Subject: Pre-discussion paper: Student Hypermedia Composition
From: Kinshuk (kinshuk@ieee.org)
Date: Thu 25 Nov 1999 - 08:10:04 MET
From: "Kinshuk" <kinshuk@ieee.org> Subject: Pre-discussion paper: Student Hypermedia Composition Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 20:10:04 +1300
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Dear colleagues
Please find below the pre-discussion paper on the theme 'Student Hypermedia
Composition' by Jill Jameson, Director, Student Programmes, Abingdon College,
United Kingdom, our moderator and summariser for the discussion. The
discussion will formally end on 10th December 99.
Please send your comments on the paper to IFETS list at
ifets-discuss@LISTSERV.READADP.COM
Regards.
Kinshuk.
IFETS Coordinator
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Pre-discussion paper:
A number of researchers (Landow 1997) (Bolter 1991) (Tuman 1992) have
indicated that epoch-making changes have for some years been occurring
in the writing practices enabled by digital technologies. Francisco
Ricardo (Ricardo 1998, pp.142-144) identifies the 'hypertext link' as
the defining feature of a 'new grammatology', which has signalled the
arrival of what he terms a 'third epoch of writing' in western
civilisation, following epochs one and two of, respectively, 'token
and archaic writing' and 'sequence and modern writing'.
Factual evidence of a widespread growth in the use of email and HTML
documents on the internet (NUA 1999, p.1) gives some credence to such
apparently extravagant speculations that a major global change in
writing practices is currently occurring. In view of this proliferation
of e-communication, it is possible that we are currently on the wave of
a radical realignment of writing processes, in the adjustment from
print-based to on-line virtual environments. These speculated changes
include, but are not limited to, concepts of the visualisation of
literacy (Kress, 1996, pp.15-16) (Kress 1997, p.6) (Tuman 1992, pp.109-138).
They also include the idea that an awareness and understanding of the
'multimodality' of communicative competence, and the 'ability to cross
modalities' (Street 1998, p.15) are now of key importance in education
(Kress 1997, pp.10,99,154). In a newly wired world, multimedia
incorporates sound and motion, as well as the visual, into the 'many
modes' of 'synaesthetic' writing (Kress 1997, 38-43) (Bolter 1991). How
far, and where, these changes will take us is not yet clear.
At this time, therefore, it seems particularly important that educational
institutions take up the challenge of enabling students to acquire skills
in communicative competence in learning about hypertextual multimedia.
And also in learning 'how to not take things at face value', by analysing
what Brian Street refers to as the 'often hidden processes' of the 'new
communicative order' (Street 1998, pp.9, 22). Enabling students to develop
their own, local, self-generated meanings using new technologies, as well
as critically evaluating the works of others, is crucial, since power
resides in the fluent use of these 'new literacies' (Street 1998, pp.1,
22-23). Paramount amongst the skills for using digital media effectively
is the ability to author hypermedia.
Whalley cites the 'oft repeated truism that the best way to learn something
is to learn how to teach it', or, 'to turn the computer over to the learner
as a device for expressing and exploring their own ideas' (Whalley 1995,
pp.201-202). Student authoring in hypermedia can be a uniquely productive
process, as Lehrer (Lehrer 1993) and others (Hay 1994) (Turner 1992) (Wray
1994) (Jonassen 1996) have observed. Just as written composition can enable
students to develop 'knowledge transforming' (Bereiter 1987, pp.10-12)
skills, so can the environment of hypermedia be used to facilitate
self-empowerment through an increase in students' expressive and problem-solving
capabilities.
Placing learners in the role of 'designers' of hypermedia (Lehrer 1993,
pp.197-201) (Sharples 1996, pp.135-137) can engage them in developing a
range of skills, including skills in project management, research,
organisation and representation, presentation and reflection (Jonassen
1996) (Carver 1992). Jonassen and Reeves advocate 'the use of hypermedia
as a cognitive tool' (Jonassen 1996, pp.693-715) in realistic contexts
that enable students to learn with technology in a constructivist sense.
Their findings that '(1) learners develop critical-thinking skills as
authors, designers and constructors of knowledge and (2) learn more in
the process than they do as the recipients of knowledge prepackaged in
educational communications' (p.713) provide a challenge to researchers
to engage students more systematically in authoring their own works.
