Course:ETEC540/2009WT1/Assignments/MajorProject/HyperFictionExample

Hypertext in Education

What is the distinction between text-based literature and its digital counterparts? Why is the latter viewed as being of lesser literary value than the former? In her article Rau (2001) draws a distinction between text-based fiction and hyperfiction using Barthes' (quoted in Rau, 2001) concept of readerly and writerly text. She further posits that in hypertext, the reader is not forced to accept the writer's intent and is invited to draw her own conclusions by interacting with the non-linear format.

Bolter (2001) describes hyperfiction as avant-garde expression of literature and states that it offers its reader an experience that is not dominated by the authoritative voice of the writer.(p.122). The traditionalists argue that this is exactly what a reader craves. (Miller,1998 quoted in Bolter,2001).

It would be interesting to see what stance the educators will take concerning these arguments. In today's education system where students are being subjected to constant assessments, regardless of the subject, reading comprehension is one skill that surpasses the others in importance. A student who can read and understand not only the obvious but the subtle meanings inherent in a text or question, can outperform others. It is for this reason that the educators, who try to prepare students for standardized tests, urge and most of the time, require them to read a lot.

With this frame of mind, would educators be readily agreable to abandon the classicals in favor of their multi-dimensional digital, contemporary counterparts?

The answer would be affirmative provided one would serve the objectives better than the other.

The Gamer Theory [1], created by McKenzie Wark, is an interesting project that could enhance (or perhaps hinder, depending on one's perception) one's understanding of a text. TextArc [2] is a software that allows visual representation of an entire text. Lines connect ideas and identical words, weaving the text into a meaningful pattern. It provides a feasible alternative to flipping back and forth pages to digest the relationship within a linear format.

Such visual representation is an example of what Engelbart (1963)describes in Augmenting Human Intellect where he posits that a text can be presented to the reader in such a way that it is mapped into a corresponding mental structure and this is in turn allows comprehension. The mental structuring, concept structuring and symbol structuring that Engelbart describes are fundamental to understanding a text, especially for learners of a foreign language.

Undoubtebly, reading comprehension is a challenging skill for most language learners. As an EFL teacher, my greatest struggle is to make my students feel enthusiastic about reading. Their main complaint is that when they encounter new words, they don't understand the text and they don't want to bother looking the new words up in a dictionary.

Dr. George Mitrevski from Auburn University describes how Storyspace, a software that allows the creation and delivery of hypertext with lots of hyperlinking capabilities, can be used to present text to language learners in a way that allows text to be annotated to include translations of unknown words and information about the use of grammar. [3].

Quandary,[4] a freeware product of Half Baked Software Inc. allows users to create action maze-like activities that resemble the Choose Your Own Adventure Books [5] of the 80's and 90's where the reader is given a situation and presented with choices. The reader's choices determine the ending of the story. Such activities can help language learners work at own pace at deducing meaning of a text through interaction and trial and error.

The software creates multiple .html files that have to be linked by the author by defining the possible choices, all the while keeping track of where the story is heading.

I have created an example maze. The activity is intended for grade 3 (ages 8-9) students who are learning English as a foreign language. They are currently studying City vs. Country theme. The maze is a follow-up of the book City Mouse, Country Mouseread to them in class. The target vocabulary is included in the text. The objective is to understand the differences between the two environments.

Follow the link below to access the exercise placed in my experimental Vista course shell.

[6]Log on using your CWL username and password. Choose ETEC565A workshop Ozturkeri. Choose Student View. Click on activity City Mouse, Country Mouse.

References

Rau, A. (2001). Wreader's digest: how to appreciate hyperfiction. Journal of Digital Information, 1(7), Retrieved from http://journals.tdl.org/jodi/article/viewArticle/28/29

Englebart, Douglas. (1963). "A conceptual framework for the augmentation of man’s intellect." In Hawerton, P.W. and Weeks, D.C. (Eds), Vistas in information handling, Volume I: The augmentation of man’s intellect by machine. Washington, DC: Spartan Books. Augmentation of human intellect: A conceptual framework. Retrieved from http://www.dougengelbart.org/pubs/augment-3906.html

Bolter, Jay David. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print [2nd edition]. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.