Open Learning ’17 continues this week with another key reading: Douglas Engelbart’s Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework. This 1962 essay led directly to much of the computing environment we take for granted today: mouse, keyboard, display; word processing; concept mapping; computer-enhanced videoconferencing. Even wikis can trace part of their intellectual lineage to Engelbart’s conceptual framework and the innovations that followed.

As impressive as these computing innovations are–and they are mighty impressive–Engelbart always regarded his “framework” as his most important contribution to the computer age. That’s the reason we’re reading this strange and strangely compelling essay this week. Lots of things happen in our global, light-speed telecommunications network, but the conceptual frameworks are often weak or missing. These gaps lead to unintended consequences, to be sure, but they also lead to under-realized potential–the more serious failure, I think.

The essay is long, so I’ve prepared a set of excerpts that I believe represent the ideas that are most directly relevant to our course.

Our guiding question this week will be how Engelbart’s framework might help us think more clearly, complexly, and effectively about open learning. As director for the week, my hope is that Engelbart’s framework advances our conversation, particularly in terms of how mind-liberating education might be understood and crafted in our digital age.

EDIT: the post above is by Open Learning ’17’s hub director, Gardner Campbell.

EDIT: As was the case with “As We May Think,” Engelbart’s use of “he” and “him” and “man” and “men” is jarring and regrettable, and reflects the prevailing sexist attitudes of the era in which he wrote.