A little more.

[Thom Kevin Gillespie]

I actually started to think of the issue of new literacy from Alan Kay's
old Dyna book article years ago when he talked of a device as responsive
as a flute. Squeak just brought the idea back.

Years ago I was at Berkeley when HyperCard appeared. This was actually at
the same time diSessa was working on Boxer. I was struck by the
similarities and the differences of the two projects. Both seemed to be
aiming at an interactive tool of expression. HyperCard was obviously
commercial but the big difference seemed to be the difference between Bill
Atkinson and Andy diSessa. Both very smart folks, very interested in their
respective projects. Atkinson seemed to me to be either more visual or
more artistic and this seemed to be the difference. I sat in some Boxer
meetings and was struck but the total lack of visual thinking in the
design of Boxer. While Boxer had more theory and was by nature more
spatial than a deck of cards, Boxer was an amazingly boring concept
compared to HyperCard and what was being produced with Hypercard by folks
with little theory and no real interest in deep theory. I realize one was
pure research but it was obvious that the influence of HyperCard was going
to race past Boxer just because HyperCard seemed to be the better artistic
tool of expression. 

I also realize that SmallTalk seemed to be the predecessor of HyperTalk so
Squeak brought back the question of what happens when these tools are
common tools for expression in the world and schools. I realize that there
is no single tool but there seems to be a lot of visual/sound design tools
floating around for kids and folks to use and in my original list I didn't
even include Powerpoint.

I teach new media and game design at Indiana University. I constantly run
into students who are very smart, who want to do this new media but
completely freak when they can't just 'write' it down. This stuff has to
run and it has to look good in the same way that text has sound good and
read well. I know from experience that if the skills are not in place by
18 the game is essentially over. These really smart folks are run over by
the folks who for some reason did the art and music on the side while
growing up.

I'm trying to imagine a world where kids in particular can select the most
appropriate tool to express an idea or offer a solution. I'm not thinking
in terms of math or science literacy but of literacy in the sense of
reading and writing in a medium, for example Squeak. I'm trying to imagine
how these kids might become literate given this new media which is very
'multi'media. Do you stress textual literacy for the first 8 years and
then expect them to become multimedia-ists? How does it work? How are the
teachers and young folks on this list dealing with this reality? 

Thoughts?

--Thom

p.s Thanks for the response John.