Updated Discussion on Dynabook (markdown)

Discussion-on-Dynabook.md

@@ -75,8 +75,8 @@ mini-laptop, with the same kind of applications (logo, spreadsheet,
 text writer, etc). The closest thing you can imagine is a paper
 notebook where the user writes a document with an electronic pen and integrates in such a document dynamic knowledge models (think a drgeo sketch).
 
-It is a tool to represent knowledge -- as done with paper notebook and
-textbook -- but with dynamic models.
+It is a tool to represent knowledge --- as done with paper notebook and
+textbook --- but with dynamic models.
 
 The core of the pedagogical dimension of the dynabook is to have such
 dynamic knowledge models (think DrGeo) the teacher can rely on and
@@ -142,7 +142,7 @@ Therefore, the digital paper document is to be an important part of the Dynabook
 
 # Software
 
-**---JR**: What happened to DrGeo? Isn't this a new rebirth of DrGeo? Or does it live underneath, in the scripts de app runs?
+**---JR**: What happened to **DrGeo**? Isn't this a new rebirth of DrGeo? Or does it live underneath, in the scripts de app runs?
 
 **---HF**: DrGeo exists as a standalone application of its own. In the Dynabook device, I envision it will continue to exist as a standalone application of its own, but also as an integrated part to the Dynabook application, through sketches designed by Smalltalk code. DrGeo is also my laboratory to explore new ideas as the Smalltalk Sketch and associated GUI design. A DrGeo sketch designed with Smalltalk code is an example of a dynamic knowledge model related to geometry. DrGeo is really my test bed to see how you will want the tooling be arranged to let teachers design dynamic knowledge models: How will the code editor be arranged? What contextual help? Do we want it in local language? So far, there are several domains I am not satisfied with like the debugging experience of Smalltalk Sketch and how the integrated documentation is designed.
 
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ DrGeo is quite a complex application because you have both the dynamic knowledge
 
 > Any serious Dynabook realization should be considered as a *cash register of education* (...)
 > A dedicated hardware and software environment for a meaningful use in education (...)
-> A vehicle for dynamic models of knowledge the user can design and/or operate on
+> A vehicle for *dynamic models of knowledge* the user can design and/or operate on
 
 This is too generic, all constructivist educational software since Papert and Kay would be included. What's new? What's different now? Do you have anything to say about why the older proposals didn't succeed?
 
@@ -175,7 +175,11 @@ Technically all these views are Morph instances representing the underneath mode
 
 **---JR**: Let me try to understand. Are [PhET simulations](https://phet.colorado.edu/) dynamic knowledge models?
 
-**---HF**: Answer the following questions and you will find out. As the name suggest, these simulations are interactive and related to science, so the convey some sort of dynamic knowledge representation. Now, can those simulations be described by simple user scripts, that a teacher can learn from to edit, to modify and to reuse differently. If yes there are dynamic knowledge models, if not there are dynamic knowledge application or representation, that may be the user can parametrize but it will not make a model.
+**---HF**: Answer the following questions and you will find out. As the name suggests, these simulations are interactive and related to science, so they convey some sort of dynamic knowledge representation. Now, can those simulations be described by simple user scripts, that a teacher can learn from to edit, to modify and to reuse differently? If yes there are dynamic knowledge models, if not they are dynamic knowledge application or representation, that maybe the user can parametrize but it will not make a model.
+
+**---JR**: We are speaking of free resources, so we have their source and the rights to use and modify them. Doesn't the answer to your question depend of the familiarity of the user with the programming language or scripts, or on the existence of high level tools to create and modify the simulations? If we took this statistic point of view, would the fact that more teachers use python or javascript than smalltalk prove anything? And as a second point, do we really expect the teachers to create the resources? Isn't it enough to reuse, mix, adapt,assess... free available educational resources? Are the ones available so bad, so unsufficient? And the educational institutions and volunteers have been creating resources for more than twenty years? Are they useless and have always been so?
+
+**---HF**: 
 
 **---JR**: Then an easy question for you to answer: why the **Cuis environment**? I know you fell in love with SmallTalk many years ago, but explain why not you as a developer but the end user should prefer the developers use Cuis over javascript plus html5 plus css.
 
@@ -189,20 +193,20 @@ Technically all these views are Morph instances representing the underneath mode
 
 **---HF**: Main activities on Dynabook will be through handwriting, as done with a paper notebook. The pen gives a level of freedom to explore and to express ideas and thoughts unmatched by the restraining space of a phone screen or a computer keyboard. Nevertheless, there is no reason a student can't use their own phone when it is appropriate, and they will do so. However, trying to use handwriting on a phone, is like writing a dissertation on a stamp.
 
-With few extra effort, the Dynabook app itself can be be made to work mostly identically on mobile devices. It was done more than 10 years ago with Dr. Geo on [Android tablet](https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xorui4) and [iPad iOS](https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xnp91c).
+With little extra effort, the Dynabook app itself can be be made to work mostly identically on mobile devices. It was done more than 10 years ago with Dr. Geo on [Android tablet](https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xorui4) and [iPad iOS](https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xnp91c).
 
 **---JR**: In one of the slides of your Buenos Aires speech you write, as one of the *iterations* of the project
 
 > Develop Dynabook **operating system**
 
 I hope this doesn't mean *develop from scratch*, but you might clarify it, above all the point whether the rest of the expected software (document editors, spreadsheets, browsers, gpg keys...) with be present.
 
-**---HF**: This I don't know yet, there are plenty of Linux distribution to be based on. Linux Console only with framebuffer, while good on saving resources will be too narrow and it will not allow easily the use Web browser and office tool. So it will require a kind of 
+**---HF**: This I don't know yet, there are plenty of Linux distributions to be based on. Linux Console only with framebuffer, while good on saving resources will be too narrow and it will not allow easily the use Web browser and office tool. So it will require a kind of 
 Window manager to access the Dynabook app and other provided with the machine.
 
 **---JR**: I still don't get it because some things are implicit and should be mentioned: you don't mean an OS from scratch, are you thinking of some GNU Linux derivative, of starting from some GNU Linux distribution? What should be included? You mention a web browser, an office tool... inside the smalltalk environment or standalone? What else should be included?
 
-**---HF**: The Dynabook will be operated by a GNU Linux system, beside the Dynabook app what applications are to be included is still to be determined. And no those will not be inside the Smalltalk windows.
+**---HF**: The Dynabook will be operated by a GNU Linux system, beside the Dynabook app what applications are to be included is still to be determined. And no, those will not be inside the Smalltalk windows.
 
 **---JR**: Is the app integrated with the rest of the OS themes? (look, windows, dark/light modes..)
 
@@ -237,7 +241,7 @@ project.
 
 **---JR**: It's obvious that if we continue discussing these topics after more than twenty years we believe that something must be done, the danger is voluntarism. We can't do the same things again and again and expect a different result. We need a a critical analysis of the history of FOSS in education. Your project is the result of your analysis and my task in this discussion was simply to clarify the ideas and make visible the points we take for granted but maybe are not known by the possible readers.
 
-**---JR**: Suppose a school has decided to try the Dynabook project. Who installs and configures the app? Is the process automatic or the person needs to follow a tutorial?
+Suppose a school has decided to try the Dynabook project. Who installs and configures the app? Is the process automatic or the person needs to follow a tutorial?
 
 **---HF**: TBD locally.