Yet Another Nugget

For educators, the Dynabook could be a new world limited

only by their imagination and ingenuity. They could use it to

show complex historical inter-relationships in ways not

possible with static linear books. Mathematics could become

a living language in which children could cause exciting

things to happen. Laboratory experiments and simulations

too expensive or difficult to prepare could easily be

demonstrated. The production of stylish prose and poetry

could be greatly aided by being able to easily edit and file

one’s own compositions.

Wow guys! This Dynabook sounds super amazing! Let me just google on my smartphone how much one is… Funnily enough, Kay still feels that his product has gone uncreated, and that current technology is still not comparable to the prototype.  Granted, I got this information from the Wikipedia Article on it.  It’s interesting how enthusiastic my nugget is on the influence in education. I could argue that with youtube demonstrations, graphing calculators, and laptops all of these claims are still achieved, yet I’m not sure anyone would make such a bold claim as to say it’s revolutionized the educational system.  Has this added technology opened up a world ‘limited only by an educator’s imagination and ingenuity’? And if not, then what will? We’ve made such great strides with technology, it seems like we have every resource at hand. So if even that is not enough to inspire more creative learning, maybe we need to look at the educators and not the tools.

EDIT:

It looks like some other people were able to relate more directly to this nugget than I, which is fascinating and fabulous because this article kind of covers all the media bases. That’s why I like it so much, it’s an early concept for what now seems so obvious. For instance, Blurpity is immediately able to narrow down what is important to their own project, CGI and the design capabilities of a computer.

Masha Taleb’s line of discussion took a more similar route to mine, comparing the Dynabook to the iPad. Lines of similarity were drawn right down to the pictures of Alan Kay and Steve Jobs proudly displaying their product.  These similarities leave me to wonder whether Kay’s goals have been accomplished or if some void has not been filled by the iPad that could be by another product.  I certainly don’t think of the iPad as an educational tool. Granted, I literally only use mine as a chalkboard for math. But I feel like I’m probably the exception to the rule.

Lastly, I really enjoyed The Blog’s choice of nugget because it was one I was considering using myself.  The nugget asks us to imagine a world in which every person had access to this brilliant technology.  In a way, we all do. At least the world we live in, which granted, is a rare and wonderful first-world.  It leaves me curious about what the world would be like if literally everyone had access to this technology? What sort of untapped brilliance is out there and just inaccessible due to the lack of technology?