Earlier this week I was honored to present at the ACS branch conference and very pleased to attend the full day. The Australian Computer Society is one of the leading professional societies in the world, based on external feedback (not just a bunch of self-satisfied Aussies) and I’ve been proud to be a member for many years and former committee member.
I spoke about the OLPC project and the XO Laptop, including demonstrating both on virtual machines and with my very own laptop I bought via the Give1Get1 project in the USA last year. Apart from discussing the project, social themes and its politics, I talked about the development environments included – Pippy Python and Squeak eToys. In particular, I emphasized the idea of Modeling Literacy – providing visual, interactive models as a classroom and personal tool.
The full presentations are available online, including many presenter notes not made visible to the audience.