1. ALAN KAY - from Moores Law to OLPC ● inventor OOPs / Smalltalk ● collaborator (GUI, PC, laptop, Smalltalk) ● dynabook (early vision of children's machine) ● philosopher / historian / futurist ● OLPC / Etoys

3. ● dramatic change is eternal, “you can't step in the same river twice” ● computer – human symbiosis (Engelbart / Licklider) ● computer as a child's personal dynamic medium ● recursion: avoid the tyranny of subgoals PHILOSOPHY

4. Alan Kay & Doug Engelbart

5. UNIVERSALS * language * communication * fantasies * stories * tools and art * superstition * religion and magic * play and games * differences over similarities * quick reactions to patterns * vendetta, and more

6. NON UNIVERSALS * reading and writing * deductive abstract mathematics * model based science * equal rights * democracy * perspective drawing * theory of harmony * similarities over differences * slow deep thinking * agriculture * legal systems

7. PROGRESS ? NARRATIVE ARGUMENT, SYSTEMS THEORY

8. SOME HISTORY 1965 Moores Law 1967Idea of the personal computer 1967Papert / logo influence 1968Engelbart GUI (mouse, windows, hypermedia) 1971Smalltalk, OOP 1972A Personal Computer for Children of all ages 1980Model, View, Controller (MVC) 1980sCommercialisation 1987logo backlash 1996Squeak 2006 Etoys included in OLPC http://learningevolves.wikispaces.com/alanKay+talk

9. lots of evidence for - humans don't think well - we are set up by nature to learn the environment around us - to a useful extent we can learn ideas that are counter to human nature that are better than our built-in ones - we shape tools and then the tools reshape us (McLuhan)

10. MOORES LAW 1965

12. CARDBOARD MODEL 1972

13. OOPS / Smalltalk 1970s ● how to manage complexity in robust fashion? ● cell / body metaphor ● everything is an object ● objects send and receive messages

14. SQUEAK / ETOYS 1996 ● iconic programming ● doing with images makes symbols ● late binding, live system ● Smalltalk, logo, starlogo, hypercard ● morphic, direct manipulation ● GUI represents computational model

15. a technology-human iteration ● the tension between computers and human development ● the tension between how children learn and the complex, non spontaneous nature of the development of advanced scientific or Enlightenment ideas ● the tension between a computer user interface and the underlying computational model

16. USER INTERFACE ● more than access to function ● dynamic exploration

22. SQUEAK PROGRAMS ● Etoys – iconic programming ● Croquet - multi-user virtual 3D applications ● Dabble db – online data base ● Scratch – iconic programming ● Seaside - web application framework ● Sophie - rich-media, networked documents

23. OLPC

24. “EDUCATIONAL COMPUTING” ● Uncritical acceptance of industry originated solutions ● Miracle worker discourse. ● Learning objects... Knowledge and authority is vested with the publisher or the information source ● Critical educational thinking is not applied to the basic question, "What is the computer for?"