I’m working on some software that teaches programming through a “learn by doing” approach. It gives learners a way to create cool 3D graphical objects on their computer screen by writing simple computer programs.
Recently I added a command-p hot key. When you hit this key, the software automatically turns the graphical object on your computer screen into a file ready to be sent to a 3D printer — so you can bring your creation into the real world.
Today I was speaking with an educator who was interested in knowing whether students could use this software to study history. In such a course students would use programming to manipulate historical events, places and people, as well as the relationships between them. Imagine being able to loop through the battles of a war, or the economic policies of a presidential administration, to retrieve a sequence of events that can tell the story of that era from some unique perspective.
But if hitting command-p for a graphical simulation that you’ve just programmed results in an object being created on a 3D printer, then what should be created if you hit command-p on a historical narrative that you’ve just programmed?
Hmm. Maybe your “printout” should be a Ken Burns style documentary.