HyperMedia CEP 901B - Prosem

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HyperMediaCEP 901B - Prosem

• Punya Mishra
• Matthew J. Koehler

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Agenda

• Meeting with Other Prosem about APA
• Postmortem on last week
• Research Interests
• DKSC in class activity
• Discussion of Readings
• The Big Picture on Hypermedia
• To do for next week

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Elliot Soloway to talk

• A conversation with Professor Elliot Soloway on
  his current research and development activities
• Room 128 Erickson Hall, Friday 130 - 300

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Last Week - Simulation

• Any issues?

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Research Bibliographies

• A few general rules
• Make a separate page that lists
• A your research interests
• Readings in your bibliography
• Use APA style to list the full REFERENCE of what
  you read
• Use the prelim format to summarize the reading.
• Dont use Times Roman

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Research Interests

• Everybody has one now, right?
• Everybody has stuff to read?
• Take 1 minute to share your interests with the
  rest of the class

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DKSC

• Do you Know any Screens Connected Randomly?
• GO DKSC go!

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Hypermedia

• Combine
• Discussion of Readings and Issues
• With the overview of the field
• Each of the following is a talking point and an
  opportunity to discuss

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Hypermedia - Vannevar Bush
"He mankind has built a civilization so complex
that he needs to mechanize his records more fully
if he is to push his experiment to its logical
conclusion and not merely become bogged down part
way there by overtaxing his limited memory."
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Hypermedia - Vannevar Bush
Consider a future device for individual use,
which is a sort of mechanized private file and
library. It needs a name, and to coin one at
random, "memex" will do. A memex is a device in
which an individual stores all his books,
records, and communications, and which is
mechanized so that it may be consulted with
exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an
enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.
It consists of a desk, and while it can
presumably be operated from a distance, it is
primarily the piece of furniture at which he
works. On the top are slanting translucent
screens, on which material can be projected for
convenient reading. There is a keyboard, and sets
of buttons and levers. Otherwise it looks like an
ordinary desk.
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Hypermedia - Big ideas

• Starting with Bush
• Hypertext is more in line with the way the brain
  works (associates information with other
  information)
• Should lead to better learning because the act of
  translating is easier
• Non-linear in one person
• Forced into linear
• Consumed and translated into non-linear by
  another person

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Hypermedia - Technology

• Then the digital computer came along, and some
  people started doing it
• Nelson - Xanadu
• Hypercard
• Then the internet came, and EVERYONE is doing it
• To my chagrin, this includes my parents (Matt)
• To my surprise, it includes my dad but not my mom
  (Punya)

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Hypermedia - Early Research

• Hypermedia had to be better than text, because it
  organized information like the brain.
• At the very least, it could do everything linear
  text could do and more, so it should be no worse.

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Hypermedia - Early Research

• Does the brain really work that way?
• Does it mean thats the best way to learn/teach
  with it?

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Hypermedia - Early Research

• All the studies showed no results, or mixed
  results.
• Caveats
• For the most part, people were translating
  traditional texts into the new medium (not
  creating text FOR the new medium)
• Text on a screen is very hard to read (easier
  today than back then)
• The systems used for hypertext were basic, and
  did not support users very well -- PEOPLE WERE
  GETTING LOST AND CONFUSED
• People were not familiar with hypermedia

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Hypermedia - Later on

• Hypermedia good or bad?
• People began to come to the conclusion that it
  depends

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Hypermedia - It depends

• On the content
• What domain?
• What information?
• Is it inherently linear or non-linear?
• e.g. Cognitive Flexibility Theory for learning in
  ill-structured domains

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Hypermedia - It depends

• On expertise with hypermedia
• First time users vs. experienced users
• Techies vs. luddites

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Hypermedia - It depends

• On expertise with Computers
• Used to reading text on a screen
• Comfortable with mouse/keyboard
• Are familiar with conventions

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Hypermedia - It depends

• On expertise with hypermedia
• First time users vs. experienced users
• Techies vs. Luddites
• Familiar with the conventions
• Interface, navigation etc.

