This lab, fondly referred to as SinC was an investment from the TED prize money that Sugata Mitra won in 2013. Started out as 7 labs, there are 5 in India and 2 in UK. I was following their work online and as soon as I read a newspaper article on the launch of Area Zero, I was sure I had to visit.
Vietnam wasn't turning out to be as I had planned and cafe-hopping was getting expensive. So I decided I'd get in touch with projects I've been quite fond of, in India and check if I could visit them. It's amazing how far and wide the EWC name has a reach. Here is what happened. On one hand I'd decided I wanted to visit these SinC labs, rain or shine. I was talking to my close friend Swetha back home explaining their work and telling her how I can't seem to get access to anybody in leadership there. The very same morning she's had a conversation with her boss, who in the passing had mentioned reading the recent article about this project and was proud of her friend, Suneeta. Swetha immediately connects the name and tells me she might know a way I could get in touch and introduces me to her boss the next second. Bingo! When I got in touch with Suneeta Kulkarni, I was a little apprehensive about which part of my journey I could start introducing myself with. Did I have to go all the way back to volunteering days, developing an interest in this space or start from the SE Asia research? To my surprise she asked me if I'd gone to the East West Center campus in Hawaii. A graduate from the United States herself, she knew EWC really well and has always been a fan of how unique their work has been. Let's say from then on it was smooth sailing. After a detailed Skype call, I followed up on her schedule and checked if I could join her for one of the field visits. She quickly got back with dates about her trip to Phaltan, near Pune in Maharashtra and I started looking for tickets to join her. It all came together really well and I spent a good two days at PSS SinC Lab 4 - Pragat Shikshan Sanstha. First day I was introduced to all the ways in which the lab was being a part of the regular school functions and how SOLE/SOME was weaved into their timetables. In the evening, two girls living on campus with their mother took me to a nearby temple and showed me around the town. Next morning, 6am the kids were on campus, cleaning the place and setting up their school for the morning classes. The school functions in two parts - Primary level in the morning and Secondary level in the afternoon. So I stayed on till the secondary students came back to the lab and interacted with the ‘grannies on the cloud’. As I had gotten accustomed with the students quite easily, although I didn’t speak their mother tongue, Marathi, Suneeta had requested me to conduct a feedback session with them about SinC and what they feel about it. So most of Day 2, I spent observing primary children use the lab for play and exploration while I’d steal half an hour chunks with the secondary students for group feedback sessions. The school has wonderful staff, an incredibly knowledgable IT person and a visionary heading it. Together they work so well that SinC is no doubt a success there! To know more about the School in the Cloud project, visit www.schoolinthecloud.org
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SHARANYA DilipFun | Learning | Innovation | Education | Technology The more I read, the more I learn. The more I see, the more I understand.
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