Open course ware

STEPHEN CARPENTER: I have two activities that I've prepared. So interpretation, this idea of constructing meanings or developing meanings about works of art, or we can think of interpretation as someone is speaking one language and then we take that language and we are able to-- not only do we speak and understand this language, then we can take those ideas and those words and turn them into a different language that someone else speaks. We can have interpretation function in that way as well. So it's about taking ideas from one context into another or one mode of representation in communication into another. But in terms of art and art practice, art criticism and interpretation work together. So this image I think is useful for our purposes here. Imagine that this image was the poster for a movie, full length, feature length movie. And imagine you were responsible for writing the copy-- for writing the text for the voiceover of the movie trailer, but all you had ...

STEPHEN CARPENTER: Part of what I do is work with people who are preparing to be K-12 art teachers. I actually work with artists. I've taught studio-based courses in ceramics, drawing. And I'm also working with grad students who are interested in engaging in research about and through and within art practices, visual cultural practices. So there's this range of folks with whom I'm working. So one of your-- I'm trying to negotiate a place to enter, Larry. And one of the things that you said was how explicit am I with, as we've been calling it, this hidden agenda, a hidden curriculum? LARRY SUSSKIND: Not as an agenda STEPHEN CARPENTER: No, but it's the same thing, right? In many cases, it's the same thing, right? Because you have an agenda that you're trying to cover, whether it's an official agenda, we can correlate that to the official curriculum. And I'm pulling this term, these curriculum pieces from the work of George Posner ...

STEPHEN CARPENTER: We think about conventional activities to expand thematic and conceptual exploration. So the traditional ways or maybe more conventional ways you might think about art education or learning studio practices-- sculpture, working with clay, working with wood, working with paint, or drawing practices-- those are fine if we want to develop a set of skills. But what about thinking about concepts and themes and issues? Well, we might as well get started and do some of that now. So we're going to make a little transition. I'm going to set up a still life over here. And we're going to do some drawing. The range of ways in which people draw is perfectly acceptable, perfectly acceptable. So if you're concerned that it's tough for you to draw a conclusion or draw a straight line, don't be concerned by that. It's the process that we're interested in, not the visual representation. We have the three chairs in the center. With your mar...

STEPHEN CARPENTER: Welcome, everyone. It's good to have you here. I see some familiar faces and some less familiar faces. So that's fantastic. So what I wanted to do is prepare to talk. And within the talk, I have some images, a few videos to look at, and there's also a audience participation component, because that's just how I roll. We have to practice what we're up to. So this segment, this talk, is one that is looking at pedagogy as not simply pedagogical strategies in general but to look more at the ways that I translate this idea of pedagogy through lenses or filters of disruption or of criticality. And so part of the work that I do professionally is prepare teachers of art for K12. But I also work with graduate students as they conduct their research, I also do my own research in scholarly kinds of moves about the ways in which visual imagery, visual art, visual cultural production, functions, as modes or spaces for teaching and learning. Jasper...

[MUSIC PLAYING] HAL ABELSON: --not some off-in-the-future-- we right today are in the place where even high school kids or maybe even younger can actually create a national resource that's available to everyone in the world. SARAH HANSEN: I'm Sarah Hansen. Today on Chalk Radio, my guest is Hal Abelson, legendary professor of computer science and engineering at MIT. Hal came to MIT as a graduate student in 1969 and has been teaching here since 1972. He was instrumental in conceptualizing MIT OpenCourseWare, which is not at all surprising, given that he's dedicated his whole career to opening computer science to everyone, even and especially children. In this interview, we talk about his involvement in developing the first programming language for young people. We also talk about his App Inventor platform, artificial intelligence, and his vision for the future of MIT OpenCourseWare. So without further ado, here's my conversation with Hal Abelson. I want to t...