Multiple Paths to Knowledge
Understanding Hypermedia Literacy
“Accomplished teachers of students with exceptional needs use a variety of approaches to help students strengthen understanding and gain command of essential knowledge and skills.” (NBPTS)
Special needs teachers typically are keen on discovering as many pathways for learning as possible. We constantly search for the tools that can help our students to succeed.
The following article review demonstrates a multitude of learning pathways in one project. For students who can use computers, hypermedia editing can lead to a richer understanding of language, academic content, and society. After reading this article and doing further research, I took the concept from this study of hypermedia literacy and applied it to a unit of history for ninth graders.
Article Review
Eagleton, M. B. (2002). Making text come to life on the computer: toward an understanding of hypermedia literacy. Reading Online, 6(1), Retrieved from http://www.readingonline.org/articles/art_index.aspHREF=eagleton2/index.html
Summary
Maya Eagleton uses hypermedia to report on hypermedia in the electronic journal of the International Reading Association Reading Online. Eagleton gathered a semester’s worth of data and artifacts on a small group of 12 and 13-year-olds, while they launched a webzine hypermedia project—a magazine on the Internet for teenagers. In her online report, she provides the reader with the ability to hear the students’ voices through audio hyperlinks. The features of communication that make it possible for an online reader to click on a button and hear voices, or watch a video, view photos and documents, or listen to music, make her case that hypermedia “with its flexible use of text, image, audio, video animation, and virtual reality, represents a unique new form of human discourse.”
Eagleton investigated the process of learning and using hypermedia by following seven volunteer students for one semester. The group met every other day to plan and write the webzine. The author, a research scientist with CAST, recorded details of her time with the students and their classroom teacher. Her collection of data is categorized into the specialized sets of communication skills that the students gained through learning hypermedia. But ideally, you will want to click on the ‘sound’ button and hear the students tell it for themselves.
Reflection
Eagleton’s aim “is to promote a deeper understanding of hypermedia literacy by investigating some of its genres, sign systems, and cueing systems. Increased knowledge of this new, complex literacy will help educators plan curriculum and evaluate student progress.” She quotes others who say that hypermedia belongs on history’s timeline with Cuneiform and the Gutenberg press. It is equally amazing.
The 12 and 13-year-olds who took part in the study would surely agree. It shows in their voices that they enjoyed the project. They started from the beginning, knowing nothing about hypermedia, and went to a completed webzine. The students reveal the multifaceted nature of the media through their conversations. Of particular interest is their discovery of the multiple levels of meaning in the electronic text and symbols, which, incidentally, would be missing in a text-only assignment. For example, they had decided to add a link about personal themes. When they could not find a suitable clip-art, one of them drew a key, “like the key to your heart,” he said. And they added a swirly, sky-blue background. Eagleton’s point, that hypermedia involves a unique set of literacy skills, and “is not simply a lesser cousin of printed text . . .” is well taken.
The key is the ‘multi’ in multimedia. According to Rose and Meyer (2002), recognition processes in the brain are distributed to different parts. For example, sounds are recognized in one location and pictures in another. The opportunity for synapse firing is multiplied when a sound bite is linked to a video or a photograph. Multiple layers of meaning are beneficial to active learners, for example, a clip of his “I Have a Dream” speech linked to Dr. Martin Luther King’s photograph makes a powerful connection, therefore increasing the connections for learning.
These powerful hypermedia tools could be used in ways other than the webzine. I plan to create web-based study guides to support the students in my tutoring groups. Four students are in world history classes where the general education teacher relies on lectures and text-heavy PowerPoint slides. The students are not learning, and they have very low test scores, even those with modifications. Currently I type the facts (notes from the teacher’s PowerPoint) into a web-based study tool called StudyStack. The program generates a virtual stack of flash cards and several games and puzzles using the information. The students use this tool for study and are especially drawn to using it on the SmartBoard because of its interactive features. StudyStack will print the notes in tidy columns as well, but the whole project is as text laden as the teacher’s original notes.
A better option, one taking advantage of the top-down thinking styles and the kinesthetic needs of the students, is hypermedia. Using Webspiration, the four students will collaboratively map the concepts from a section of the history unit. I will provide scaffolding in the form of a folder with audio, video and web files that they can use. Eventually they will learn to find their own files. The finished concept map can be printed for a study guide, but is best viewed on the computer where the links can be followed. All students in the class can access the internet and use the finished product, so it is a universally designed learning tool.