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Hypermedia - It depends

• On the software and navigation
• What tools do you give people to move around the
  space?
• One tool or two, or more?
• Is it easy to see where youve been and where
  youve yet to go?
• Is it easy to get back?
• ARE PEOPLE GETTING LOST?
• What kinds of models are people creating of the
  hyper-space

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Hypermedia - It depends

• On individual differences
• Textual vs. visual learner
• Spatial skill
• Active vs. Passive learners
• Field Dependence
• Internally vs. Externally motivated
• Convergers vs. Divergers

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Ford Chen (2002)

• This study tried to understand the relationship
  between
• Individual differences (field dependence,
  learning styles, holistic/serialist bias)
• Learning behavior (what people actually did)
• Learning outcomes
• NOTE The middle one there is an important bridge

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Ford Chen (cont)

• Found learning styles affected
• How people used the software (which features they
  favored)
• How they approached the application problem
• Learning Styles did not affect outcomes
  (performance on the task, or score on multiple
  choice questions)
• Prior experience seemed to affect everything

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SIDEBAR - What is Field Dependence

• Usually measured by the Group Embedded Figures
  Test (GEFT).
• Examples
• Find the X in the figure below

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Ford Chen (cont)

• Findings are at odds with a number of previous
  studies, perhaps because of any number of
  differences in this study from previous studies
• Population
• Domain or Topic
• Measures
• Software features

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Hypermedia - Research Questions

• Under which circumstances is hypermedia likely to
  be beneficial
• What user characteristics?
• What software features?
• What content?
• What type of writing is needed?
• What is linked to what?

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Hypermedia - Research Questions

• For whom is hypermedia likely to be good for?
• What type of learners and their individual
  differences predict success?

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Hypermedia - Research Questions

• How to design the software to scaffold non-linear
  reading in general?
• How to design software for specific domains or
  types of users (individual differences)?
• How software can adapt to different users?

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Hypermedia - Research Questions

• Is there such a thing as non-linear literacy or
  fluency?
• If so, what does it look like?
• Does it parallel visual or textual literacy?
• How does it develop in different types of people?

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Hypermedia - Research Questions

• How do non-linear representations impact
  learners?
• Motivation
• Recall
• Knowledge structure / organization
• Knowledge application

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Hypermedia - Research Questions

• How do users navigate the non-linear spaces?
• What types of strategies exist?
• How do they relate to difference in the content
  and in the users (individual differences)?
• Do people pick good strategies for their learning
  styles?
• Does the way they use the software change over
  time?

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Going beyond research

• So what if it may not help us learn?
• So what if it may not match how we think?
• Cant we use it to create a new form of
  literature a literature that transcends that
  Aristotelian cliché, the narrative
• It is a postmodern world (at least so say
  Derrida, Foucalt, and a bunch of French
  philosophers)
• Remember, the author is dead. Text is everything
• Texts and meanings are de-centered, fragmented,
  open-ended and multi-linear
• Intertextuality is everything
• In other words tis the age of hyper-text

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Hypermedia as art

• There are lots of examples in print media
• Panchatantra, Kathasaritasagara, Choose your
  adventure books, Julio Cortazar, Wittgenstein
• Movies like Timecode
• Text arc http//textarc.org/
• The Visual Thesaurus at http//www.visualthesaurus
  .com/
• Eastgate publishes great hypertext (and other
  hypertextual tools such as Storyspace, Tinderbox)
  http//www.eastgate.com
• Or our very own Inverso! http//imej.wfu.edu/artic
  les/2002/1/03/demo/inverso.12.12.02.html

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For Next Week

• Readings
• DKSC to summarize soon
• Three Monkeys to Give Instructions by Thurs
• One more entry in your annotated Bibliography