一个小镇叫Gateshead。

In Gateshead, I took 32 children

在Gateshead，我找了32个孩子，

and I started to fine-tune the method.

并开始调整实验方法。

I made them into groups of four.

我让他们分成四组。

I said, "You make your own groups of four.

我说，“你们自己分成四组。

Each group of four can use one computer and not four computers."

每组四个人用一台电脑，而不是四台电脑。”

Remember, from the Hole in the Wall.

别忘了，来自那个墙上的洞。

"You can exchange groups.

“你们可以交换组别。

You can walk across to another group,

如果不喜欢自己的组，

if you don't like your group, etc.

可以去其他组，等等。

You can go to another group, peer over their shoulders, see what they're doing,

你们可以去另一个组偷看，看看他们在干什么，

come back to you own group and claim it as your own work."

然后回来宣称这是你们自己做的。”

And I explained to them

我跟他们解释，

that, you know, a lot of scientific research is done using that method.

你们懂的，许多科学研究就是这么来的。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

(Applause)

（掌声）

The children enthusiastically got after me and said,

孩子们非常热切地追着我说，

"Now, what do you want us to do?"

“现在你要让我们做什么？”

I gave them six GCSE questions.

我给了他们六个GCSE普通中等教育证书的问题。

The first group -- the best one --

第一组，最好的一组，

solved everything in 20 minutes.

在20分钟内解决了所有问题。

The worst, in 45.

最差的一组，45分钟内完成。

They used everything that they knew --

他们使用所有他们知道的方法--

news groups, Google, Wikipedia,

新闻组，谷歌，维基百科，

Ask Jeeves, etc.

问Jeeves等等。

The teachers said, "Is this deep learning?"

教师们问，“这算是深入的学习吗？”

I said, "Well, let's try it.

我说，“那让我们来试试这个吧。

I'll come back after two months.

我两个月后回来。

We'll give them a paper test --

我让他们参加一个笔试测试--

no computers, no talking to each other, etc."

没有电脑，不准互相交谈，等等。”

The average score when I'd done it with the computers and the groups

在允许使用电脑和小组学习的情况下，平均分数

was 76 percent.

是76。

When I did the experiment, when I did the test,

在两个月后进行的测试，

after two months, the score

分数还是

was 76 percent.

76。

There was photographic recall

孩子们拥有

inside the children,

摄像记忆的能力。

I suspect because they're discussing with each other.

我怀疑这是因为他们互相讨论的结果。

A single child in front of a single computer

一个孩子一台电脑是不会产生

will not do that.

这样的效果的。

I have further results,

我还有些更深入的研究结果，

which are almost unbelievable,

几乎是难以令人相信的，

of scores which go up with time.

这些分数随着时间推移而提高。

Because their teachers say

因为他们的老师说，

that after the session is over,

在研究结束后，

the children continue to Google further.

孩子们继续更深入的谷歌搜索。

Here in Britain, I put out a call

在英国，在我的[]实验后，

for British grandmothers,

我给英国的奶奶们

after my Kuppam experiment.

发了一个号召。

Well, you know,

嗯，你们知道，

they're very vigorous people, British grandmothers.

英国的奶奶们是非常具有活力的人群。

200 of them volunteered immediately.

有200人马上志愿加入。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

The deal was that they would give me

协议是她们给我

one hour of broadband time,

一个小时的宽带上网时间，

sitting in their homes,

在她们家里坐着，

one day in a week.

每个星期一次。

So they did that,

然后她们这么做了。

and over the last two years,

在过去两年里，

over 600 hours of instruction

有600小时的指导

has happened over Skype,

通过Skype进行了，

using what my students call the granny cloud.

使用的是我的学生们称之为奶奶云的方法。

The granny cloud sits over there.

奶奶云在那儿坐着。

I can beam them to whichever school I want to.

我可以把她们传送到任何我想传送的学校。

(Video) Teacher: You can't catch me.

（录像）老师：你抓不到我。

You say it.

跟我读。

You can't catch me.

你抓不到我。

Children: You can't catch me.

孩子们：你抓不到我。

Teacher: I'm the gingerbread man.

老师：我是姜饼人。

Children: I'm the gingerbread man.

孩子们：我是姜饼人。

Teacher: Well done. Very good ...

老师：做的很好，非常好。

SM: Back at Gateshead,

SM：回到Gateshead，

a 10-year-old girl gets into the heart of Hinduism

一个10岁的女孩在15分钟内进入了

in 15 minutes.

