Hi Paul, One starting place might be Morgan Ames’ book The Charisma Machine: The Life, Death, and Legacy of One Laptop Per Child. Lots in there about how folks learn to compute post-GUIs. Best, Fred Turner On Oct 8, 2020, at 11:56 AM, Paul Fishwick <metaphorz@gmail.com<mailto:metaphorz@gmail.com>> wrote: There is a topic that has interested me, but I have been unable to make much headway in past years since I am not sure where to look. Consider that Kathy, an 8th grade student, knows more about how to use a computer than her parents, who may know more than her grandparents. When learning to use digital technology artifacts such as “menu”, education is imparted on Kathy. She learns something about tree structures, and possibly finite state machines (FSMs). This is done invisibly because she did not have to learn discrete mathematics and automata theory to use the computer. One hypothesis that all technology is this way. We use technology and technology uses us (by invisibly transferring new mental models). The introduction of the mechanical clock changed how we conceptualize time. Fast forwarding to digital technology, Kathy must have conceptualized trees and FSMs as mental models even though this theory was not made explicit. My searches have taken me to psychology (where the dominant discourse is about dysfunction where technology is concerned), history of technology as well as the history of science. This relates to math and computer science education too—teaching FSMs to people through implicit means. Learning something without knowing that your learning it. If anyone on this list has a good place for me to dive, let me know. -paul Paul Fishwick, PhD Distinguished University Chair of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication Professor of Computer Science Director, Creative Automata Laboratory The University of Texas at Dallas Arts & Technology 800 West Campbell Road, AT10 Richardson, TX 75080-3021 Home: utdallas.edu/atec/fishwick<http://utdallas.edu/atec/fishwick> Media: medium.com/@metaphorz<http://medium.com/@metaphorz> Modeling: digest.sigsim.org<http://digest.sigsim.org/> Twitter: @PaulFishwick ONLINE: Webex,Collaborate, TEAMS, Zoom, Skype, Hangout _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org<http://sigcis.org/>, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org