The first graphical user interface using the desktop as a metaphor
"In 1973, the first graphical user interface was built at PARC, using the desktop as a metaphor. The UI introduced windows, icons, menus, file management, and tool palettes. Looking back at the first screenshots of this first GUI, the designs feel familiar even now. In 1974 PARC developed a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get cut & paste interface, and in 1975 the demonstrated pop-up menus. The desktop concept was pushed quite a bit further by 1981 in the commercial Xerox Star PC interface, which was an important influence for the PC UI's created at Microsoft, Apple, NeXT, and Sun Microsystems in the 80's and 90's."
(Mike Kruzeniski, 17 February 2011)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
The University of the Third Age (U3A)
"The University of the Third Age (U3A) is a highly successful adult education movement providing opportunities for older adults to enjoy a range of activities associated with well-being in later life. Two substantially different approaches, the original French approach, and the British approach which evolved a few years later, have become the dominant U3A models adopted by different countries. Within many countries communications between the individual U3A groups is limited; between countries there is even less communication. Thus, very little, that is readily accessible, has been written about U3A developments internationally. This article provides an overview of U3A in many countries. Data were obtained by contacting colleagues in a number of countries for up-to-date information about U3As in their region.
U3A underwent a substantial change when it reached Cambridge in 1981. Rather than relying on university good will the founders of the British model adopted an approach in which there was to be no distinction between the teachers and the taught (Laslett, 1989). Members would be the teachers as well as the learners and, where possible, members should engage in research activities. The "self-help" ideal was based on the knowledge that experts of every kind retire, thus, there should be no need for older learners to have to rely on paid or unpaid Second Age teachers. Laslett provides a substantial rationale for this approach. The self-help approach has been highly successful in Britain as well as in other countries such as Australia and New Zealand. Some of the strengths of the approach include: minimal membership fees; accessible classes run in community halls, libraries, private homes, schools, and so forth; flexible timetables and negotiable curriculum and teaching styles; wide course variety ranging from the highly academic to arts, crafts and physical activity; no academic constraints such as entrance requirements or examinations; and, the opportunity to mix with alert like-minded people who enjoy doing new things. Each U3A is independent and is run by a democratically elected management committee of members."
1). Wokingham U3A Open Day, UK
2). Peter Laslett (1989). A fresh map of life. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Early TV motion design: The Tomorrow People
"Created in 1973 by Roger Price, ‘The Tomorrow People’ was always entertaining, full of fresh, innovative ideas, and larger-than-life villains."
(Clive Banks)
[The series was directed by Roger Damon Price (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069647/fullcredits#cast) its Graphics and Titles designer was Jerome Gask (http://www.tv.com/jerome-gask/person/367501/appearances.html?tag=content_wrap;cast_crew_list) and its theme was composed by Dudley Simpson (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0800981/)]
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Answers to exploitation in photographs
"In 1973, while conducting a literacy project in a barrio of Lima, Peru, the noted Brazilian educator Paulo Freire (and his colleagues) asked people questions in Spanish, but requested the answers in photographs. When the question 'What is exploitation?' was asked, some people took photos of a landlord, grocer, or a policeman (Boal 1979, p.123). One child took a photo of a nail on a wall. It made no sense to adults, but other children were in strong agreement. The ensuing discussions showed that many young boys of that neighbourhood worked in the shoe-shine business. Their clients were mainly in the city, not in the barrio where they lived. As their shoe-shine boxes were too heavy for them to carry, these boys, rented a nail on a wall (usually in a shop), where they could hang their boxes for the night. To them, that nail on the wall represented 'exploitation. 'The 'nail on the wall' photograph spurred widespread discussions in the Peruvian barrio about other forms of institutionalized exploitation, including ways to overcome them."
(Singhal, A., M. J. Cody, et al. 2004)
Boal, Augusto. 1979 The theatre of the oppressed., New York, USA: Urizen Books.
Arvind Singhal, Michael J. Cody, et al. (2004). Entertainment-Education and Social Change: History, Research, and Practice, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
[An experiment in participatory research and research as social catalyst.]
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The Constellations ProjectSHARE
Out Of Place: Concrete Island
"One day in April, 1973, 35-year-old architect Robert Maitland races home from a conference and a few nights with his mistress, but his Jaguar crashes through a highway barrier and into a large island between freeways. The vehicle is not drivable, and Maitland is unable to escape the island during the several days no one is apt to miss him. He tries to flag down traffic, scrambles for food and shelter, even tries to burn his Jaguar to create a signal flare. [...]the plot turns into a cross between Robinson Crusoe and Sartre's No Exit."
(David Loftus)
CONTRIBUTOR
The Constellations ProjectSHARE
