Personal Dynamic Media

Back from Spring Break to another really interesting article. This time we read Personal Dynamic Media which took us though the creation of the Dynabook, which was a future focus for The Learning Research Group at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. The interesting part about seeing the picture of the mock-up of a future Dynabook is that is looks a lot like an ipad or a laptop computer that has been folded flat. The interim Dynabook is what we know today as a desktop computer which consists of a monitor, keyboard, and modem, as well as a "mouse" which is used to navigate. I couldn't help but laugh a little at the photograph of the Interim Dynabook simply because the modem looks like a dishwasher. The disk packs that are inserted into the Dynabook look like a similar size to music records. I learned a lot about the foundation of systems like Paint and other program design for computers while reading this article. I thought it was very interesting to learn that some children as young as 12 were helping to develop these programs because they are able to interact and have control of things. I found all of these things to be very useful while learning about the different forms of media and how the computer can be all these forms of media. We have been learning about this all semester and this article fits right in with everything else. I really enjoyed reading it.