11–20 of 54 posts
11:00 in the video is a fascinating example of someone standing up to Jobs' reality distortion field.
It's a great pity that education hasn't actually changed a bit in the intervening time. Computers are pretty much just used for teaching computers, as electronic typewriters and libraries, and to cut down on admin. They really are not used as learning aids, as 'simulated learning environments' or anything similar.
There's still a huge way to go in using IT in education. I think the Khan Academy is one step, the opening up of journals is probably another. We're a long way off what Jobs visualised even back in the late eighties.
"Take a really expensive technology and pull it down to a price point that is affordable". That's what he did with the iPad too.
11:00 in the video is a fascinating example of someone standing up to Jobs' reality distortion field.
Why is that fascinating?
11:00 in the video is a fascinating example of someone standing up to Jobs' reality distortion field.
That's Joanna Hoffman, who was also part of the Macintosh team. The Isaacson bio shares an anecdote about how the Mac team would annually give out an award to the team member who had proven most able to stand up to Jobs, and Hoffman won it the first two years. It was fun to see an example of why.
I recognised his trademark passionate speech (02:43) about using technology to improve education. Laden with superlatives, it's just like every Apple product launch since the iPod. It's a great pity that education hasn't actually changed a bit in the intervening time. Computers are pretty much just used for teaching computers, as electronic typewriters and libraries, and to cut down on admin. They really are not used…
I recognised his trademark passionate speech (02:43) about using technology to improve education. Laden with superlatives, it's just like every Apple product launch since the iPod.
[1]: He doesn't have a wiki (for shame), but here's his LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dan-l-lewin/7/953/852.
I still have my NeXTStation Turbo Color, and shockingly, it still runs! Other than my current iMac, it's easily my favorite computer ever. To be using a NeXT in the early 1990s truly was like being 15 years ahead of what everyone else had.
Looks a bit like him.
I recognised his trademark passionate speech (02:43) about using technology to improve education. Laden with superlatives, it's just like every Apple product launch since the iPod. It's a great pity that education hasn't actually changed a bit in the intervening time. Computers are pretty much just used for teaching computers, as electronic typewriters and libraries, and to cut down on admin. They really are not used…
For example, even today the "workstation" is still quite common in labs. Where I work, I see a lot of 8-core Mac Pros. Huddled away under desks are old G4s and G5s. What do we run on these machines? MATLAB, Mathematica, heavy Fortran compilers, expensive microscopes, and almost-real-time experimental setups. In other words, all stuff vital to scientific experiment and computation.
Yes, he broadly lectured on "higher learning," but it is no surprise to me that the Web was born on a NeXT computer at CERN and not anywhere else. On the other hand, it is true that we have not seen the "simulated learning environments" or other AI-esque dreams from the 80s materialize in modern computing. At least not as we thought we understood them: OpenCourseWare, Khan Academy, and Stanford Online Education have begun to revolutionize the "learning" half. And as for open publications, well, the arXiv is 20 years old now (nearly the age of the Web!), the NIH requires open access 6 months after publication, etc. We're definitely not there yet, but I think we're on the right track.
If there were one thing though which would mark a great leap in progress, it would be Open Data. The incentives don't really exist today for open data---data can be like a trade secret to be hoarded for publications, and getting ahead in academia is all about getting there first before you get scooped. We need broad, systemic changes.