[ubuntu-uk] Hole in the Wall Project

[John Levin]

Andrew Loughran wrote:
> London School of Puppetry wrote:
>> Does anyone know anything about this project?  Taking place in India.  
>> Computers are built into walls in India in open spaces for children to 
>> play with ....thousands of them have learnt English over the past year 
>> by playing....Apparently they did try OS tech. but said it didn't 
>> work- stuff likes Red Hat I was told vaguely.....anyone know anything 
>> about it?
>>
>> Caroline
>>
> Caroline,
> 
> I have come across this before - having read a journal article on the 
> phenomenon for a final-year Psychology essay.  I'll try and dig up the 
> entry so I can find you some details.
> 
> If I recollect correctly, then the situation was something like the 
> following:
> 
> A big tech company in Mumbai had a building which was next to a slum, 
> and one of the buildings backed onto the slum.  A philanthropic 
> employee/manager decided to study the ability for people who were 
> completely uninitiated to any form of technology to use a computer.  It 
> had a basic keyboard and mouse - and the main reason that I was 
> impressed by the article - & Linux (though which flavour I am not sure).
> 
> The surprising thing was, that not only were the indian children able to 
> use the computer and work out how to use the keyboard and the mouse - 
> but they were able to use both google (and english) to a surprisingly 
> level. 
> 
> If I could get my hands on my Uni documents then I'd be able to give you 
> a complete essay on it (and a far more accurate account).  However, I 
> ran Windows during my final year of Uni to run some University 
> software... needless to say the first thing I did when I left uni was to 
> switch to just ubuntu - and took out my windows HD to keep all my stuff 
> backed up.  That disk is now in Birmingham, and I'm in Manchester.
> 
> I hope this helps.
> 
> Andy
> 

Google is your friend:
http://www.greenstar.org/butterflies/Hole-in-the-Wall.htm
Interview with Sugata Mitra, the physicist who started 'minimally 
invasive education.'
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/egwest/holeinthewall.html
His article on the 'hole in the wall' project.
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/india/thestory.html
Documentary (haven't played it; seems to need realplayer)

Can't find anything about the use of linux for it. Google is not my 
friend :(

Great project, thanks for bringing it to my/our attention!

John