From Elements to The Diamond Age

The past, present and future of textbooks

Stuart GannesMaker Faire RomeOctober 4, 2014

Euclid’s Elements: 1,000 years in parchment!

Print beginnings1482, Venice 1847, New York

16th-20th Century: Rise of classrooms

Researchers knew what was missing

• Interactivity

• Communication

• Collaboration

• Adaptability

• Feedback

20th Century experiments

“Multimedia;” Filmstrips, TV programmed for education

Computer labsThe purpose is to provide a microcomputer

institutional-related service to students while on campus. Huh?

1987: A learning breakthrough

“Before the Web did anything, Hypercard did everything.”

- Ars Technica

The Diamond Age…“The Illustrated Primer is an extremely general an powerful system capable of more external 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

Online courses circa 1990s: Many busts

• Repurposed content

• Lack of interactivity

• Not collaborative

• No good creation tools

Researchers knew what was missing

• Interactivity

• Communication

• Collaboration

• Adaptability

• Feedback

21st Century learning skills

1996: Online tutoringNet Tutor - Live help

2006: ’Flipped’ Classroom

Khan Academy

2008: Adaptive Learning

Dynamic content presentation

2012: MOOCSMassively Open Online Courses

2014: Software-enabled content

Use computers for what they are designed for

Siri for text books? Textbooks with AI reasoning systems

SRI Project Inquire

21st Century: Report Card• Era of

experimentation

• Some progress

• Limits of online learning

Promising innovations:

Stay tuned!

Stuart Gannessgannes@gmail.com