Activity Four: Is There A Need for Teachers?

I have recently finished reading two papers on the theme " Is there a need for teachers?" . The first was about  Vygotsky's concept of "schooled learning" and the second  was Sugata Mitra's "minimally invasive learning". In both papers, the concept of children learning spontaneously was highlighted. Vygotski purports that children learn from their experiences with others before they receive any formal schooling.In school, he states that children are involved in planned or scientific learning.He concludes that teachers can make their lessons more effective by linking spontaneous learning and planned learning by relating content to students'experiences.Dr. Mitra's paper dealt with experiments conducted in India using the computer. Computers were placed in areas where there was not much familiarity with computers. Children were observed to be able to use the computer efficiently within a couple of months. they were able to use the computer to surf the internet, chat and sent e-mails without any assistance. From reading these papers, I can conclude that spontaneous learning and planned learning work best when there is a balance between the two. Inquiry and Discovery learning are two strategies that  help teachers achieve this balance. In my opinion, Dr. Mitra's minimal invasive learning is most appropriate when using internet related activities. However, it must be recognized that the internet also contains unsuitable and inaccurate information. Teachers must still guide students in finding  the appropriate materials.