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21. Computer Lib

/Dream Machines

1974

313

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resources.” Responding resources are of two types: facilities

and hyper-media. 

A facility is something the user may call up to perform

routinely a computation or other act, behaving in desired

ways on demand. Thus JOSS (a clever desk calculator

available at a terminal) and the Culler-Freed graph-plotting

system (which graphs arbitrary functions the user types in)

are facilities.

Hyper-media are branching or performing presentations

which respond to user actions, systems of prearranged words

and pictures (for example) which may be explored freely or

queried in stylized ways. They will not be “programmed,” but

rather designed, written, drawn and edited, by authors, artists,

designers and editors. (To call them “programmed” would

suggest spurious technicality. Computer systems to present

them will be “programmed.”) Like ordinary prose and

pictures, they will be 

media; and because they are in some

sense “multi-dimensional,” we may call them hyper-media,

following mathematical use of the term “hyper-.” 

A Modest Proposal

The alternative is straightforward. Instead of devising

elaborate systems permitting the computer or its

instructional contents to control the situation, why not

permit the student to control the system, show him how to

do so intelligently, and make it easy for him to find his own

way? Discard the sequences, items and conversation, and

allow the student to move freely through materials which he

may control. Never mind optimizing reinforcement or

validating teaching sequences. Motivate the user and let him

loose in a wonderful place.

Let the student control the sequence, put him in control of

interesting and clear material, and make him feel good—

comfortable, interested, and autonomous. Teach him to

orient himself: not having the system answer questions, all

typed in, but allowing the student to get answers by looking

in a fairly obvious place. (Dialogue is unnecessary even when

it does not intrude.) Such ultra-rich environments allow the

student to choose what he will study, when he will study it

and how he will study it, and to what criteria of

accomplishment he will aim. Let the student pick what he

wishes to study next, decide when he wishes to be tested,

and give him a variety of interesting materials, events and

opportunities. Let the student ask to be tested on what he

thinks he knows, when he is ready, selecting the most

appropriate form of testing available. 

This approach has several advantages. First, it

circumvents the incredible obstacles created by the

dialogue-item-sequence philosophy. It ends the danger to

students of bugs in the material. And last, it does what

education is supposed to do—foster student enthusiasm,

involvement, and self-reliance. 

Under such circumstances students will actually be

interested, motivated to achieve far more than they have

ever achieved within the normal instructional framework;

and any lopsidedness which may result will be far offset by

the degree of accomplishment which will occur—it being

much better to create lopsided but enthusiastic genius

specialists than listless, apathetic, or cruelly rebellious

mediocrities. If they start soon enough they may even reach

adulthood with natural minds: driven by enthusiasm and

interest, crippled in no areas, eager to learn more, and far

smarter than people ordinarily end up being.

Enthusiasm and involvement are what really count. This is

why the right to explore far outweighs any administrative

advantages of creating and enforcing “subjects” and

curriculum sequences. The enhancement of motivation that

will follow from letting kids learn anything they want to

learn will far outweigh any specialization that may result. By

the elimination or benign replacement of both curriculum

and tests in an ultra-rich environment, we will prevent the

attrition of the natural motivation of children from its

initially enormous levels, and mental development will be

the natural straight diagonal rather than the customary

parabola.

Is It So Hard? Some Ideas

CAI is said to be terribly hard. It would seem all the harder,

then, to give students the richer and more stimulating

environments advocated here. This is because of the

cramped horizons of computer teaching today. Modest goals

have given us modest visions, far below what is now possible

and will soon be cheap.

The static computer displays now associated with CAI will

give way to dynamic displays driven from minicomputers,

such as the IDIIOM, IBM 2250/4 or Imlac PDS–1. (The last

of these costs only $10,000 now; by 1975 such a unit will

probably cost $1,000 or less.) Not only will computers be

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NEWMEDIA

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much cheaper, but their usability will improve: a small

computer with a fair amount of memory will be able to do

much more than it can now, including operate a complex

display from its own complex data base.

It is generally supposed that systems like these need big

computers and immense memories. This is not true if we use

the equipment well, organize storage cleverly, and integrate

data and display functions under a compact monitor. This is

the goal of The Nelson Organization’s Project Xanadu, a

system intended to handle all the functions described here

on a mini-computer with disk and tape. 

Discrete Hypertexts

“Hypertext” means forms of writing which branch or

perform on request; they are best presented on computer

display screens.

In ordinary writing the author may break sequence for

footnotes or insets, but the use of print on paper makes

some basic sequence essential. The computer display screen,

however, permits footnotes on footnotes on footnotes, and

pathways of any structure the author wants to create. 

Discrete, or chunk style, hypertexts consist of separate

pieces of text connected by links.

Ordinary prose appears on the screen and may be moved

forward and back by throttle. An asterisk or other key in the

text means, not an ordinary footnote, but a jump—to an

entirely new presentation on the screen. Such jumpable

interconnections become part of the writing, entering into

the prose medium itself as a new way to provide explana-

tions and details to the seeker. These links may be artfully

arranged according to meanings or relations in the subject,

and possible tangents in the reader’s mind.

Performing Hypergrams

A hypergram is a performing or branching picture: for

instance, this angle, with the bar-graph of its related

trigonometric functions. The student may turn the angle

upon the screen, seizing it with the light-pen, and watch the

related trigonometric functions, displayed as bar charts,

change correspondingly.

21. Computer Lib

/Dream Machines

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