I have to say that I watched this video in awe. I have always believed that a child learns so much more if that learning is facilitated by them. If a child is genuinely interested, or curious about something, they are going to do whatever they can to find out more about that topic.
In this clip, children in India are introduced to computers for the first time. They are not given any sort of instructional manual, it is completely hands-on learning. The Indian children learn how to use the computers by experimenting with it. I think that this is so amazing. I truly believe that we underestimate the learning potential of children and this research is proving that theory. State and national standards have deemed what they find important for learning in the classroom. These standards, and achievement tests, are just creating obstacles when it comes to learning. If we allow the children to explore the things that they are interested in, their curiosity is going to both scaffold and spiral.
I use the analogy of cleaning a messy house. If I start by cleaning the kitchen, I am ultimately going to come across things that do not belong in the kitchen, so I have to find out where they go. If I put the towels in the linen closet, and find that it too is cluttered, I will become distracted by cleaning that as well. I am still cleaning (learning), but my cleaning has taken a side street. Ultimately I will return to the kitchen and keep cleaning there, but that does not mean that my time spent the linen closet was wasted or unneeded.
The research that this video discusses should begin to serve as proof that children can learn anything as long as we allow them to and provide them with the tools to do so. The main tool needed here was a computer, but once the children had access to computers and the internet, they were able to learn things about DNA and bio-technology that even I cannot fully understand.
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