100 Objects from Century of the Child

Sugata Mitra. Hole-in-the-Wall Learning Station at Changjiji Residential Complex,  Thimpu, Bhutan. 2009

Hole-in-the-Wall, which provides computers at public learning stations to children in urban slums and rural locations, began in 1999, when Sugata Mitra, a scientist and education researcher, knocked a hole in the wall that separated his office building from a slum in New Delhi and inserted a desktop PC with a high-speed Internet connection. He was amazed by the active response of children with little or no experience with computers or even television, and extended the experiment to include more children in different areas. He found that children, unsupervised and in self-organized groups, rapidly and steadily acquired computer skills and Internet basics, as well as simple English. Hole-in-the-Wall’s rugged and tamperproof learning stations protect mass-market PCs in various extreme weather conditions at locations in India, Bhutan, Cambodia, and parts of Africa.

Learn more at MoMA.org/centuryofthechild