Importance of Teacher Response

I watched the video which mostly was a man explaining his experiment with introducing computers to children and letting them self learn. They were not given any training or direction, just left to discover things on their own. There were several interesting ideas and possibilities from his limited sample. Remoteness, as in the distance from Urban areas was talked about much of the time.

What I got from it was something very simple. Kids like to explore, discover, and learn on their own. This isn't a big surprise or at least shouldn't be to most people that have ever been around kids. But what I would caution is that isn't an all inclusive learning environment. For instance we don't want people to learn how to run a nuclear reactor by exploring. Training and teaching are necessary. Sometimes discovery is good and can be the best way for people to learn.

I for instance was taught how to type but never how to use a computer. I learned about computers by getting one, sitting down, and going at it. Now I can assemble computers, replace parts, install OS's, do just about whatever you need. I am no computer wizard, but I have a good sense of what I can do with a computer and what not to do. This kind of hands on discovery has made me better with the computer than some Computer 101 class ever could.

But back to my point about teaching being necessary. Too many things that need to be learned need an instructor or something to provide learning. Even if it is just a book about the topic or an instructional video. I don't want anyone to walk away from this video thinking that teachers are no longer needed. Only when a teacher can be accurately simulated can real teachers be removed. It may be a long time before they can create an AI that truly can react to all the needs of the learner.