Computer skills development by children using 'hole in the wall' facilities in rural India
Open accessAbstract
Earlier work often referred to as the "hole in the wall" experiments has shown that groups of children can learn to use public computers on their own. This paper presents the method and results of an experiment conducted to investigate whether such unsupervised group learning in shared public spaces can improve children's performance in school examinations. The experiment was conducted with "hole in the wall" (minimally invasive education, or MIE) kiosks in the rural Sindhudurg District of Maharashtra State, India. 103 children of the Grade 8 level, across 3 villages, were administered the curricular examination for 'Computer Science' for that grade.The results show that children who had learned at MIE kiosks were able to complete this curricular examination without being taught the subject. They scored only marginally lower than children who had been taught the 'Computers' curriculum in school throughout the school year. The results of this study throw new light on pedagogy for bridging the digital divide. It poses the question that similar learning may well be observed in whole or part in other subjects of the school curriculum.
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There are indications that MIE learning stations produce other changes in children's social and educational achievements.
“there are indications that MIE learning stations produce other changes in children's social and educational achievements”
From Acquisition of computing literacy on shared public computers: Children and the "hole in the wall" (2005) · cites this paper as Inamdar, 2004
The Objectives of primary education section reports that kiosk users gained computing skills and suggests that learning may extend to other subjects. The Introduction describes collaboration and peer tutoring, but does not establish changes in children's social achievements. The claim's social-outcomes component is therefore unsupported by this paper. (LLM, conf=0.83)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredObservations across locations show a learning process of random exploration, collaboration, discovery, vocabulary construction, generalisation, practice and peer tutoring.
“Observations across locations show a learning process of random exploration, collaboration, discovery, vocabulary construction, generalisation, practice and peer tutoring (Inamdar, 2004).”
From Acquisition of computing literacy on shared public computers: Children and the "hole in the wall" (2005) · cites this paper as Inamdar, 2004
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Research works printed but not linked: 5
- Mitra, S., Tooley, J., Inamdar, P. and Dixon, P. (2003). Improving English pronunciation -an automated instructional approach. Information Technologies and International Development, 1(1), 75-84, MIT Press.
- Mitra, S. and Rana, V. (2001). Children and the Internet: Experiments with minimally invasive education in India. The British Journal of Educational Technology, 32(2), 221-232.
- Mitra, S. (2000). Minimally invasive education for mass computer literacy. Presented at the CRIDALA 2000 conference in Hong Kong, 21-25 June.
- Mitra, S. (2003). Minimally Invasive Education: A progress report on the "Hole-in- the-wall" experiments. British Journal of Educational Technology, 34(3), 367-371.
- Padmakar, P. and Porter, H. (2001). The hole in the wall machine. Time Magazine, Asian edition, 3 September, p.16. Sweatshops and Butterflies (2001). India: Hole-in-the-Wall. [verified 10 Aug 2004] http://www.greenstar.org/butterflies/Hole-in-the-Wall.htm
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Acquisition of computing literacy on shared public computers: Children and the "hole in the wall"
Mitra, S., Dangwal, R., Chatterjee, S., Jha, S., Bisht, R. S., & Kapur, P. (2005) · Australasian Journal of Educational Technology · doi:10.14742/ajet.1328 · Cited by 198 · see citing works
“Observations across locations show a learning process of random exploration, collaboration, discovery, vocabulary construction, generalisation, practice and peer tutoring (Inamdar, 2004).”
Background“My child will be respected”: Parental perspectives on computers and education in Rural India
Pal, J., Lakshmanan, M., & Toyama, K. (2009) · Information Systems Frontiers · doi:10.1007/s10796-009-9172-1 · Cited by 69 · see citing works
- Authors
- Inamdar, P.
- Affiliations
- NIIT (India) (IN)
- Corresponding author
- Inamdar, Parimala
- Venue
- Australasian Journal of Educational Technology
- Published
- 2004-11-01
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 337-350
- ISSN
- 1449-3098 (ISSN-L)
- 1449-5554
- OpenAlex
- W1822899815
- Cited by
- 63
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 10.16
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc-nd
- Locations
- Australasian Journal of Educational Technology (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Nanjing Institute of Industry Technology
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › ICT in Developing Communities
- Social Sciences › Education › Education and Technology Integration
- Social Sciences › Education › Child Development and Digital Technology
- Keywords
- rural children, computer science education, digital divide, self-directed learning, rural India
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