23 SEP 2023 by ideonexus
We build our computers the way we build our cities -- ove...
The computer was suddenly revealed as palimpsest. The machine that is everywhere hailed as the very incarnation of the new had revealed itself to be not so new after all, but a series of skins, layer on layer, winding around the messy, evolving idea of the computing machine. Under Windows was DOS; under DOS, BASIC; and under them both the date of its origins recorded like a birth memory. Here was the very opposite of the authoritative, all-knowing system with its pretty screenful of icons. He...11 FEB 2022 by ideonexus
The Pattern of Decentralization-Centralization
There are two categories of true believers, in my mind. There are those who, for example, are building a new decentralized user-empowering financial system. And to them, history teaches us that there will always be new avenues for power to become centralized. In fact, the entire history of the computer industry was radical openness, which led to a lot of innovation, which later led to closing it down.
For example, IBM released the PC specs. Everybody could build a PC. Michael Dell was a col...Look for where things are being centralized for where to bet on a technology.
15 MAR 2017 by ideonexus
The problem with testing for abstraction
...students learn by doing. Testing for abstraction on an exam can’t be the only way we’re evaluating student learning. If I had taken an exam on leadership in World of Warcraft, I would have likely failed, because the way I was engaged was through the practice of performing the leadership, not by talking or quizzing on it. Thought leader within the game-based learning movement, James Paul Gee, refers to this type of learning as “Situated and Embodied Learning,” where the learning is ...Teambuilding & Leadership Embedded in Play Conor O'Malley
26 APR 2016 by ideonexus