well here we are now in the computer
science building at the
University of Illinois and I am standing beside  a 
glass case which has in it
one of the world's first fast computers
this one
in fact is the I can you call the iliac
2
just behind me is the iliac 1 in a bit
further down on a glass case
is the iliac three the reason why I am s one thing past
the iliac
2 is this was the first computer able
to be used
as a basis for student
learning
the first technology mediated learning
in the world
so here we have this computer and you
can see
it doesn't
have any chips it was all made of
transistors
and some other foundational technology
was actually made right here at the
University of Illinois
the transistor itself was invented by a
professor here at the university to know
i buy and I'm
John Bardeen who didn't just when one
nobel prize he won too much Nobel prizes
in his career
one for invading the transistor and a
second one letter on poor I'm
discovering the principles of
superconductivity
any other reason what why I'm here is I
wanna talk about the relationship
technology to education
and I'm I wanna sided you know what
in education we often feel as if we
technology users
not technology makers that technology is
to love hand-me-downs stuff that's been
my purse something else we use word
but would was really my to write letters
and pro hits wasn't made for kids in
schools and mining
but we use it we use Excel because it
adds up columns but was remind for
accountants
I'm we now use Facebook but it's really
meant for
be nice I'm talking with family and
friends we use Twitter but it's kinda
media device
we use all this stuff in education what
we do is we try to
subject we're even if you like to make
it work for our purposes
well I mean I don't think we should
really have that attitude
I 10 talk to you about the role that
technology mad
I'm sorry the other way around i wanna
talk to you about the role with
education had
in making technology so here we have the
iliac to
I'm and gone much site just before I get
into that its Nikolic machine and number
otherwise
I'm I if people know arm
I 2001 the them me a big right iconic
car
I'm I science fiction movie
I'm hell who's the the demon computer
who wants to take over
take over from humans I'm eventually get
some plugged in as he's dying
he says take me back to Urbana so you
know than a ride he will be standing
is the mythical place where this great
computer help was actually created in
2001
and a certain sense of truth in that in
the these worry the foundation
inventions
which happened right here be at the
transistor all these computers
now when this was my head in the
computer I'm standing decide that little
bit of circuitry day a
was mighty 962 so iliac
am to in fact was built between 1956 and
1960 I'd
and that little piece secondary is from
1962 and
and this little book here on to design a
very high speed computer
so this was the fastest computer in the
world back pain
well in nineteen sixty I a number of
professors here and at the university to
know we decided by would
I'm try and build an educational
technology a learning system
and this thing was cool Plato now you
know pic legend he is that it doesn't
stand for anything it's just simply an
acronym
plat ok big mean in capital letters
people tried to give it back on never a
setup from
add think what the the the acronym I
main program learning
something something something I can't
remember the rest anyhow basically the
consensus is that it meant nothing
but anyhow play-doh is actually the
fullest I'm technology mediated learning
system it's the first computer learning
it's the first e-learning
and he gets invented here now what's
interesting for this is this machine
that we have
behind us for the very first time
on this machine because have played as
requirements
arm there were multiple uses on the same
computer
another words I'm at Chu to an A student
I'm or a or two students so this was the
first multi use a computer
the other thing which i think is even
more profound is in a real sense this
was the first computer
which had been required to carry
language so
I'm I prayer very early on they built a
little
television terminal I'm such things
could be saint I building a visual into
fights
I'm and also I'm communication messaging
I'm and this became or messaging
services bulletin boards
out the first night's program and of
course and if you go back into history
computing
the first email program was created here
a program called you door which
some people might have my remember so
this was the first time
by virtue of an educational requirement
that a computer carry human language in
these ways with the visual interface
also keyboard when you get into things
before that it was computers were
century devices for calculation
now devices we put in when you punch
cards and the answer was a number
but they weren't devices for carrying
human maining for carrying language
so for me this is a Condo apocryphal
story I'm
and one way we as educators shouldn't
except for one moment
but we are just gonna take and media and
technologies these technologies were
