<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META content="text/html; charset=us-ascii" http-equiv=Content-Type> <META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.19170"></HEAD> <BODY style="WORD-WRAP: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space"> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=000152019-05012012><FONT color=#000080 size=2 face=Arial>Hi, Ed.</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=000152019-05012012><FONT color=#000080 size=2 face=Arial></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=000152019-05012012><FONT color=#000080 size=2 face=Arial>I wonder if you're on the SCC mailing list under your Stanford email address.</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=000152019-05012012><FONT color=#000080 size=2 face=Arial></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=000152019-05012012><FONT color=#000080 size=2 face=Arial>-- Ron</FONT></SPAN></DIV><BR> <DIV dir=ltr lang=en-us class=OutlookMessageHeader align=left> <HR tabIndex=-1> <FONT size=2 face=Tahoma><B>From:</B> Edward Feigenbaum [mailto:feigenbaum.ea3@gmail.com] <BR><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, January 05, 2012 10:57 AM<BR><B>To:</B> Ronald Mak<BR><B>Subject:</B> Ron, this was not sent to the others I gather--First computer literacy class?<BR></FONT><BR></DIV> <DIV></DIV><BR> <DIV><BR> <DIV>Begin forwarded message:</DIV><BR class=Apple-interchange-newline> <BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"> <DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica'; FONT-SIZE: medium"><B>From: </B></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica'; FONT-SIZE: medium"><A href="mailto:scc_active-owner@computerhistory.org">scc_active-owner@computerhistory.org</A><BR></SPAN></DIV> <DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica'; FONT-SIZE: medium"><B>Subject: </B></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica'; FONT-SIZE: medium"><B>Re: [SPG_Active_Members] First computer literacy class?</B><BR></SPAN></DIV> <DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica'; FONT-SIZE: medium"><B>Date: </B></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica'; FONT-SIZE: medium">January 5, 2012 9:00:00 AM PST<BR></SPAN></DIV> <DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica'; FONT-SIZE: medium"><B>To: </B></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica'; FONT-SIZE: medium"><A href="mailto:feigenbaum.ea3@gmail.com">feigenbaum.ea3@gmail.com</A><BR></SPAN></DIV><BR>You are not allowed to post to this mailing list, and your message has<BR>been automatically rejected.  If you think that your messages are<BR>being rejected in error, contact the mailing list owner at<BR><A href="mailto:scc_active-owner@computerhistory.org">scc_active-owner@computerhistory.org</A>.<BR><BR><BR> <DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica'; FONT-SIZE: medium"><B>From: </B></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica'; FONT-SIZE: medium">Edward Feigenbaum <<A href="mailto:feigenbaum.ea3@gmail.com">feigenbaum.ea3@gmail.com</A>><BR></SPAN></DIV> <DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica'; FONT-SIZE: medium"><B>Subject: </B></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica'; FONT-SIZE: medium"><B>Re: [SPG_Active_Members] First computer literacy class?</B><BR></SPAN></DIV> <DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica'; FONT-SIZE: medium"><B>Date: </B></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica'; FONT-SIZE: medium">January 5, 2012 9:21:19 AM PST<BR></SPAN></DIV> <DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica'; FONT-SIZE: medium"><B>To: </B></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica'; FONT-SIZE: medium">"Ronald Mak" <<A href="mailto:ron.mak@sjsu.edu">ron.mak@sjsu.edu</A>><BR></SPAN></DIV> <DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica'; FONT-SIZE: medium"><B>Cc: </B></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica'; FONT-SIZE: medium"><<A href="mailto:scc_active@computerhistory.org">scc_active@computerhistory.org</A>>, <<A href="mailto:1401_all@computerhistory.org">1401_all@computerhistory.org</A>>, "'Robert Garner \(@us.ibm.com\)'" <<A href="mailto:robgarn@us.ibm.com">robgarn@us.ibm.com</A>>, "'Jim McClure'" <<A href="mailto:mcclure@computerhistory.org">mcclure@computerhistory.org</A>>, "'Jon Pearce'" <<A href="mailto:jon.pearce@sjsu.edu">jon.pearce@sjsu.edu</A>>, <A href="mailto:franklin.stan@gmail.com">franklin.stan@gmail.com</A>, "'Ted Kahn'" <<A href="mailto:ted@designworlds.com">ted@designworlds.com</A>><BR></SPAN></DIV><BR><BR> <DIV style="WORD-WRAP: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space"><BR> <DIV> <DIV>On Jan 4, 2012, at 11:52 PM, Ronald Mak wrote:</DIV><BR class=Apple-interchange-newline> <BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><SPAN style="WIDOWS: 2; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; TEXT-INDENT: 0px; BORDER-COLLAPSE: separate; FONT: medium 'Comic Sans MS'; WHITE-SPACE: normal; ORPHANS: 2; LETTER-SPACING: normal; WORD-SPACING: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px" class=Apple-style-span><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: small" class=Apple-style-span>His question that he posed to me, and which I'm passing on to all of you, is whether this was the very first university computer literacy course.</SPAN></SPAN></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV>Dear Ron,</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV>I initiated one at Stanford in the early 1970s (approx. 1973). There had been an undergraduate course in the Physics Department</DIV> <DIV>that as either literally called "Physics for Poets", or humorous nicknamed that. In any event, I elided</DIV> <DIV>that was a great idea, so I taught one of those. The CS Faculty did not like the idea of calling mine "Computers for Poets"</DIV> <DIV>so I gave it a very ordinary name starting with "Introduction to …"</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV>It was successful, and therefore I offered it at least once more, maybe several times more.</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV>I want to emphasize that this was NOT a programming course. It was a "concepts" course about what computers were,</DIV> <DIV>how they were being applied and would be applied, and what their effect would be on the future of everyone taking the course and</DIV> <DIV>everyone else.</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV>Over the years, I have taken to summarize briefly what I taught  in this early 1970s course. </DIV> <DIV>Here it is:  "Everything is Bits".  (Much later, Nicholas Negroponte of MIT wrote a book in a popular vein</DIV> <DIV>with just this summary concept)</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV>Best wishes,</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV>Ed</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV></DIV><BR><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>