OPEN SLATE
PROJECT
| Back to Open Slate Home Page | Date: 2000.12.14 (2007.11.21) |
One of the central concepts of the Open Slate project is that students build their own slate. This approach provides several advantages over using ready-made hardware, such as lower cost, self reliance, firsthand experience with computer architecture, teamwork, pride of ownership, and personal expression.
Don't be surprised if you have trouble swallowing the idea of a self-made slate computer. Possible side effects are choking, sputtering, dizziness, nausea, and a general feeling of disbelief. These are only side effects. The cause is a hole, a blank spot, a void in our everyday vocabulary. That this hole exists suggests a cultural bias against using things we make ourselves.
My good friend Dave has built himself a magnificent koa wood desk which he uses at work. Now, consider this sentence: "Dave has a [ ] koa wood desk." What adjective would you put in the box that conveys the meaning of quality, craftsmanship, and beauty, and that he made the desk by himself?
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Homemade | Often implies desirability, esp. in food (homemade bread),
but ambiguous, can infer derision (he wore a homemade suit). |
| Hand-made | No machines or power tools involved;
simple. |
| Hand-crafted | Close, but somewhat pompous and more likely made by
someone else, like leather upholstery. |
| Do-it-yourself | Made by a person without professional training in
the relevant techniques. |
| Custom-made | Positive implications, but suggests that someone else made it. |
That about covers the words and phrases that come close to fitting. So, we can say "Dave has a big koa wood desk," or "Dave has a beautiful koa wood desk," but there is no simple way to say "Dave has a high quality koa wood desk which he made himself."
There is a word, a compound, that comes close: self-made. Ironically it is in keeping with the above observation in that "self-made" does not usually refer to a physical object, but rather tends to refer to situations. The most common usage is in the phase "a self-made man." Consider "a self-made millionaire," referring to someone who did not inherit their wealth -- any positive or negative connotation will depend upon the speaker's social status. Perhaps it may lack clarity or consensus, but at least within the scope of the Open Slate project, "self-made" will mean something constructed by oneself, with pride and quality. Dave has a self-made koa wood desk. Every movement has its jargon -- "self-made" will be one of ours.
The concept of building your own computer may not be familiar, but there are many types of endeavors which serve as examples:
All of these activities are within the grasp of high school students. These are just a few that come to mind and serve here only to show what has been accomplished in the past.
In today's world we have become accustomed to purchasing ready-made products, so much so that self-made versions are often deemed inferior. Back in the 60s, when I was a high school student, most girls either made their own prom dresses or had a mother who did. Girls who wore store-bought gowns were either extraordinarily wealthy or unfortunate. The availability of cheap Asian manufacturing of fabrics and finished goods, combined with faster and cheaper communications and transportation, have inverted these values. The girl who dares to go the the prom today in a homemade gown risks the derision a girl thirty years ago would face in her department store gown.
A few of the activities listed above still value self-made over store bought. One of these is model building; in particular, radio controlled airplanes. Show up at the flying field with even a poorly made kit you assembled yourself and you will get respect, whereas a perfect looking ready-to-fly will get you none, no matter how much it cost. The highest respect is earned by those who scratch build their own designs.
It has been a long time since someone building a radio had to make their own resistors, capacitors, coils, and vacuum tubes. I don't know much about the history of amateur radio, but I do recall reading The Radio Amateur's Handbook when I was in high school. At the time I was a drummer in a rock band, and was fascinated with how electric guitars, organs, microphones, amplifiers and speakers worked. The Handbook was the only source I found in the school library, and it contained a wealth of information about circuit design and practical vacuum tube theory. One of its successful methods was to present construction projects, starting with simple ham radio receivers and gradually adding new concepts in increasingly complex designs.
A model airplane builder need not fabricate every bell crank and hinge, the motor or the radio. The same applies to a slate. First time builders will probably assemble a collection of ready-made pieces, under the tutelage of an upperclassman mentor. Advanced builders will fabricate their own cases and select from among a range of building blocks.
My father's family were homesteaders in Montana. It was a large family, and some of his brothers learned to play music and often played at dances. I recall especially a story about one of them wanting to play fiddle, but since they could not afford to buy a violin he made one. I'm sure it was no match for a Strad, but it was good enough to play dance music.
Standards play a major role in the Open Slate project, but not standardization. Uniformity of design is death. It is not as if we are designing a new class of competition sailboat. In our case, limiting choices to a particular platform or application only provides an illusion of standardization. The important things to standardize are data formats and communication protocols.
That being the case, how does the choice of Linux square with the above? Linux is the preferred operating system not because that position will result in a standard operating system, but because open-source software has been proven to establish and adhere to open standards. (see def of open standards RFC etc.)
This approach to standards is nothing new. Show me a school that requires students to do their homework with a specific make and model of pen. An art class that only allows one brand of paintbrush. A dress pattern that only works on one brand of sewing machine.
Situations in which the result of a student's building effort is subsequently used in daily learning are hard to think of. The Open Slate concept allows this to happen, and at several levels.
The slate will become a student's primary study tool. It will replace pens and pencils, notebooks and worksheets, announcements and planners. It will replace textbooks, pagers, and cell phones. Not to mention blackboards.
Speaking of blackboards, it is ironic in a way that the name of our device, a "slate," was the same as that given to a student's personal blackboard in the not so distant past. Paper was much too costly to use for class work, and just as paper and pen replaced the old fashioned slate, so too will our slate replace paper.
The range of personal expression is easily observed in how students personalize their backpacks, book covers, even their pens and pencils. There seems to be a fundamental dichotomy involving uniformity and individuality at work in personality development. The Open Slate concept allows each student to chose the point at which they feel most comfortable. Basic black. Snow white. Desert camouflage. Volcanic eruption. Graffiti on a garbage can. Whatever works.
A wonderful example of the kind of creative expression I am referring to can be found in the themes and skins used with some of the newer software. I am not talking about the vapid color schemes used to customize Windows (although the event sounds feature deserves mention). In the UNIX world, window managers like enlightenment and KDE allow tremendous variation in the look of the interface. (links here and in notes) Windows and Macintosh owners can have a taste of this type of fun with programs like Winamp, SoundJam and the new Netscape browser. Then there is ReBirth, a software simulation of a stack of music synthesizers and drum machines, in which individuals not only create alternative drum sounds but redesign the virtual equipment's face plates. In all of these examples the highly original designs do not change the operation of the underlying program. A few stodgy old librarian types consider such stuff to be superfluous, but most people enjoy the chance to fool around with what they look at all day, even if it just means using someone else's design.
Examine today's youth culture and the number of self-made traditions is virtually zero. The Open Slate Project will provide a unique opportunity for students to experience an alternative to consumerism, the satisfaction of making the things they use, team work, contributing to large, long-lasting projects, and self expression. I think it is safe to say that a lot of learning will take place along the way.
Gary Dunn