The Daily Riff - BE SMARTER. ABOUT EDUCATION.

The first video is a quick two minute insight from Sugata Mitra - who is the  star of one of the most viewed/viral and loved (?) education videos from TED - which may give you, as a parent or teacher, a unique and/or and counter-intuitive insight about the motivation of your child, or student.

Are we under-estimating our kids, yet again?  Are we fearful of tech for all the wrong reasons?

In the first short video, Mitra suggests students go to school for the wrong reasons, or more aptly suggesting that students don't want to go to school because of these reasons, also questioning why there is  a real disconnect between a student's perception of "work" and "learning," and between learning on one's own, or together in a group.

The second video in particular, dispels the intuitive stereotypes in education: 


From TED bio:

Education scientist Sugata Mitra tackles one of the greatest problems of education -- the best teachers and schools don't exist where they're needed most. In a series of real-life experiments from New Delhi to South Africa to Italy, he gave kids self-supervised access to the web and saw results that could revolutionize how we think about teaching.

The second video has been hugely viral in education circles but wanted to make sure parents got a whiff of this, too.   It's a weekend, so you may have a the chance to check it out as it runs about about 17 minutes, with Mitra being fun and engaging, throughout.

Related posts by The Daily Riff:

How to Create Non-readers:  Reflections on Motivation, Learning and Sharing Power in the Classroom  by Alfie Kohn

Teachers Doing the Flip to Help Students Become Better Learners 

Youth Motivation and Mastery: Fires of the Mind

Are We Wrong about Motivation?  Daniel Pink thinks so.

Harry Potter author JK Rowling Captivates Crowd with Harvard Commencement - "In spite of a distinct lack of motivation at University . . . "