Nov 12 2009: Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful insights! If you don't mind, I would like to make following observation.
The fact that the project used a "computer" should not intrinsically imply that the results are about "education". What if you had used golf clubs and balls? The kids would have most certainly figured out how to swing the club and also some variation of the game-golf. Ability to explore and use a "physical thing in natural reality" is a very important trait in kids. Your experiment is a testament of that. In addition, your experiment makes a very important and valid argument that that exploration is more effective in a self-organized group. However, the problem is that the thing we refer to as "elementary education" most probably is not a "physical thing in natural reality". If you kept a slate and chalks, would you expect the kids to learn subtraction? I am not sure if learning to operate a tool essentially leads to learning abstract concepts without adult guidance.
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A comment on Talk: Sugata Mitra shows how kids teach themselves
The fact that the project used a "computer" should not intrinsically imply that the results are about "education". What if you had used golf clubs and balls? The kids would have most certainly figured out how to swing the club and also some variation of the game-golf. Ability to explore and use a "physical thing in natural reality" is a very important trait in kids. Your experiment is a testament of that. In addition, your experiment makes a very important and valid argument that that exploration is more effective in a self-organized group. However, the problem is that the thing we refer to as "elementary education" most probably is not a "physical thing in natural reality". If you kept a slate and chalks, would you expect the kids to learn subtraction? I am not sure if learning to operate a tool essentially leads to learning abstract concepts without adult guidance.