North expert's research used in Slumdog storyline

Feb 24 2009 by James Moore, The Journal

A NEWCASTLE professor watched Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire – not realising he was the inspiration behind the movie.

A decade ago Professor Sugata Mitra knocked a hole through the wall of his laboratory in New Delhi, India, so children in the adjoining slum could play on one of his computers.

The experiment, to see whether unschooled children would teach themselves how to use the internet if left to their own devices, was intended as an educational tool.

But it eventually inspired the film which swept the Oscars on Sunday night.

As he celebrated the film’s success, original author Vikas Swarup said he wrote Q&A, which was adapted for the screen by Simon Beaufoy, as a direct result of hearing about street children using Professor Mitra’s computer.

Professor Mitra, who is now Professor of Educational Technology at the University of Newcastle, said: “My experiment 10 years ago in New Delhi was intended to see if children left to their own devices would use the internet on the computer.

“I didn’t just want to leave the computer out on a table in case it got broken so I put it in a hole in a wall facing out into the slum. I found that even if children couldn’t speak English they figured out how to use the computer and taught themselves. The experiment was a universal success. I found that the less supervision was better for the children.”

He expanded the project to 23 villages in India where children had never had access to a computer.

At the end of five years, the schools started reporting English, maths and science scores were all going up.