TITLE: Rebooting Computing Summit -- This and That
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: January 21, 2009  7:55 AM
DESC: 
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BODY:
As always, my
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2009-01.html#e2009-01-17T15_09_23.htm">
   report on the Rebooting Computing Summit</A>
left out some of the random thoughts and events
that made my trip.  Here are a few.

&bull; &nbsp; When I was growing up I learned
that the prefixes "Mc" and "O'" indicated "son of"
when used in names such as McDonald and O'Herlihy.
I always wondered who the original ancestors were
-- the Donalds and Herlihys.  (Even then, I was
concerned with the base case...)  One of my favorite
grad school profs was named Bill McCarthy, but I
had never met a Carthy.  Now I have...  One of my
table mates at the summit was
<A HREF="http://www.csi.ucd.ie/users/joe-carthy">
   Joe Carthy</A>
of Dublin!  Joe shared some valuable insights on
teaching computing.

&bull; &nbsp; In my report, I wrote of my vision
for the future of computing, in which <EM>children
will routinely walk to the computer and write a
program...</EM>.  "Walk to the computer" -- that is
<STRONG>so</STRONG> 1990s!  Today's children carry
their technology in their hands.

&bull; &nbsp; During one of his messages, Peter
Denning showed the familiar quote, "Insanity is
doing the same thing over again, expecting different
results," as a motivation to change.  But I think
there is more to it than that. I was reminded of
a recent
<A HREF="http://comics.com/frazz/">
   Frazz</A>
comic, in which the precocious Caulfield pointed
out that the world is always changing, so it is
also insanity to do the same thing over again,
expecting the <EM>same</EM> results.  The world
is changing around computing and computing education.
There is no particular reason to think that doing
the same old things better will get us anywhere
useful.

&bull; &nbsp; At one point, Alan Kay said that
part of what is wrong with computing is that too
many of us "fool around", rather than working to
change the world.  This, he said, is a feature of
a popular culture, not a serious one.  First, we
had real guitar.  Then came air guitar.  And now
we have Guitar Hero.  He is, of course, right, and
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2008-08.html#e2008-08-20T14_19_07.htm">
   written occasionally</A>
of being shamed at coming up short when measured
against his vision.

Later that evening, my roommate
<A HREF="http://www.cs.duke.edu/~rcd/">
   Robert Duvall</A>
discussed whether Guitar Hero might have some
positives, by motivating some of the people who play
it to learn to play a real guitar.  I don't have a
good feel for the culture around Guitar Hero, so
I'll have to wait and see.  New technologies often
interact with younger generations in ways that we
old folks can't predict.  (My prurient side wants
to say that Guitar Hero can't be all bad if it gives
us Heidi Klum playing air guitar in her privates.)

&bull; &nbsp; <STRONG>A Creative Interlude</STRONG>

On the second day of the summit, each table was
asked to communicate to the rest of the groups
its vision of the future of CS.  The facilitators
encouraged us to express our vision creatively,
via role play or some other non-bullet list
medium.  One group did a neat job on this, with
one ham performer playing the central role in a
number of vignettes showing where the computing
of tomorrow will have taken us.

This is the sort of exercise for which I am
ill-equipped to excel alone, but I am able to
do all right if I am in a group.  My table decided
to gang-write a song -- doggerel, really.  With
Christmas still close in our memory, we chose the
tune to the familiar carol "Angels We Have Heard
On High", in part, I think, for its soaring "Gloria"s.
The result was "Everyone Now Loves CS".

Our original plan was for
<A HREF="http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~horwitz/">
   Susan Horwitz</A>
to sing our creation, as she does this sort of
thing in many of her classes and so is used to the
attention.  A few of us toyed with the idea of
playing air guitar in the background, but I'm glad
we opted not to; the juxtaposition of our performance
with Alan Kay's remarks later that afternoon would
have been unfortunate indeed!  About five minutes
before the performance Susan informed us that we
would be singing as a group.  So we did.  My students
should not expect a reprise.

My conference history now includes singing and
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2004-09.html#e2004-09-10T23_03_34.htm">
   acting</A>.
I don't imagine that dance is in my future, but you
never know.
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