Engelbart Scholars tour with Doug Engelbart Institute

Engelbart Scholar Awardees on tour

I was honored and thrilled this last month to host some very special guests for a full week of site tours, meetings, and in-depth studies — a select group of Engelbart Scholars convening the week of March 9th at the Doug Engelbart Institute in Menlo Park, CA, for a “deep dive” into Doug Engelbart’s seminal work, including a tour of Doug Engelbart Archive collections at Stanford Libraries Special Collections, the Computer History Museum, and the Internet Archives.

The tour was arranged as part of the Engelbart Scholar Award program at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond, VA, a new program sponsored jointly by the Doug Engelbart Institute and VCU. Guests of honor included our first two Award recipients, Mary Anisa Kannan and Will Sullivan, with their professor Dr. Gardner Campbell, accompanied by videographer Molly Ransone who came along to document their experience on the tour:

See Roster below for a complete list of folks who joined us on the tour, including an 8th grader from Portland, OR working on a documentary of Doug Engelbart for Oregon History Day project (which won her a place in the Nationals), as well as old colleagues and friends of the Engelbarts.

Prof. Gardner Campbell and Christina Engelbart

The Engelbart Scholar Award is offered at VCU in conjunction with an experimental MOOC on Research Writing / Focused Inquiry “Thought Vectors in Concept Space” led by Dr. Campbell. This MOOC showcases the seminal work of Doug Engelbart, Ted Nelson, Alan Kay and other pioneers of the Knowledge Age to inform new horizons for research inquiry and writing in the digital age (see our University Showcase for details). In the spirit of said pioneers, the MOOC is conducted as a cMOOC (collaborative or connective rather than broadcast/consume format), as they seek to explore the frontiers of focused inquiry using (drumroll) focused inquiry in a scaleable collaborative online venue, taught by a multi-disciplinary team of six faculty members, networking not only 120 enrolled VCU undergraduates, but participants from other universities and the research community as well.

Engelbart Scholar Awardees

Engelbart Scholar Award recipients win a scholarship that covers enrollment in this cMOOC, an all-expenses-paid trip to the Doug Engelbart Institute and other relevant sites in the San Francisco Bay Area, with Christina Engelbart and other of Doug’s long-time colleagues and archive curators. It’s an opportunity to delve into Doug Engelbart’s original source material, assist with the archive project, and conduct a focused research project that leverages and advances the Engelbart Legacy in some meaningful way. For example, see Will and Anisa’s final project featured on DEI’s Student Showcase. The Engelbart Scholar Award and cMOOC are a pilot experiment designed to network and replicate within other universities and learning organizations.

For photos of our tour see: Photo Album A and Photo Album B.

In the News

• Internet Pioneer’s Greatest Contribution May Not Be Technological
• Art Foundation Student Receives First Annual Engelbart Scholar Award
• Virginia Commonwealth University – “Thought Vectors in Concept Space”
• Networked Learning as Experiential Learning, Presented at Educause Conf by Dr.
  Gardner Campbell, January 11, 2016
• VCU ventures into online educational phenomenon
• Connectivist MOOC helps students embrace digital media
• VCU embraces online courses

Roster of Participants

From Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond, VA:

• Anisa Kannen – VCU Engelbart Scholar Award Recipient, Junior at VCU School of Engineering majoring in Biomedical Engineering/Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry
• Will Sullivan – VCU Engelbart Scholar Award Recipient, Sophomore at VCU School of the Arts majoring in Illustration/Painting & Printmaking

• Their Professor Gardner Campbell – VCU’s Vice Provost for Learning Innovation and Student Success, Dean of University College, and Associate Professor of English. Gardner is mastermind behind the expedition-quality collaborative massive open online course nicknamed Thought Vectors in Concept Space and first-ever Engelbart Scholars Award Program, both launched Summer 2014

• Their Videographer Molly Ransone – Asst. Director of Learning Media Innovation, VCU, here to capture the Engelbart Scholar Award recipient experience

From ACCESS Academy for Gifted Students in Portland, OR

• An Eighth Grader at ACCESS Academy, participant in this year’s Oregon History Day and National History Day competitions, she is producing a short documentary on Doug Engelbart, accompanied by her wonderful mom.

  Hosts / Curators

• Christina Engelbart – Co-Founder and Executive Director, Doug Engelbart Institute, (also former Alumn of Doug’s Lab)

• Marc Weber – our host at Computer History Museum, Founding Curator, Internet History Program at CHM. Marc hosted a private tour of the Museum’s extensive Revolution Exhibit, which showcases aspects of Doug Engelbart’s work, followed by lunch at the Lakeside Cafe, and later in the week a deep dive into the Engelbart Archives curated there

• Henry Lowood – our host at Stanford Libraries Special Collections, Curator for history of science & technology collections and film & media collections at Stanford. Our visit included an ‘impromptu seminar’ with Henry on the history of Silicon Valley project, followed by a deep dive into the Engelbart Archives curated there.

• Brewster Kahle – founding Director of the Internet Archive, the Internet Credit Union, Alexa and Thinking Machines and a member of the Internet Hall of Fame. We attended Friday Lunch at the Archive, and joined Brewster’s tour of the facility. The Internet Archive features over 100 videotaped lectures, demos and interviews from the Engelbart Archive.

Joined by Colleagues

• Elizabeth “Jake” Feinler – retired Alumn of Doug’s lab, was Founding Director of Network Information Center (The NIC) stemming from Doug’s ARC lab, which eventually became InterNIC. Shares distinction with Doug as a Pioneer in the Internet Hall of Fame. Donated her NIC and Engelbart/ARC archives to CHM and managed the processing of them, now helping with archives at DEI

• Harvey Lehtman – retired Alumn of Doug’s Lab, went on to Apple Advanced Research Group, and Institute for the Future, co-authored with Doug Working Together and OHS Technology Template, worked with Jake on archives at CHM, now helping with archives at DEI

• Kristina Woolsey – formerly at Apple University, co-authored with Doug a chapter for her book on Multi Media in Education, longtime member of the New Media Consortium, shares distinction with Doug as an NMC Fellow, an educator with background in cognitive science and architecture, consulted closely on design of the all new SF Exploratorium

• Sue Crane – together with her late husband Hew has been Doug Engelbart and family’s oldest dearest friend, Doug’s first assignment at SRI in 1957 was in Hew’s lab, Hew was one of SRI’s most prolific inventors, Hew and Sue were co-ounders of Ridge Winery, she a former mayor and long time City Council member of Portola Valley, served on the Board of Peninsula Open Space Trust, now advising Christina/DEI; plus her son’s family is Host Family this week to our two visiting Engelbart Scholar Award recipients