Wray, Chong, Phillips, Rogers, Walsh and Laird (1994) note that there has
been a general disinclination to carry out research on student hypermedia
authoring, partly because of the difficulty of learning hypermedia
programming languages (Wray 1994). However, these researchers comment that
more user-friendly HTML software development now enables complex hypermedia
documents to be authored with little or no knowledge of programming
languages. Therefore, student document creation in hypermedia has become a
real possibility across the curriculum for non-computing students. Since
this field is so relatively new, there is a need for a development in
understanding by teachers of the level of difficulty faced by novice
students attempting to author their own compositions, and the factors
necessary to create productive learning situations.
* Questions for the Forum
One of the debates encompassed by the recent IFETS discussion on programming
is: to what extent is there a value in enabling students to use 'point and
click' authoring programs (Belzano 1999)? Do applications like HyperStudio
have too low a ceiling of learning for students to benefit from their use
(Belzano 1999)? Or - is the main issue the idea that icon-driven 'point and
click' authoring environments 'put the control of the student's learning
environment into the student's hands', by enabling 'ownership of the
learning'? Is this 'what makes these technologies powerful' (Nanlohy 1999)'?
Can user-friendly hypermedia applications be applied, thoughtfully, to
encourage students to develop skills of authoring and critical analysis
in digital media, equipping them for the major changes in on-line virtual
learning currently occurring, or do they encourage a bland superficiality?
These questions relating to student composition in hypermedia are put to
the forum for what I hope will be an engaging debate.
* Bibliography
Belzano, J. (1999). Re.hyperstudio? IFETS-DISCUSS digests, 13th September (8).
Bereiter, C. a. S., M. (1987). The Psychology of Written Composition, New
Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Bolter, J. D. (1991). Writing Space: The Computer, Hypertext, and the
History of Writing, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Carver, S. M., Lehrer, R., Connell, T. & Eriksen, J. (1992). Learning by
hypermedia design: issues of assessment and implementation. Educational
Psychologist, 27 (3), 385-404.
Hay, K. E., Guzdial, M., Jackson, S., Boyle, R. A. & Soloway, E. (1994).
Students as Multimedia Composers. Computers in Education, 23 (4), 301-317.
Jonassen, D. H. & Reeves, T. C. (1996). Learning With Technology: Using
Computers as Cognitive Tools. In D. H. Jonassen (Ed.) Handbook of Research
for Educational Communications and Technology, New York: Macmillan - A
Project of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology,
693-719.
Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. (1996). Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual
Design, London: Routledge.
Kress, G. (1997). Before Writing: Rethinking the Paths to Literacy, London:
Routledge.
Landow, G. P. (1997). Hypertext 2.0: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical
Theory and Technology, Baltimore, Maryland: The John Hopkins University Press.
Lehrer, R. (1993). Authors of Knowledge: Patterns of Hypermedia Design. In
S. P. Lajoie, and Derry, S. J. (Eds.) Computers as Cognitive Tools, Hillsdale,
New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 197-227.
Nanlohy, P. (1999). A free resource and my two bob's worth. IFETS-DISCUSS
digests, 18th September (2).
NUA (1999). News.Com, NUA Internet Surveys (Survey cited in article: Network
Wizards: The Internet Expands Inexorably Aug 18, 1998),
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/
Ricardo, F. J. (1998). Stalking the Paratext: Speculations on Hypertext
Links as a Second Order Text. HyperText 98, Pittsburgh, USA: ACM.
Sharples, M. (1996). An Account of Writing as Creative Design. In C. M.
Levy, and Ransdell, S. Mahwah (Eds.) The Science of Writing: Theories,
Methods, Individual Differences, and Applications, New Jersey: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Street, B. (1998). New Literacies in Theory and Practice: What are the
Implications for Language in Education? Linguistics and Education, 10 (1),
1-24.
Tuman, M. C. (1992). Word Perfect: Literacy in the Computer Age,
Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Turner, S. V. & Dipinto, V. M. (1992). Students as Hypermedia authors:
themes emerging from a qualitative study. Journal of Research in Computer
Education, 25, 187-199.
Whalley, P. (1995). Imagining with Multimedia. British Journal of
Educational Technology, 26 (3), 190-204.
Wray, R. E. I., Chong, R., Phillips. J., Rogers, S., Walsh, W. & Laird, J.
(1994). Organising Information in Mosaic: A Classroom Experiment. SDG/IT94.
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