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<DIV><FONT size=2>Interesting question, Chris.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>In education, you will find computers used (by students) in
one of two ways; either the unsuccessful "trade school" <A
href="http://www.kto8.com/lessons_demo.php">model</A> 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" <A
href="http://www.squeakland.org/school/schoolhome.html">model</A> 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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>The <A
href="http://www.artmuseum.net/w2vr/archives/Kay/01_Dynabook.html">Dynabook</A>,
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
(<A href="http://www.laptop.org">www.laptop.org</A>) 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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>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 <A href="http://www.viewpointsresearch.org/about.html">goal</A> of
helping the next generations to truly make the world a better
place.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Gary</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>----- Original Message ----- </FONT>
<DIV><FONT size=2>From: "Chris Cunnington" <</FONT><A
href="mailto:cunnington@sympatico.ca"><FONT
size=2>cunnington@sympatico.ca</FONT></A><FONT size=2>></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>To: "The general-purpose Squeak developers list" <</FONT><A
href="mailto:squeak-dev@lists.squeakfoundation.org"><FONT
size=2>squeak-dev@lists.squeakfoundation.org</FONT></A><FONT
size=2>></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2006 8:37 PM</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Subject: Re: Alan Kay's EuroPython Keynote</FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2><BR></FONT></DIV><FONT size=2>How, exactly, is Alan Kay still
relevant?<BR><BR>Chris Cunnington<BR>Toronto<BR><BR></FONT>
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