Ted's BumpTop: Taking Inspiration from Real Organization and Real Desks

In the 'one more reason why our kids' future matters more than our own learning/working traditions' category, have you seen Anand Agarawal's BumpTop interface  from TED 07?

• First, imagine the 'desktop' that PCs/Macs have forced us to use to organize our thinking/work/creativity.  Flat.  Linear.  Icons.  Blah, blah, blah.  This is what Agarawal wanted to tear apart.  And to a brilliant outcome!
• Now Imagine your real desk.  Visual. 3D.  Organized in an intuitive manner.  Tangible.  That's what Agarawal wanted to create via a computing experience, too.  I think he's doing something wonderful!
• Which would you rather have?  Bueller?  Bueller?

Now, can you imagine getting creatively down and funky with your future 'desktop'?

And once again, begin to wonder what happens when the digital experience of your students' future(s) begin to naturally customize themselves to fit their thinking, creating, working, collaborative style.  No longer will the human be made mechanized.  Instead, the mechanisms become human. 

Comments

[Ewan McIntosh]

Thanks for the tip - it's downloading now and will be handy for a talk I'm giving on new schools next week!