An instrument whose
music is ideas
Smalltalk, EToys, OLPC and the idea of the
Children’s Machine

Music is not inside the piano.
Alan Kay

... and education is not inside the
computer ...

In the 60’s
Jean Piaget is the great
pioneer
of constructivism
Human generate knowledge
and meaning from their
experiences.

1967 : Seymourt Paper
invent the Logo langage
and the constructionism
Learning should be connected
to real world

The Dynabook Vision
Alan Kay, 1968

The Dynabook Vision SpaceWar!
Alan Kay, 1968

The Dynabook Vision Collaborative
Wireless
Alan Kay, 1968

The Dynabook Vision Programmers
of the game
Alan Kay, 1968

Moores Law:
Hardware is no Problem!
(ca. 1980 it will be
good enough)
10 years to do
the software

Xerox PARC, Alto
1973
Bitmap Display: ca. 600x800
4Mips Microcode performance
128-512KB RAM, 2.5MB Disk
Ethernet LAN, Laser printer Chuck Thacker

Smalltalk 72-80

Object-
oriented
Programming
Smalltalk-80
Graphical User Interface

2005

"It's an education project,
not a laptop project."
Nicholas negroponte
te

100 $

Experiments with the real world

Warranty applied only if
you disassemble the
machine, Nicolas
Negroponte.

Squeak EToys, 1996-now
Children’s programming and Media Environment

EToys Demo

Squeak EToys: http://www.squeakland.org/

?

Links
• Alan Kay’s research group: http://
www.vpri.org/
• Etoys in french: http://community.ofset.org/
index.php/Etoys
• OLPC : http://laptop.org/
• Thanks you to Marcus Denker & Séverin
Lemaignan

«The best way to
predict the future
is to invent it»,
Alan Kay