Click on the picture below to open a sample page of our hypermedia document
(The links embedded in the document do not work after publication—a flaw in the program, but you will be able to see where they are located)
Summary
Maya Eagleton uses hypermedia to report on hypermedia in the electronic journal of the International Reading Association Reading Online. Eagleton gathered a semester’s worth of data and artifacts on a small group of 12 and 13-year-olds, while they launched a webzine hypermedia project—a magazine on the Internet for teenagers. In her online report, she provides the reader with the ability to hear the students’ voices through audio hyperlinks. The features of communication that make it possible for an online reader to click on a button and hear voices, or watch a video, view photos and documents, or listen to music, make her case that hypermedia “with its flexible use of text, image, audio, video animation, and virtual reality, represents a unique new form of human discourse.”
Eagleton investigated the process of learning and using hypermedia by following seven volunteer students for one semester. The group met every other day to plan and write the webzine. The author, a research scientist with CAST, recorded details of her time with the students and their classroom teacher. Her collection of data is categorized into the specialized sets of communication skills that the students gained through learning hypermedia. But ideally, you will want to click on the ‘sound’ button and hear the students tell it for themselves.
Reflection
Eagleton’s aim “is to promote a deeper understanding of hypermedia literacy by investigating some of its genres, sign systems, and cueing systems. Increased knowledge of this new, complex literacy will help educators plan curriculum and evaluate student progress.” She quotes others who say that hypermedia belongs on history’s timeline with Cuneiform and the Gutenberg press. It is equally amazing.
The 12 and 13-year-olds who took part in the study would surely agree. It shows in their voices that they enjoyed the project. They started from the beginning, knowing nothing about hypermedia, and went to a completed webzine. The students reveal the multifaceted nature of the media through their conversations. Of particular interest is their discovery of the multiple levels of meaning in the electronic text and symbols, which, incidentally, would be missing in a text-only assignment. For example, they had decided to add a link about personal themes. When they could not find a suitable clip-art, one of them drew a key, “like the key to your heart,” he said. And they added a swirly, sky-blue background. Eagleton’s point, that hypermedia involves a unique set of literacy skills, and “is not simply a lesser cousin of printed text . . .” is well taken.
The key is the ‘multi’ in multimedia. According to Rose and Meyer (2002), recognition processes in the brain are distributed to different parts. For example, sounds are recognized in one location and pictures in another. The opportunity for synapse firing is multiplied when a sound bite is linked to a video or a photograph. Multiple layers of meaning are beneficial to active learners, for example, a clip of his “I Have a Dream” speech linked to Dr. Martin Luther King’s photograph makes a powerful connection, therefore increasing the connections for learning.
These powerful hypermedia tools could be used in ways other than the webzine. I plan to create web-based study guides to support the students in my tutoring groups. Four students are in world history classes where the general education teacher relies on lectures and text-heavy PowerPoint slides. The students are not learning, and they have very low test scores, even those with modifications. Currently I type the facts (notes from the teacher’s PowerPoint) into a web-based study tool called StudyStack. The program generates a virtual stack of flash cards and several games and puzzles using the information. The students use this tool for study and are especially drawn to using it on the SmartBoard because of its interactive features. StudyStack will print the notes in tidy columns as well, but the whole project is as text laden as the teacher’s original notes.
A better option, one taking advantage of the top-down thinking styles and the kinesthetic needs of the students, is hypermedia. Using Webspiration, the four students will collaboratively map the concepts from a section of the history unit. I will provide scaffolding in the form of a folder with audio, video and web files that they can use. Eventually they will learn to find their own files. The finished concept map can be printed for a study guide, but is best viewed on the computer where the links can be followed. All students in the class can access the internet and use the finished product, so it is a universally designed learning tool.
Click on the picture below to open a sample page of our hypermedia document
(The links embedded in the document do not work after publication—a flaw in the program, but you will be able to see where they are located)
Reflection
In the article on hypermedia literacy, the author makes the case that the ability to create as well as use hypermedia is a door to increased literacy in general for our students and a marketable skill for the world of work that they will enter soon. With this in mind, I demonstrated for the students how to use the web-based program Webspiration to create study guides for history units. The guides include text, audio links, and visuals in a concept map designed by collaboration.
Currently, in my tutor groups, students use the tools I have discussed, and more, to develop their own study tools. They feel a sense of importance and accomplishment in the task, because the study guide is used by their classmates. I will continue to seek new and developing tools to keep their interest.
In the article on hypermedia literacy, the author makes the case that the ability to create as well as use hypermedia is a door to increased literacy in general for our students and a marketable skill for the world of work that they will enter soon. With this in mind, I demonstrated for the students how to use the web-based program Webspiration to create study guides for history units. The guides include text, audio links, and visuals in a concept map designed by collaboration.
Currently, in my tutor groups, students use the tools I have discussed, and more, to develop their own study tools. They feel a sense of importance and accomplishment in the task, because the study guide is used by their classmates. I will continue to seek new and developing tools to keep their interest.