The Learning Brain

The Learning Brain uman beings are born with an extraordinary ability to learn H through experiencing the world around them. Studies show babies as young as three weeks understand musical ideas, smiling as you play music to them in a major key and frowning at music in a minor key. By six months, babies have learned to distinguish the relationship between objects, and by two, they have a command of language and are beginning to develop a theory of self. They understand how to lie and become adept at playing parents off against each other! Sugata Mitra, of Newcastle University, has run an experiment in India to test minimally invasive education called the “Hole in the Wall Project’. As the name suggests, he cut a hole in the wall of a building in Delhi and put a computer in it. The hole opens out onto a slum district and local children rapidly discovered the computer. Without any formal training they picked up the necessary skills and very soon became adept at searching the Web. Remember, in order to ‘pick up’ this skill they often had to learn the English language as well. Another example showing children’s innate ability to learn is Nicolas Negroponte’s ‘One Laptop per Child’ program, which gives computers to children in remote villages around the world. The laptops are a triumph of cost engineering but are fully functional and can connect to the Internet. The inspiration for the project came from an analysis of the economics of the computer industry. Huge capital investment in the western world is driving most costs down, but one cost that seems to have stuck fast is the access device. Laptops tend to remain at a floor price of around $500, far too high for much of the developing world. At $500, a computer store makes $80 when they sell you a laptop. This is as low as is cost-effective HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015725