7 Matching Annotations
  1. Mar 2020
  2. May 2019
    1. different planes here and there, curved surfaces occasionally

      Many new technologies were combined to realize this prescient sentence.

      WaltDisneyConcertHall.jpeg<br>By Jon Sullivan - PDPhoto, Public Domain, Link

    2. can be of significant benefit to the human in nonmathematical processes of planning, organizing, studying, etc.

      I'll be interested to see if this report is entirely Positivist, or if Engelbart recognizes the possibility of computing being weaponized in sectors like politics, economics, security and warfare.

    3. He is designing a building. He has already dreamed up several basic layouts and structural forms,

      I find it interesting how decades of using computers has led to "new methods of thinking and working that allow the human to capitalize upon the computer's help." With all the new technologies, I think the central intellectual development has been to reverse the sequence of design decisions Engelbart describes. Best practice these days is to start with "the people who will occupy this building, and the daily sequences of their activities."

    4. how would our education system change to take advantage of this new external symbol-manipulation capability of students and teachers (and administrators)?

      Let's say it's been twenty years since PDAs have been widely available. I returned to higher education less than ten years ago. K-12 seems to have embraced learning technologies, and their affordances, to improve primary and secondary education. In my experience, few educators with terminal degrees have made the effort while younger and more precarious teachers are slowly adopting educational technologies. Administrators are leading the way with their digital management systems and students are using proprietary social media platforms. Our institutions are doing what they were designed to do: resist change and reproduce the social order. Research paid for with public monies is as quickly privatized as that produced in corporations. Open education practices are just beginning to be explored.

      The first PDA, the Organizer, was released in 1984 by Psion, followed by Psion's Series 3, in 1991. The latter began to resemble the more familiar PDA style, including a full keyboard.[4][5] The term PDA was first used on January 7, 1992 by Apple Computer CEO John Sculley at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, referring to the Apple Newton.[6] In 1994, IBM introduced the first PDA with full telephone functionality, the IBM Simon, which can also be considered the first smartphone. Then in 1996, Nokia introduced a PDA with telephone functionality, the 9000 Communicator, which became the world's best-selling PDA. Another early entrant in this market was Palm, with a line of PDA products which began in March 1996. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_digital_assistant

    5. Other situations might admit changes requiring years of special training, very expensive equipment, or the use of special drugs.

      My reply to another post about historical context might be helpful. https://hyp.is/R07lQCldEem5RmPv1ywB5g/worrydream.com/Engelbart/

  3. Feb 2016
    1. Artifacts--physical objects designed to provide for human comfort, for the manipulation of things or materials, and for the manipulation of symbols.

      Just interested in the pervasive use of the word "artifacts," which still pops up in discussions about technologies.