印度教的中心。

You know, stuff which I don't know anything about.

你知道，这些东西我一点也不懂。

Two children watch a TEDTalk.

两个孩子在看TED演讲。

They wanted to be footballers before.

而他们以前想当足球运动员。

After watching eight TEDTalks,

看了8个TED演讲者之后，

he wants to become Leonardo da Vinci.

他想成为达芬奇。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

(Applause)

（掌声）

It's pretty simple stuff.

这是很简单的东西。

This is what I'm building now --

这是我现在在构建的。

they're called SOLEs: Self Organized Learning Environments.

它们叫SOLEs：自我组织的学习环境。

The furniture is designed

这些装置是特地设计的，

so that children can sit in front of big, powerful screens,

好让孩子们坐在一个强大的屏幕前面，

big broadband connections, but in groups.

拥有高速宽带连接，他们是分组的。

If they want, they can call the granny cloud.

如果他们愿意的话，可以叫上奶奶云。

This is a SOLE in Newcastle.

这是在纽卡斯特设置的一个SOLE。

The mediator is from Pune, India.

这个中间人来自印度的[]。

So how far can we go? One last little bit and I'll stop.

我们能够走多远？再说一点我就结束。

I went to Turin in May.

我在五月去了都灵。

I sent all the teachers away from my group of 10 year-old students.

我找了一组10岁的学生，让他们的老师全部离开。

I speak only English, they speak only Italian,

我只说英语，他们只说意大利语，

so we had no way to communicate.

所以我们没有办法沟通。

I started writing English questions on the blackboard.

我开始在黑板上写英语问题。

The children looked at it and said, "What?"

孩子们看了以后说，“什么？”

I said, "Well, do it."

我说，“嗯，做吧。”

They typed it into Google, translated it into Italian,

他们把它输入谷歌，翻译成意大利语，

went back into Italian Google.

然后去意大利语谷歌。

Fifteen minutes later --

15分钟后……

next question: where is Calcutta?

下一个问题：Calcutta在哪儿？

This one, they took only 10 minutes.

他们在这个问题上花了10分钟。

I tried a really hard one then.

然后我试了一个很难的问题。

Who was Pythagoras, and what did he do?

毕达哥拉斯是谁，他做了什么？

There was silence for a while,

他们沉默了一会儿，

then they said, "You've spelled it wrong.

然后说，“你拼错了。

It's Pitagora."

应该是Pitagora。”

And then,

然后，

in 20 minutes,

过了20分钟，

the right-angled triangles began to appear on the screens.

直角三角形开始在屏幕上出现。

This sent shivers up my spine.

这让我脊梁冒汗。

These are 10 year-olds.

他们只是10岁的孩子。

Text: In another 30 minutes they would reach the Theory of Relativity. And then?

文字：再过30分钟他们就会到达相对论。然后呢？

(Laughter)

（笑声）

(Applause)

（掌声）

SM: So you know what's happened?

SM：所以你知道发生了什么吗？

I think we've just stumbled across

我认为我们偶然发现了

a self-organizing system.

一个自我组织的系统。

A self-organizing system is one

一个自我组织的系统是指

where a structure appears

在没有外界干预的情况下

without explicit intervention from the outside.

自动出现的一个结构。

Self-organizing systems also always show emergence,

而且自我组织系统总是出现这样的现象，

which is that the system starts to do things,

即这系统会开始做些事情，

which it was never designed for.

而系统本非为此而设计。

Which is why you react the way you do,

这也是你们为什么会这么反应，

because it looks impossible.

因为它看起来是不可能的。

I think I can make a guess now --

我认为我可以在此做个猜测。

education is self-organizing system,

教育是一个自我组织的系统，

where learning is an emergent phenomenon.

而学习是一个显露的现象。

It'll take a few years to prove it, experimentally,

这可能要花几年的时间才能通过实验证明，

but I'm going to try.

但我会努力去尝试。

But in the meanwhile, there is a method available.

但现在，有一个方法是有效的。

One billion children, we need 100 million mediators --

10亿孩子，我们需要1亿中间人--

there are many more than that on the planet --

我们世上远比这多--

10 million SOLEs,

成立1千万个SOLE，

180 billion dollars and 10 years.

1千8百亿美元和10年

We could change everything.

我们可以改变一切。

Thanks.

谢谢

(Applause)

（掌声）