Past and future of textbooks from Euclid's Elements to Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age, with brief stops along the way. Shoutout to Hypercard.

1. From Elements to
The Diamond Age
The past, present and future of textbooks
!
Stuart Gannes
Maker Faire Rome
October 4, 2014

2. Euclid’s Elements: The first textbook?
Although many of the results in Elements originated with earlier mathematicians, one of Euclid's accomplishments was to present them in a single,
logically coherent framework, making it easy to use and easy to reference, including a system of rigorous mathematical proofs that remains the basis of
mathematics 23 centuries later.[16]

3. The print era beginnings
1482, Venice 1847, New York
Euclid's Elements has been referred to as the most successful[5][6] and influential[7] textbook ever written. Being first set in type in Venice in 1482, it is one
of the very earliest mathematical works to be printed after the invention of the printing press and was estimated by Carl Benjamin Boyer to be second
only to the Bible in the number of editions published,[7] with the number reaching well over one thousand.[8] For centuries, when the quadrivium was
included in the curriculum of all university students, knowledge of at least part of Euclid's Elements was required of all students. Not until the 20th century,
by which time its content was universally taught through other school textbooks, did it cease to be considered something all educated people had read.[9]

4. 16th-20th Century:
Rise of classrooms
Classrooms and teachers

5. Researchers knew what was missing
• Interactivity
• Communication
• Collaboration
• Adaptability
• Feedback

6. 20th Century experiments
“Multimedia;” Filmstrips, TV programmed for education
Televisions on wheels

7. Computer labs
The purpose is to provide a microcomputer institutional-related
service to students while on campus. Huh?
https://student.uj.ac.za/docs/THE%20PURPOSE%20AND%20LOCATION%20OF%20GENERAL%20MICROCOMPUTER%20LABORATORIES.pdf

8. 1987: A learning breakthrough
“Before the Web did anything, Hypercard did everything.”
- Ars Technica

9. The Diamond Age…
“The Illustrated Primer is an
extremely general an powerful
system capable of more
externes self-reconfiguration
than most. Remember that a
fundamental part of its job is to
respond to its environment. If the
owner were to take up a pen and
write on a blank page, this input
would be thrown into the hopper
along with everything else, so to
speak.”
-Neal Stephenson , 1995
It was addressed to you,

10. Online courses: Early busts
• Repurposed content
• Lack of interactivity
• Not collaborative
• No good creation tools

11. Researchers know what’s missing V2
• Interactivity
• Communication
• Collaboration
• Adaptability
• Feedback

12. 21st Century learning skills
http://www.nhcs.net/technology/instructional/21stcenturyskills.htm

13. 1996: Online tutoring
Net Tutor - Live help

14. 2006: ’Flipped’ Classroom
Khan Academy
https://www.khanacademy.org/economics-finance-domain/core-finance/money-and-banking/bitcoin/v/bitcoin-what-is-it

15. 2008: Adaptive Learning
Dynamic content presentation
http://doraemonyoung.blogspot.it/
!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LldxxVRj4FU

16. 2012: MOOCS
Massively Open Online Courses
http://www.wiredacademic.com/2013/02/infographic-rise-of-the-moocs/

17. 2014: Software-enabled content
Use computers for what they are designed for
Ideas for the future:
interactivity
put teacher in the textbook: Inquire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-NDXWyDy3c#t=39

18. Siri for text books?
Textbooks with AI reasoning systems
SRI Project Inquire
SRI Inquire project
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-NDXWyDy3c#t=39

19. 21st Century: Report Card
• Era of experimentation
• Some progress
• Limits of online learning
Promising innovations:

20. Stay tuned!
!
Stuart Gannes
sgannes@gmail.com