Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs has been MIT's introductory pre-professional computer science subject since 1981. It emphasizes the role of computer languages as vehicles for expressing knowledge and it presents basic principles of abstraction and modularity, together with essential techniques for designing and implementing computer languages. This course has had a worldwide impact on computer science curricula over the past two decades. The accompanying textbook by Hal Abelson, Gerald Jay Sussman, and Julie Sussman is available for purchase from the MIT Press, which also provides a freely available on-line version of the complete textbook.

These twenty video lectures by Hal Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman are a complete presentation of the course, given in July 1986 for Hewlett-Packard employees, and professionally produced by Hewlett-Packard Television. The videos have been used extensively in corporate training at Hewlett-Packard and other companies, as well as at several universities and in MIT short courses for industry.

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, Video Lectures

The WGBH Forum Network is an audio and video streaming Website dedicated to curating and serving live and on-demand lectures given by some of the world's foremost scholars, authors, artists, scientists, policy makers and community leaders. These events are hosted by world-class cultural and educational organizations in the Greater Boston area. Through this online service thousands of interested people across the world partake of these lectures from the comfort of their home or office at any time they choose. We are proud of the role we serve in our community, of protecting and projecting the public voice; and of informing and inspiring that public voice to foster deeper understanding of and civic engagement in important issues.

You'll be amazed by the breadth and depth of this archive.

WGBH Forum Network | Free Online Lectures

In a recent talk at MIT, the author of The Social Life of Information revisits much of the second half of this book, in particular, the last chapter about the future of education.

In a digitally connected, rapidly evolving world, we must transcend the traditional Cartesian models of learning that prescribe “pouring knowledge into somebody’s head." We learn through our interactions with others and the world ...

While the wired world may be flat, it now also features “spikes,” interactive communities organized around a wealth of subjects. For kids growing up in a digital world, these unique web resources are becoming central to popular culture. Now, educators must begin to incorporate the features of mash-ups and remixes in learning, to stimulate “creative tinkering and the play of imagination.”

With the avid participation of online users, the distinction between producers and consumers blurs. In the same way, knowledge ‘production’ must flow more from ‘amateurs’ – the students, life-long learners, and professionals learning new skills.

The challenge of 21st century education will be leveraging the abundant resources of the web – this very long tail of interests – into a “circle of knowledge-building and sharing.”

Perhaps the formal curriculum of schools will encompass both a minimal core “that gets at the essence of critical thinking,” paired with “passion-based learning,” where kids connect to niche communities on the web, deeply exploring certain subjects.

Education will become “an act of re-creation and productive inquiry,” that will form the basis for a new culture of learning.

Relearning Learning: Applying the Long Tail to Learning

Alan Kay's antidote to the dumbing down of public education.

Viewpoints Research is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving both general education and understanding of complex systems, especially through the use of new inventions in interactive constructive computing.

We want to help children develop real fluency in many important areas of learning, including thinking, math and science. "Thinking" is a higher category than "just" math, science, and the arts. It represents a synthesis of intuitive and analytical approaches to understanding the world and dealing with it.

Kay has assembled quite an impressive Board of Advisors.

About Viewpoints Research Institute

"I think the most general claim here is that a lot of people believe there are some inherent limits they were born with. But there is surprisingly little hard evidence that anyone could attain any kind of exceptional performance without spending a lot of time perfecting it."

These conclusions, if accurate, would seem to have broad applications. Students should be taught to follow their interests earlier in their schooling, the better to build up their skills and acquire meaningful feedback. Senior citizens should be encouraged to acquire new skills, especially those thought to require "talents" they previously believed they didn't possess.

Follow up with Charles Handy:

L2L: Clearly, education is key to equipping people for the world. What do you see as the future of our school systems?

CH: I think that one trend that's coming is that every child should understand at an early age his or her intelligence profile. This follows psychologist Howard Gardner's idea that there are several different kinds of intelligences -- analytical, interpersonal, practical, physical, musical, and so on. People simply have different aptitudes. Once we have identified those, we can design an individual curriculum which, for at least half of the school time, concentrates on developing those particular intelligences, irrespective of the core base of the teaching.

It's already beginning to happen. Middle-class parents now say, "We want more emphasis on music, want more emphasis on sporting abilities -- and we will pay for that outside of school." The school day should be split in two. The first half is what you might call a required, common curriculum, taught by schools. The second half is an individual curriculum in which many outside organizations take part -- work organizations, community organizations. These activities may be organized by the school, but they may or may not take place in school. The school becomes a kind of broker for learning.

When it works properly, every young person will leave school with a personal portfolio of competence, including many more items than the classroom captures.

A Star Is Made | NYT Freakonomics

Check out this recent Friedman piece:

The more I travel, the more I find that the most heated debates in many countries are around education. Here's what's really funny -- every country thinks it's behind.

"We have a creative problem in this country [India]."

"We must allow our students to ask why, not just keep on telling them how."

It's interesting that Tom Friedman is syndicated in Venezuela.

Today's NYT has an article about Wu Man, a Chinese musician, in which she confirms Friedman's reporting:

"She's a 21st-century musician, meaning she knows something deeply, and not only playing the instrument. She can work with anybody in a short time. She can figure out what somebody knows, what they don't know. People say she's put the pipa on the contemporary page."

