“Hole in wall computer” LIFT talk up now

April 15, 2007 By

One of my favorite talks at the LIFT conference was this one by Sugata Mitra, who studied what happens when you bring computing to people who’ve never touched a computer before in India.

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  • http://robgoodlatte.com/ Rob Goodlatte

    Wow, the videos of the children interacting with a computer for the very first time is really interesting. I find it pretty amazing that it only took one guy eight minutes- I would think a web browser would be pretty intimidating to someone who has never touched a computer before.

    It makes me want to completely rethink user interfaces for computers to come up with a better metaphor than a “desktop”. These kids have probably never filed things in a paper-based folder system, so it doesn’t make sense to push the desktop/file folder UI metaphor on them.

  • http://robgoodlatte.com Rob Goodlatte

    Wow, the videos of the children interacting with a computer for the very first time is really interesting. I find it pretty amazing that it only took one guy eight minutes- I would think a web browser would be pretty intimidating to someone who has never touched a computer before.

    It makes me want to completely rethink user interfaces for computers to come up with a better metaphor than a “desktop”. These kids have probably never filed things in a paper-based folder system, so it doesn’t make sense to push the desktop/file folder UI metaphor on them.

  • Cheryl

    I watched a documentary about this project a few years ago and found it absolutely fascinating. The social dynamic that occurs with these kids teaching each other is amazing to me. I love his point about needing to make friends to get what you want instead of taking what you want from someone (referring to knowledge about using the computer).

    Very cool. Thanks for sharing this.

  • Cheryl

    I watched a documentary about this project a few years ago and found it absolutely fascinating. The social dynamic that occurs with these kids teaching each other is amazing to me. I love his point about needing to make friends to get what you want instead of taking what you want from someone (referring to knowledge about using the computer).

    Very cool. Thanks for sharing this.

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