The hyperText Project

This document was written and refers to work and subjects undertaken in 1995.

Problems...

bought to you by the letter v... arious unexpected problems have arisen during the teaching of hypertext to students in the context of computer labs and writing essays in this format. In addition there have also been some unexpected advantages that have become obvious as students become familiar with the computer.

The Problems...

In general the problems that developed throughout the teaching of the computer labs fell into two general sorts. The first were to do with fundamental computing skills, the second were to do with the relationship that the students actually developed with the software, and what happened during the course of the laboratory sessions.

Computer skills

An optional introductory session was offered to all students in the first week to familiarise themselves with the use of the computers (Macintosh only in our laboratory). However many students, since they thought they knew how to 'surf the net', and how to use a word processor, assumed they knew how to use the computers, and so did not attend this session.

However, in general students had little understanding of computing fundamentals, such as file naming, renaming, moving, and being able to control where a file is saved. This became a recurring problem throughout lab sessions, and there were always instances where these basic skills needed to be reintroduced so that students understood what it was they were doing. The ability to have several programs running concurrently on the Macintosh remained a confusing issue for many students, though the use of HTML editor in conjunction with Netscape helped clear this issue.

Likewise once students began saving all their work to the department server (an account was created for the subject and all enrolled students in HM302 had access to a shared folder in which to save their work) there was continuing confusion about where their work was, how to find it, how to move it, and how to name it appropriately.

In retrospect a basic and compulsory introduction to these fundamental skills should have been undertaken (even with the time restrictions imposed by the hypertext introduction being 'bundled' with the existing HM302 Advanced Seminar (this subject was offered during second semester 1995, and its subject guide is no longer available). Such an introduction would have saved considerable time and frustration through the lab sessions, and will be incorporated into the future teaching of hypertext authoring. Any such introduction will require the demonstration of these skills through a simple exercise (for example the writing and copying of a file in a folder that the student has named) .

Students and Storyspace

In the first sessions where Storyspace was introduced there was a high level of excitement as the students become confident in the use of a technology that had previously been somewhat mysterious. This was both in terms of the specifics of Storyspace and the general use of a computer.

As graphics were scanned and imported, digitised video incorporated into Storyspace webs, and students became comfortable with the 'style' of writing that Storyspace encourages and makes possible students more or less drove the pace of the sessions. However, after these skills had been more or less taught, student excitement had diminished. This I believe was because the 'gee-whiz' factor had declined, and students were beginning to realise that any more work using the software would require them to actually have to concentrate on issues of content.

It was at this point that the hypertext work in the sessions moved from Storyspace to HTML, and student excitement once again tended to control the pace of the lab sessions.

Students and HTML

A similar pattern was evident as students developed a basic competence in HTML authoring. There was a great deal of preliminary interest and excitement in having their work on the Web, but this initial enthusiasm very rapidly diminished as students began to understand that things like graphics and fancy headings needed to be produced in a graphics program, and not in HTML.

However, all students rapidly made use of anchors and placed graphics on their pages, and I believe were beginning to reach a point where some were beginning to realise the opportunities for work that it offered.

There are several students within HC342 Modernism in the Cinema who are producing essays for HTML publication, and will probably take advantage of imagemaps as a method of film analysis.

Early Outcomes

Storyspace

During the assessment of the student's preliminary Storyspace work it was apparent that while most of the fundamentals of the program had been understood the particular problems of thinking of their work as a 'web' had, in general, been misunderstood.

Students had produced documents that were only partially non-linear, with most of them tending to consist of series of linked spaces, each link following a more or less particular thematic line. The problem with this is that the text tends towards a series of dead ends, whereas a web, properly speaking, should be what its name describes, a web. This requires each text space to at least allow the reader to enter another space, and where a space may be a 'cul-de-sac' this should, in some manner, make thematic sense.

In the terms I have used to define hypertext they produced what might be considered to be 'arboreal' texts rather than rhizomes.

This problem could not be adequately addressed within the project due to the extremely limited time that was available in the computer labs. However this is being addressed in HC342 Modernism in the Cinema, where several students have undertaken research essays using Storyspace to write and submit their work.

HTML and the World Wide Web

Content remained an issue in writing web pages for students. Given the time constraints of the subject this was not unexpected. Students quickly realised that most of the effort in HTML was towards 'design' issues, that hours could be spent making changes and getting their pages to be what they thought was 'right' or 'liked'. The lack of access to graphics facilities (in terms of software, time, training, and expertise) tended to frustrate students as they wanted to make their pages like those they visited.

This was also partly due to some confusion on their behalf about what was involved in generating graphics, but also a related misunderstanding about HTML and its relationship to graphics. For many students there was an assumption that HTML was as much a graphics program as a writing program (this misconception was also apparent in their Storyspace writing). I believe this was also a basic misunderstanding about 'multimedia' where these particular students did not recognise that many software tools and skills are needed to produce text and graphics on a computer.

There have also been major benefits as a result of this project.

http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au