Sugata Mitra winner of the TED Prize for his vision of School in the Cloud (you may have read about his original hole in the wall computer experiment). A vision for self guided and group organized learning. I think we have seen this before (Summerhill) so I am skeptical, but I believe in empiricism – try it and see. I do like the concept of “granny as tutor” – granny is encouraging, is amazed, and asks you to help her understand.
What I want to know is how come they have not discovered YouTube? I certainly believe you can learn a lot on your own. This, I assume, was the vision for the public library. If you have the resources, the Internet offers even more possibilities. Offering access in areas of severe poverty provides an interesting test of potential. It will be important to evaluate critically.
P.S. – This may sound far too good to be true and some say that this is the case. Here is a critic to consider and here is another.