Power to the kids[Crianças infectadas com o vírus do poder]

[Post com versão em PT, mais abaixo]

Real political activism instilled in children. 'Learning embedded in real-world context'. From 'the teacher told me' to 'I am doing it'. Kids rolling incense sticks for 8 hours to get a sense of what it is like to be a child laborer - and then going to the streets to end the problem.

In a word: 'Wow!'. Kiran Bir Sethi has become an instant member of my pantheon of teachers and professors (including living heroes such as herself and Michael Wesch, about whom I've blogged twice). From TED Talks, see the video below (9:32). Moving, inspiring, uplifting.

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Não, não falo da conotação usual da palavra ('pudê'), mas de poder de verdade. Este vídeo de TED Talks (9:32) tem o título timidamente traduzido como "Kiran Bir Sethi ensina crianças a se encarregarem", mas mostra uma professora e diretora que põe fogo na vontade e capacidade das crianças que recebe em sua escola, com 'aprendizagem inserida na vida real'. Mas não só nas 'suas' crianças - também nas de sua cidade e em milhares e milhares pela Índia.

Ah, e as notas não são ruins - pelo contrário, estão entre as melhores do país (não, formar um "ser humano completo" não implica bloquear a capacidade cognitiva - talvez essa falácia nem tenha chegado à Índia ). Kiran já está no panteão dos meus heróis - professores, vivos inclusive, alguns famosos como Michael Wesch (sobre quem bloguei 2 vezes), outros conhecidos apenas por mim e mais algumas poucas centenas ou milhares de felizardos.

Ouvi-la falar dá alegria, esperança, confiança. Para ver com legendas em português, clique em "View subtitles" e selecione "Portuguese (Brazil)". Também vale ocupar a tela inteira, clicando no ícone no canto superior direito.

Wesch "The machine is us/ing us" strikes again: World Simulation

Anthropologist Michael Wesch (from Kansas State University, author of "The machine is us/ing us") gives away another awesome lesson: a YouTube report on the World Simulation conducted with his students, with the help of Twitter (ok, I tweet) and Jott (don't know) through the cellphone.

They've created a fake world with lands and peoples and developed a whole history, with commerce, wars, domination from colonization to core-periphery dynamic etc. The fake world evolution described in the video is interspersed with real-world facts, for instance, about diamonds in Africa, the wars around it, the (little little) money made by extractors and cutters (25 cents per diamond cut; many sharp-eyed cutters are children in India)... Makes you wonder how can there be any glamour around diamonds.

It looks like that War (board) game but much enlarged and enriched. It is, indeed, a "radical experiment in education" that I praise and recommend watching (4:40 - be ready to stop the presentation as the captions flash in unreadable intervals). It is an inspiration for me as a professor (I've been trying things of this sort with peer review in education and concurrency control learning games) and for anyone pursuing real educational systems.

Dr. Wesch ends by quoting the cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901-1978): "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." This prompted a Text Comment from kdcruz75: "never doubt that a small group of thoughtless, powerful committed hidden elite can control the human populace. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has". Well... the discussion catches on as the view count soars. See the video: