Turning Kids from India's Slums into Autodidacts
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Turning Kids from India's Slums into Autodidacts
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Re: Turning Kids from India's Slums into Autodidacts
#2Anybody who is an autodidact in this day and age automatically have the upper hand even if they do little bit of it everyday. I think that little bit of 30 minutes learning something everyday eventually adds up into something huge.
For example, I am getting my first web service running though without a payment processor. Eventually, I'll figure out billing.
I learned how speculation works, how to short sell, and learn technical trading terms like resistances, supports, amongst other things through osmosis learning. I spent 6 dollars and learned how markets really work.
Through debate attrition and conceding every single time that I was wrong, I learned tremendously about economics.
I learned about the concept of open source, the hackerdom subculture, was an early adopter of Mozilla Firefox before I started programming.
Now, I am an early adopter and experimenter with cryptocurrency, something that come right out of a Neal Stephenson novel. I don't know if it succeed, but it's going to be a crazy ride.
I am experimenting with microtransaction business models via selling my own artworks. On top of it, do it copyfree.
Of course, I am 19, a typical youngster hacker-wannabe.
Re: Turning Kids from India's Slums into Autodidacts
#3Re: Turning Kids from India's Slums into Autodidacts
#4Great article. The greatest thing you can do is give someone the desire and the means to find their own answers.
Of course, we are born with exactly that anyway, so maybe we just need to answer every question, help when it is asked, and avoid messing them up.
Re: Turning Kids from India's Slums into Autodidacts
#5Anybody who is an autodidact in this day and age automatically have the upper hand even if they do little bit of it everyday. I think that little bit of 30 minutes learning something everyday eventually adds up into something huge. For example, I am getting my first web service running though without a payment processor. Eventually, I'll figure out billing. I learned how speculation works, how to short sell, and lear…
Billing these days is very easy if you're willing to pay a little more to outsource all the hard parts.
If you can code just download the paypal nvp sample code for something like website payments pro and you can easily have a clean, professional looking (no handing off to a third party site) billing system in a couple of hours.
Re: Turning Kids from India's Slums into Autodidacts
#6Anyone know how to sign up as a SOLE volunteer? Ironically, I cannot seem to find the answer via a web search.
Re: Turning Kids from India's Slums into Autodidacts
#7FTA: "In 2006, Dr. Mitra moved to England, became a professor of educational technology at Newcastle University,. . . "
This saddened me. Now, don't get me wrong: he's free to move whereever he feels like; I'm not upset at him. But it would nice if the smartest people in developing countries didn't move to cushy western universities/think-tanks, and stayed where they grew up to enrich everyone around them.
Re: Turning Kids from India's Slums into Autodidacts
#8Anybody who is an autodidact in this day and age automatically have the upper hand even if they do little bit of it everyday. I think that little bit of 30 minutes learning something everyday eventually adds up into something huge. For example, I am getting my first web service running though without a payment processor. Eventually, I'll figure out billing. I learned how speculation works, how to short sell, and lear…
Billing these days is very easy if you're willing to pay a little more to outsource all the hard parts. If you can code just download the paypal nvp sample code for something like website payments pro and you can easily have a clean, professional looking (no handing off to a third party site) billing system in a couple of hours.
a clean, professional looking (no handing off to a third party site) billing system
Strangely enough, I really appreciate paying with paypal sometimes because of the hand-off.
Re: Turning Kids from India's Slums into Autodidacts
#9FTA: "In 2006, Dr. Mitra moved to England, became a professor of educational technology at Newcastle University,. . . " This saddened me. Now, don't get me wrong: he's free to move whereever he feels like; I'm not upset at him. But it would nice if the smartest people in developing countries didn't move to cushy western universities/think-tanks, and stayed where they grew up to enrich everyone around them.
People climb up the ladder because they want to get out of where they are. It's not very often that someone climbs out and elects to go back down to help others.
It also doesn't make sense to stay. If you're an autodidact, you almost certainly really enjoy learning. Where better to do that than a University/think tank?
Re: Turning Kids from India's Slums into Autodidacts
#10Anyone know how to sign up as a SOLE volunteer? Ironically, I cannot seem to find the answer via a web search.
Maybe someone at Mitra's Hole in the Wall education project can help. Here's the contact info: