Sugata Mitra’s Ted Talk “Build a School in the Cloud” shares insights on the future of learning in a digital age. 

How do we ensure students are provided a relevant and purposeful education in an age when they have instant access to all information and the need to know is superseded by the need to learn?  In his Ted Talk Build a School in the Cloud, Sugata Mitra points out that our education system was designed in a time when the objective of formal education was to disseminate information.  Now, that need can be satisfied through a few clicks, a youtube video, or a quick Google search.  To progress education, we need to move away from the ideology of propagating information and move towards a school of thought that values problem-solving, inquiry, and discovery.   Mitra convincingly suggests that traditional learning environments are obsolete and detrimental to real learning.  He believes that self-organized learning environments are how we can innovate education in order to allow education to match the rapid evolution of our digital world.

A self-learning environment is one where the learner is provided with access to technology, collaboration is valued, and encouragement is offered.  In this environment, the role of the teacher is to guide student questioning, encourage exploration and discovery, and support learner collaboration.  This shift moves away from the traditional model where the teacher is the content expert and holds all the answers.   It creates a space where an effective teacher must be skilled at supporting the development of positive relationships, modeling the design and refinement of inquiry, and introducing tools and resources to support students’ natural inquisitiveness.  A classroom teacher in this environment is a facilitator and a guide.  Their role is to create an environment where self-learning is possible.