As Gessler reminds us, in the beginning the computer was a human in charge of doing calculations. Later the computer became the machine. The human calculators lost their jobs to the COMPUTER machines, and became programmers who used a programming LANGUAGE to talk to computers. The human desktop skeuomorphed into a computer DESKTOP within a WINDOWS operating system. We stored our digital information in FILES which are organized within FOLDERS inside the computer MEMORY. Now, computer scientists want to make computers INTELLIGENT using machine LEARNING technologies like NEURAL NETWORKS and GENETIC algorithms.

I guess all this results from the tension in our neolitic brains between change and permanence. Skeuomorphs provide a sense of permanence in a perpetually changing and evolving environment. Again, quoting Gessler, skeuomorphs “help us map the new into an existing cognitive structure, and is so doing, give us a starting point from which we may evolve additional alternative solutions.” It sounds like the use of skeuomorphs is a good pedagogical strategy.

Before I forget, I will post this note in the OPENLAB, and you will be able to read it in the WEB.