Remember the Hole-in-the-Wall experiment in India? Based on the principal of “minimally-invasive pedagogy,” computers were installed in kiosk walls in Indian slums so that children could teach themselves about technology. Though the organizers of the project have published a series of very positive reviews over the years, until now I am not aware of any independent reports on the project and its results, other than my own discussion based on a visit to one of the sites.
Now, an article by an independent researcher has appeared, reporting some interesting findings. It turns out that the two Hole-in-the-Wall sites that she visited both stand in ruins, one closed down within a few months of its opening due to vandalism, the other surviving until it became inactive. According to the article, while the broader Hole-in-the-Wall project still exists, it has evolved from its earlier approach of eschewing relationship with community organizations, schools, and adult mentors, and has now “started to focus more on the building of ties with the school, particularly in regard to using the teachers or others in the local communities as mediators in learning.” This is a welcome change and reflects the important realization that mentorship and institutional support are important if children are to learn effectively with technology.
Papyrus News 
Hi
Wondering, did this study look at the original hole-in-the-wall computers, or a particular installation later on? How many implementations of the idea exist? It’s not clear from the abstract and your comments whether this move from completely and radically unsupervised to something based on relationships within the community is a general change for hole-in-the-wall, or just part of the specific instance under study in the article.
Thanks
Mikel
[…] someone recently went back to actually visit these Hole in the Wall computers. The program had change considerably. Wonderfully, there are many more computers in the slums … […]
Hole in the Wall was interesting insofar as demonstrating to the “industrial world” that the slum teenagers of India were about as competent to learn as the Nintendo using 3 year old toddler.
Beyond that its a sales job to help the career of a researcher and it has done plenty of good to him. But has it changed education of children? Has it changed the way children learn anywhere? How many sites are there in India using it? In spite of the fact that they have founded a company to do it?
Come on folks! Its business as usual. Its an idea that has been glorified beyond its very limited use because of a nice presentation style and clearly has plenty of lessons to offer in marketing an idea without legs, as exemplified by the lack of success in taking it forward.
Only a racist mind that did not believe that 14 year old Indian slum dwellers were not as intelligent as 2 year old Euro/Americans could have loved the experiment called “Hole in the Wall”.
Just think what it did: It just placed a screen with a keyboard or touch screen in front of some slum children who had no access to anything in life. They did something with it as they would do with anything and someone went to make a career out of it, tried to found a business and EVERYONE who was pressured to buy the idea in India is so upset with it but that was the power of NIIT and their networking that they could push it down the throats of several junior bureaucrats and get several experiments started.
I remember someone who chastised a European or American film maker who came to make a film on Hole in the Wall and when he said that, the guy was told to get his brain checked.
In fact its one of the dumbest ideas promoted by a nice guy who looks quite agreeable and I hear that even a man like Negroponte was taken up by it because it could have aided his cause.
But take off your charmed glasses and just begin to think about it. What a dumb idea and what a mileage good networking and public relations could give it?