Although I was getting pretty weary of my life as a reporter, I wasn’t going to switch careers for just anyone.
In fact, when I started telling people I took a job here, a couple even said they wish they’d known I was looking because they had such-and-such job. And I usually replied with something like “No offense but I probably wouldn’t have been interested.”
I knew Stephens College would be a good fit mostly because of President Dianne Lynch. I’d gotten to know Dr. Lynch over the years and had such great respect for her honesty and integrity. And she’s a former reporter, too!
Actually, she hasn’t put her pen down entirely. She’s a blogger for the Huffington Post.
And today, her entry (which is featured on the Huff Post homepage) takes on Sugata Mitra and his fantasy classroom.
If you don’t know who Mitra is, here’s some background before you read Dr. Lynch’s piece. Mitra just won a $1 million TED Prize and plans to use the money to create a classroom in the clouds. His idea makes cyber the notion of self-guided schooling (think Montessori with wi-fi).
Specifically, though, Mitra thinks he can put a bunch of 8 year olds in a space by themselves to let them explore the web to answer big-picture questions. There would be a supervisor controlling the room through Skype who would be there “only for health and safety requirements,” he told the New York Times.
(I really like this comment on the Stephens College FB page: “Mitra never read Lord of the Flies?”)
In her frank and honest manner, Dr. Lynch explores the idea, questioning whether that’s a lot to ask of Pokemon-crazed children.
Check it out here.
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