The academic who inspired the story that launched the Oscar Award winning Slumdog Millionaire will be the keynote speaker at Thompson Rivers University’s upcoming Open Learning Tutor Workshop.
Sugata Mitra, a Professor of Educational Technology with the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences at Newcastle University, UK, will speak to TRU-OL tutors, staff and faculty at a workshop on Saturday, May 2 regarding his current work in Educational Technology for remote and rural areas. An afternoon workshop will be open for the general public to attend.
“The link between Dr. Mitra’s work, Slumdog Millionaire and Open Learning is exciting,” Judith Murray, Vice President, TRU, Open Learning said. “His research, and Slumdog Millionaire, showed that all people, regardless of social status, can attain knowledge and become self-educated through life experience. Under a similar ideology, Open Learning recognizes the valuable knowledge people gain through life and work experience using a process of Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR), which acknowledges such learning by awarding academic credit that can be applied towards a TRU credential.”
Tutors of the over 400 courses offered through TRU-OL, meet regularly to discuss their experience delivering online and distance education. Mitra, who also instructs distance courses to students in Hyderabad, India from his office in the UK, will share results of his work in educational technology and the viability of making education available to the masses despite geographical or social distance, through online and distance technology and practice.
“Dr. Mitra’s work is relevant to all educators,” Jim Barmby, Director of Program Delivery, TRU-OL, said. “Developers of educational technology are relentless in their quest to break down barriers of time and distance. The concepts developed by Dr. Mitra go a long way toward helping us use that technology so that students can learn and educators can teach more effectively.”
Professor Mitra has attracted much media attention with regards to his “Hole in the Wall” project. Minimally Invasive Education experimentation was initiated in 1999 and served as inspiration for the novel Q & A, written by Vikas Swarup, the basis of the Oscar-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire. The “Hole in the wall” project involved constructing shared outdoor computer Internet kiosks in Delhi, India’s slums where economically disadvantaged children lived. Mitra observed that with no formal instruction, the disadvantaged children quickly acquired computer literacy skills which in turn positively affected their behaviour and English language skills. Mitra has extended his “Hole in the Wall” project to the UK where he brings technology to remote and rural areas to improve education by encouraging independent learning through the use of computers at an individually-determined pace.
What: Keynote Speaker
Question and Answer Period
When: Saturday, May 2, 2009
Morning Session (TRU tutors, staff and faculty and invited guests) 9 am – 12 pm
Afternoon Session (open to general public) 1-2:30 pm
*Tickets are available free of charge at TRU Kamloops Campus, 900 McGill Rd, BC Centre for Open Learning, 4th floor reception, from 8:30am to 4:30pm, on a first come first serve basis.
Where: TRU Kamloops Campus, 900 McGill Road, Clock Tower Building, Alumni Theatre
Who: Professor Sugata Mitra, PhD, MSc, BSc, ISC, whose research inspired the novel Q&A by Vikas Swarup, which the movie Slumdog Millionaire is based on.
Contact: Jim Barmby, Director, Program Delivery, Thompson Rivers University, Open Learning
250-852-6886