This after wondering whether she would be able to keep up her career in the United States. "I had initially been prepared to give up music," Ms. Wu said. "I thought I was going to end up studying computers like my friends."

For a sample of America's strategy in education, read Technically Foolish:

This proposal is drawing national attention as visionary, though it is more remarkable for the manner in which it neatly illustrates the problems with how we think about technology and schooling.

Absent in Michigan, and often elsewhere, is serious thought about how technology might help cut costs or modernize educational delivery.

There is no reputable analysis suggesting that the billions invested in technology have enhanced the productivity or performance of America's schools.

Everyone can use another degree, right?

"People think I'm crazy when they hear I'm getting my second master's degree at 27," says Krumm. "But I felt the degree was necessary to switch the direction of my life."

And now for something completely different:

Georgia is about to become the first state to approve the use of the Bible as a textbook in public schools.

But if you thought America was in bad shape, check out France:

The point of the new labor law is to encourage businesses to hire young people without worrying they'll be stuck with them forever. Youth unemployment has been one of France's biggest problems for 30 years. A quarter of those under 25 are jobless; that figure surpasses 40 percent in the troubled suburbs. It's an enormous failure: young people have never been better prepared or educated than today, yet France offers them hardly any future apart from temporary jobs and unpaid internships.

No one in France wants to be "flexible"; stable jobs are the best paid and the most prestigious. It's telling that the students at the elite grandes écoles have been slow in joining the protests: promised a better future than the graduates of the less illustrious universities, they figure that flexibility doesn't concern them.

Part C - Magnet Safe Havens Assistance
SEC. 5301. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

(a) FINDINGS- Congress makes the following findings:

(1) Magnet safe havens are a significant part of America's effort to provide terrorists with challenging work and growth opportunities outside the Western Hemisphere.

(2) The use of magnet safe havens has increased dramatically since the inception of the magnet safe havens assistance program under this Act, with approximately 2,000,000 terrorists nationwide living in such havens, of whom more than 65 percent are non-white.

(3) Magnet safe havens offer a wide range of distinctive programs that have served as models for failed state development efforts.

(4) It is in the best interests of the United States:

(A) to continue the Federal Government's support of local madrassas that are implementing tribe-ordered indoctrination plans and local tribal councils that are voluntarily seeking to foster meaningful interaction among terrorists of different ideological backgrounds, beginning at the earliest stage of their education;

(B) to ensure that all young terrorists have equitable access to a chaotic, highly violent environment that will prepare them to function well in a technologically oriented and a highly competitive al Qaeda organizational structure comprised of people from many different racial and ethnic backgrounds; and

(C) to continue to secure a high quality of life for Americans by supporting magnet safe havens all around the world, recognizing that havens can profitably exist in failed states as well as in ethnically diverse "Western" democracies.

(5) Homeland security efforts through magnet safe haven programs are a significant part of our Nation's effort to achieve victory in the war on terror and help to ensure equal martyrdom opportunities for all terrorists.

This isn't nearly as expansive as OpenCourseWare, but the iTunes integration is a nice touch.

* Download faculty lectures, interviews, music and sports.
* Play audio on your iPod, Mac or PC, or burn a CD.
* Stay Connected anytime anywhere.
* Experience Stanford on iTunes today and continue learning with Stanford.

For now, at least, all of the content is free.

Stanford on iTunes

Do Your Part!

Women are severely underrepresented in the engineering profession. Research shows that girls and young women lose interest in subjects and the fields of study leading to engineering careers long before they enter college.

Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day

Proposals by President Bush in his 2006 State of the Union address to improve training of science teachers, increase federal funding for basic research, and enhance the climate for private investment in R&D are "necessary to preserve America’s high standard of living and its national and economic security," says a statement from the presidents of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine. The Bush administration’s proposals embrace many of the findings in the Academies’ report Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future.

It's interesting that no one mentioned this in the discussion about Bush's address, considering how Rising Above The Gathering Storm was received here upon its publication:

Ultimately, going down this road is simply going to further drive our downward spiral in this regard.

The Academies presidents disagree:

We applaud President Bush's announcement of the American Competitiveness Initiative in his State of the Union address. This initiative is an important step in what we hope will be a multiyear bipartisan commitment to enhance the nation's innovation system. The Academies' recent report points toward solutions and helped to inform President Bush's initiative.

Be sure to check out the figure that shows how the federal government invented the iPod.

However, the Academies do hedge a bit in their conclusion, apparently trying to stem the enthusiasm:

The challenges America faces do not lend themselves to overnight fixes or simple answers. Achieving these goals will require a long-term, bipartisan commitment from a broad range of people working together -- including scientists, engineers, health professionals, educators, politicians, and industry leaders. We stand ready to offer policymakers our help as the country tackles these complex issues.

Enjoy this hard-hitting AP coverage:

The president's motorcade drove down Innovation Drive to visit a 3M business and graphics laboratory where a sign read "3M Innovation." The president and first lady Laura Bush saw a 77-ton diamond turning machine that uses measurements used in nanotechnology, which is in dimensions 10 times smaller than the human hair.

Finally, a typically off-the-cuff Presidential quote:

"The role of our government is to create an environment in which the entrepreneur can flourish, in which minds can expand, in which technologies can reach new frontiers." – President George W. Bush, May 2001

Academies' Presidents Applaud 'American Competitiveness Initiative'