Minimally Invasive Education for mass computer literacy

Abstract

In two experiments conducted in India, PCs connected to the Internet were provided on the roadside and turned on without any instructions or announcement. In both instances it was seen that the acquisition of basic computing skills by groups of children was achieved through incidental learning and some minimal (human) guidance. This paper reports the observations and compares the two experiments, suggests steps to further the experiment and discusses the new pedagogy. It also suggests a methodology for replicating the experiment.