invented in the first instance because
of the kind if you man needs
the cum outta education
education-related
technology responded and we need to put
ourselves back into that position as
educators now
Plato went through a number of
iterations over the years
so beginning in 1960 I apply to one
player to
player 3 I we're now up to play dough
actually 4i behind maybe before I'd talk
about four
played at three I'm was the first time
the that
at Chu during programming environment
was built on the first time people that
actually
program instructional sequence is again
and
the first such a learning system where
this was possible
but then by the time we get the program
to version four apply to which is 1972
a new set of demands come up and these
are these are educational demands to
down I to be quite like again to be
quite honest that's really what they are
they fundamentally
educational demands driving technology
and what I have beside me he is the
world's first plasma screen
over-the-air and by the way also have
you a huge floppy disk which is this
size
I'm in order me re keep the recorder the
program and to
and you know all the things that the
that term memory chips memory storage
systems to
so that we've got this plasma screen and
one other things was
trying to build I'm a sophisticated
visual interface system so one of the
things we need
with these e-learning systems is visual
interfaces where it's possible to
see diagrams to see text and to see
those things together
now one of the interesting phenomena all
the digitization
text is bringing together on language
and image
and this is pretty well essential in in
educational contexts
languages alone isn't enough we need to
have images as well
and in fact what was built into this was
sorta scalable victory in systems where
it's possible to
and pull the images up and down but also
to represent
characters as images letters as images
not whole characters
but the same thing the EU's to represent
a line or square or drawing
or I'm something visual is what you all
said used to draw or the outline a
character
now this is a really quite fundamental
shift and in 1973
I'm I team with people from the
Xerox other quite famous iraq's a
research about reason Palo Alto Calif
the poca Barclays BARC
and they came here to the University of
Illinois I'm were really impressed by
what was being billed he buy these
technologies
so I'm not only is this then the first
plasma screen
ever build bus the idea they got from
that
because I am all the stuff that they
took back which Apple then talk
and created into its visual interfaces
I'm
in the Macintosh and and primarily in
the Macintosh
and then subsequently became you have
Windows a lot of things I mean there's a
whole series of cycles a
iteration copying development comes out
of it but conceptually
it began here out with this particular
device now
now another consequence as well is this
machine was actually the first machine
to be a gaming machine with people
actually played games
so in those first she is the first
flight simulator was billed
the first version of Dungeons and
Dragons was billed
and this was the first multiple player
gaming system so was he at the students
at the University of Illinois the
computer science people at the
University of Illinois
who together I I build these things for
the first time and played them
I as much of the engagement here with on
campus I gather from people who with
their
here at that time and was around the
playing up the games the building at the
Games
as it was in the actual learning
environments and shooting environments
well what happened with playdoh I'm
Plato actually didn't finally get turned
off until 2006 which is a pretty
long history forty-six years they
attempted to commercialize it but really
it was knocked out by
personal computing really by the mid
nineties or whatever
it be kind are not a viable thing and
didn't keep up with the technologies
that were emerging around personal
computing
about at that time I'm so but but
at its height they were over a thousand
terminals
in all different parts the world all
linked to mine frames that was mainframe
computing essentially
on about a thousand terminals in
different parts the world
in South Africa in Australia in you as a
sail around the world
that we using this system but as a say
the
the history the system itself what was
produced is really
less relevant than the general theme
that I wanna make which is we as
educators we need to be
we got ourselves as people capable have
leading technology
in the way that education with these
technologies
and we need to reinvent the world again
the hand be down tools we get
from commercial uses business he uses
unpopular I'm home users have computing
they're not good enough we really need
to be building stuff which is dedicated
to learning
dedicated to the kinds have
relationships that happening classrooms
and as we do that we're going to have to
invent things they not things that just
where it's all available to us there's
another generation technologies the
gonna have to be invented
just the way these were invented
