MIT OpenCourseWare | What's Worth Making? with Prof. Hal Abelson @mitocw | Uploaded May 2024 | Updated October 2024, 10 hours ago.
Professor Hal Abelson has been active in computer science for over half a century—the first computer he worked with, in high school, was the kind where programs were encoded in a pattern of holes punched into a paper tape fed into the machine. When he arrived at MIT as a graduate student in the late 1960s, Abelson became involved in exploring computers’ potential as educational tools. One of his first projects, under the guidance of Prof. Seymour Papert, involved working to create a graphics display for use with the Logo programming language, which had first been introduced to schoolkids just a year or two earlier. In this episode, Prof. Abelson reminisces about those early experiences and discusses the importance of computer education for everyone–including, and especially, for children who have the power to make real-world impact through their programming work. He also weighs in on the risks associated with artificial intelligence, and describes his involvement in MIT’s decision to give away educational materials online for free—an initiative that ultimately became MIT OpenCourseWare. Fundamentally, Prof. Abelson believes that computer scientists need to confront not only the technical challenges of designing new systems or applications, but also a deeper, humanistic question: “What, in fact, is worth making?”
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Relevant Resources:
MIT OpenCourseWare (https://ocw.mit.edu)
The OCW Educator Portal (https://ocw.mit.edu/educator)
Prof. Abelson’s faculty page (https://www.csail.mit.edu/person/hal-abelson)
Logo and the Turtle (https://el.media.mit.edu/logo-foundation/what_is_logo/logo_primer.html)
Scratch coding language (https://scratch.mit.edu/about)
MIT App Inventor (https://appinventor.mit.edu/)
6.S062 Generative Artificial Intelligence in K-12 Education on MIT OpenCourseWare (https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/6-s062-generative-artificial-intelligence-in-k12-education-fall-2023/)
Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions (https://www.sessions.blue/)
Connect with Us
If you have a suggestion for a new episode or have used OCW to change your life or those of others, tell us your story. We’d love to hear from you!
Call us @ 617-715-2517
On our site (https://ocw.mit.edu/contact/)
On Facebook (facebook.com/MITOCW/)
On X (twitter.com/MITOCW?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
On Instagram (instagram.com/mitocw/)
Stay Current
Subscribe to the free monthly "MIT OpenCourseWare Update" e-newsletter. (https://ocw.mit.edu/newsletter/)
Support OCW
If you like Chalk Radio and OpenCourseware, donate to help keep these programs going! (https://giving.mit.edu/give/to/ocw/?utm_source=ocw&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=donate)
Credits
Sarah Hansen, host and producer (linkedin.com/in/sarah-e-hansen/)
Brett Paci, producer (twitter.com/Brett_Paci)
Dave Lishansky, producer (twitter.com/DaveResonates)
Show notes by Peter Chipman
Professor Hal Abelson has been active in computer science for over half a century—the first computer he worked with, in high school, was the kind where programs were encoded in a pattern of holes punched into a paper tape fed into the machine. When he arrived at MIT as a graduate student in the late 1960s, Abelson became involved in exploring computers’ potential as educational tools. One of his first projects, under the guidance of Prof. Seymour Papert, involved working to create a graphics display for use with the Logo programming language, which had first been introduced to schoolkids just a year or two earlier. In this episode, Prof. Abelson reminisces about those early experiences and discusses the importance of computer education for everyone–including, and especially, for children who have the power to make real-world impact through their programming work. He also weighs in on the risks associated with artificial intelligence, and describes his involvement in MIT’s decision to give away educational materials online for free—an initiative that ultimately became MIT OpenCourseWare. Fundamentally, Prof. Abelson believes that computer scientists need to confront not only the technical challenges of designing new systems or applications, but also a deeper, humanistic question: “What, in fact, is worth making?”
Subscribe to Chalk Radio! → chalk-radio.simplecast.com
Relevant Resources:
MIT OpenCourseWare (https://ocw.mit.edu)
The OCW Educator Portal (https://ocw.mit.edu/educator)
Prof. Abelson’s faculty page (https://www.csail.mit.edu/person/hal-abelson)
Logo and the Turtle (https://el.media.mit.edu/logo-foundation/what_is_logo/logo_primer.html)
Scratch coding language (https://scratch.mit.edu/about)
MIT App Inventor (https://appinventor.mit.edu/)
6.S062 Generative Artificial Intelligence in K-12 Education on MIT OpenCourseWare (https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/6-s062-generative-artificial-intelligence-in-k12-education-fall-2023/)
Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions (https://www.sessions.blue/)
Connect with Us
If you have a suggestion for a new episode or have used OCW to change your life or those of others, tell us your story. We’d love to hear from you!
Call us @ 617-715-2517
On our site (https://ocw.mit.edu/contact/)
On Facebook (facebook.com/MITOCW/)
On X (twitter.com/MITOCW?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
On Instagram (instagram.com/mitocw/)
Stay Current
Subscribe to the free monthly "MIT OpenCourseWare Update" e-newsletter. (https://ocw.mit.edu/newsletter/)
Support OCW
If you like Chalk Radio and OpenCourseware, donate to help keep these programs going! (https://giving.mit.edu/give/to/ocw/?utm_source=ocw&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=donate)
Credits
Sarah Hansen, host and producer (linkedin.com/in/sarah-e-hansen/)
Brett Paci, producer (twitter.com/Brett_Paci)
Dave Lishansky, producer (twitter.com/DaveResonates)
Show notes by Peter Chipman
