This week, I tried something new. I had my students participate in a SOLE session. SOLE stands for student organized learning experience and is the creation of Sugata Mitra. Mitra is a professor of Educational Technology at Newcastle University. In 1999 Mitra began conducting his "Hole in the Wall: experiments where groups of children were found to be able to learn anything by themselves if given the right tools and allowed to work in a community. In 2013 Mitra presented his findings in a TED talk and as a result received TED prize grant to develop his ideas into an educational tool for all children. He since created The School in the Cloud. On this website are all the tools necessary to create SOLE sessions in the classroom. I was a little nervous about the process, as my students are not used to be given that much independence with their own learning. The computer situation in our classroom is not what I would like it to be in order to conduct one of these sessions, but I figured we could adapt with what we have. I hoped for the best.
When I explained to my students what we were going to do, they were very excited. Their eyes lit up with excitement and trepidation when they realized that they were going to have to rely on their own instincts and get the work done. I set the session up for an hour because I knew they would need time to figure out how the online program worked: cutting, pasting, using the scrapbook. At first they were afraid to ask each other for help, but as soon as one started, they began to communicate across different groups. We did have some computer issues that I need to intervene with, but for the most part, they were able to figure out how to search, cut, paste, and create a presentation on their own. One student in particular became the go to person for advice in these matters.
Although the SOLE session is designed with student independence in mind, it does not mean that the teacher has no role at all. As this was the first session and my students are young, I often had to remind them that they could think for themselves and be successful.
As it turned out, several of the groups were very successful answering the question and creating their presentation, but others had some difficulty staying focused. It was a great opportunity to discuss why some groups were more successful than others. We analysed how people's behaviors during the session effected the outcome. For me, the purpose of this first session was not only to come up with an answer to our question, but to gain independence in getting there. After the session and discussion, I asked my students what they thought of the process and I received a resounding two thumbs up! I am looking forward to the next session.
SOLE! What a good idea and it sounds like students were empowered. In any situation there are always those who can do it alone, those who need some assistance, and those who need a lot of assistance. Sounds like SOLE allowed all 3 kinds to learn at the same time, in their own way, BUT is also allowed some students to step up and learn to lead. By any chance, where the leaders what you would call "introverts" or even in the old days "nerds" who would have more inclinded to be silent during a more extrovert/verbal based lesson?
ReplyDeleteYes! I have 2 students I would call introverts and they both worked as leaders in their groups. One became the go to person for all the other students as his skills are at a higher level. The interesting thing was that his group was not able to produce much because he was so distracted by helping the other groups. His partner did not pick up the slack, but rather waited for him to lead. Trying to decide on the essential question for our next session.
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