ProLiteracy and Innovative Education

-
Education and literacy statistics are staggering—or rather, the low levels of literacy and quality education around the world. One teacher in Mexico and an educational technology professor in India, among others, are experimenting with innovative ways to address these problems, since traditional fixes (money, more teachers, etc.) are not always available.

Many of ProLiteracy’s international programs use student-inspired programs, so the skills learned can be used immediately in the student’s daily life.  Not only is this useful for the adult learners who often have little time to play catch up in their education, but it is similar to how humans learn, according to recent research.

According to this article, Sugata Mitra was chief scientist at a company in New Delhi, India, that trains software developers. His office was on the edge of a poor neighborhood, and on a hunch one day, he decided to put a computer into a nook in a wall separating his building from the neighborhood. He was curious to see what the kids would do, particularly if he said nothing. He powered the computer on and watched from a distance. To his surprise, the children quickly figured out how to use the machine.

For Mitra, this was the beginning of his work on an alternative educational philosophy that harnesses the power that the digital age can bring to education.  “Access to a world of infinite information has changed how we communicate, process information, and think. Decentralized systems have proven to be more productive and agile than rigid, top-down ones. Innovation, creativity, and independent thinking are increasingly crucial to the global economy.”

Part of the natural way to learn is by experiment and by curiosity.  Some teachers that have tried this approach have had remarkable success with their young students and there is no reason that this cannot be applied to adult education programs as well. “The bottom line is, if you’re not the one who’s controlling your learning, you’re not going to learn as well,” says lead researcher Joel Voss, now a neuroscientist at Northwestern University.

Maybe this philosophy is why ProLiteracy programs are so successful in areas around the world. Students, even adult students, who control their own learning can do better and learn more.

For more information on ProLiteracy and its programs, please visit our website at http://www.proliteracy.org/our-solutions/international.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CONFINTEA VI - Blogging from Belem, Brazil

-
Image
David Harvey, ProLiteracy President & CEO - From the International Civil Society Forum (ICSF) - Belem, Brazil - 11/28/09 Lynn Curtis, head of ProLiteracy´s international programs, and I, David Harvey, arrived this past Saturday after a 10 hour flight to Belem, Brazil, to participate in ICSF. Over 1000 NGOs from all over the world are participating in the Forum, ahead of UNESCO´s CONFINTEA conference. CONFINTEA only happens every 12 or 13 years, so this is a rare meeting indeed! The Forum is preparing NGOs to participate in CONFINTEA, and will prepare an action agenda to try and influence the outcome of CONFINTEA. David Harvey, From ICSF Belem, Brazil - 11/29/09 One of the opening speakers of ICSF, Jose Roberto Guerara, from the Asia/Pacific Association for Basic Education, asked people to stand up if they had participated in past CONFINTEA conferences, with the first happening in the late 40s. A few people stood up. Mr. Guerara then asked, ¨"what has changed since t...
Read more

Increased Attention to Adult Literacy : U.S. Government and UN Join Forces

-
ProLiteracy’s 80 years of global experience have caused us to recognize the tragic reality that adult literacy, a crucial element of the development and poverty reduction process, is often missing from key international policy discussions. In the past few weeks, the adult literacy topic has been highlighted among top government and international organizations in three critical areas. Educating Girls Today, 796 million adults worldwide lack basic literacy skills; two-thirds of that population are women. UNESCO recently announced a joint project with the United States Department of State, targeting education rates among women. The program , “Better Lives, Better Future” will help stem dropout rates of adolescent girls as they transition from primary to secondary education. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton hopes that this new focus will help policy makers effectively target education investments. “When we educate a young girl, we are shaping our world for a better tomorrow...
Read more

The World Welcomes South Sudan

-
Image
Women celebrating from Sudanese NGO, My Sister's Keeper In July 2011, South Sudan will become an independent nation, Africa’s 55th country, and the world’s youngest state. After two decades of civil war and high poverty levels, the new country will face many challenges. Literacy and education will play a vital role in charting a new course for South Sudan. A recent policy paper published by UNESCO discusses how education will be a first step toward the construction of peace and a better future for the people of South Sudan.The policy paper reveals that women face some of the most imminent challenges in terms of access to education. Today, only around 8 percent of women in South Sudan are literate, possibly the lowest female literacy rate in the world. Young girls in South Sudan face extreme disadvantages in education. Girls are less likely to enter school and more likely to drop out early. Today, a young girl in South Sudan is three times more likely to die in pregnancy or ch...
Read more