Alan Kay's Relevance

Brad Fuller brad at sonaural.com
Fri Jul 7 14:32:19 UTC 2006


Gary Fisher wrote:
> Interesting question, Chris.
>  
> In a sense, Alan's work and vision have become so foundational to both
> computing and to computers in education that he has attained the
> ubiquity, and therefore the sort of "familiar imperceptibility," of
> the ground beneath us or the air around us -- without them or him we
> wouldn't be where we are but we also wouldn't know what we'd missed. 
> Think of how the Macintosh computer, for example, has changed the
> world, and then step back to see that the Mac was a feeble effort to
> approach a vision Alan had set out and, with associates like Dan
> Ingalls, demonstrated years earlier, yet which, fully realized, is
> still just a little beyond us today -- and still being shepherded by
> Dr. Alan Kay.
>  
> In education, you will find computers used (by students) in one of two
> ways; either the unsuccessful "trade school" model
> <http://www.kto8.com/lessons_demo.php> where kids are lashed to a
> machine and forced to do office work (though even that is thoroughly
> and thankfully infused with user interface models we owe to Dr. Kay)
> or the highly successful "human augmentation" model
> <http://www.squeakland.org/school/schoolhome.html> in which computers
> become tools to free and even to inspire understanding and intelligent
> imagination in young minds.  This second model, which is in use today
> at schools all over the world, can unquestionably be traced to Dr.
> Kay's work with students at Jordan Junior High in 1973 (at a time when
> few students beneath the graduate school level had even seen, much
> less been permitted to use, any computer at all) -- and is
> still benefitting from Alan's constant efforts.
>  
> The Dynabook
> <http://www.artmuseum.net/w2vr/archives/Kay/01_Dynabook.html>, Alan's
> 1968 proposal for a computer powerful, portable and inexpensive enough
> to become an interactive textbook and tool for students from the
> elementary school level on up, is quite clearly the underlying concept
> behind today's initiative (www.laptop.org <http://www.laptop.org>) to
> put such tools in the hands of children, especially in those countries
> where educational opportunities have for so long lagged behind -- and
> Dr. Alan Kay is an advisor to that iniative.
>  
> Dr. Kay's comment that ". . . if you are immersed in a context you
> can't even see it" ironically applies to himself with regard to your
> question, for in many ways Alan Kay has *become* context in his
> field.  Alan Kay is relevant as visionary and pioneer, yes, but also
> as organizer, encourager, leader, promoter -- in short, as teacher to
> those of us who try, and hope someday to catch and then to carry his
> vision, not just for the means represented by superior programming
> languages and intuitive user interfaces but for the goal
> <http://www.viewpointsresearch.org/about.html> of helping the next
> generations to truly make the world a better place.
>  
> Gary
Wow. Nicely done and interesting perspective.

I say: "Alan Kay for President!"

-- 
brad
sonaural




More information about the Squeak-dev mailing list