Hypertext Vs. Text
This week for class I’ve also been asked to list some features borrowed from traditional text reading and imagine how these features can be implemented in Hypertext or Hypermedia.
Some features that I really love about reading a traditional text versus my computer would be:
- Lighting conditions (no backlighting, but devices like the Kindle have taken care of that)
- Tactile feel of the book (I like how they feel and smell, and the weight they have when they’re in my bag.)
- Ability to imagine what’s happening in the book
- Lack of distractions (no randomly checking Facebook!)
Man, I sound like a fuddy-duddy! I hope someone else is willing to publicly declare that they like the smell/feel/weight of books.
That being said, I came up with three innovative ideas that I think could combine the best of both worlds with positive educational benefits.
1. Reading Backgrounds.
I really liked it when my grade 1 teacher read Beverly Cleary’s “Dear Mr. Henshaw” to us. It was a great time for us to sit back and picture the story, but I wonder if it might be neat to somehow design an application that would have background images moving on a smartboard in a classroom (prompted from a website) and even background sounds that would add to the in-classroom “performance” of a teacher reading to a class. Thus, an educator could create a captivating environment that would add additional senses (addition of visuals) to the learning experience. It would be interesting to study to see if something like this would hinder or help the retention of knowledge.
2. iPad Textbooks
There’s nothing cooler than thinking about a textbook becoming a much more dynamic tool- that can change and update as the years go (no more reading 10 year old texts!), and would include videos instead of pictures that students can touch, to see certain theories exhibited in another way. I would imagine that these texts would be particularly helpful for science classes, especially biology and physics.
3. Monitoring highlighting/notes in class texts.
There’s something to this idea, though it really is just fresh in my mind. Imagine if students have the ability to read an electronic text and electronically highlight and make notes with a stylus. Those notes would then get transferred and compiled into a report for the teacher with top keywords listed, so the teacher can target instruction to what the students are most interested in, or are having the hardest time understanding.
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Do you guys have any thoughts on this? What can we take that we love about traditional media, and add it to hypermedia? Do these applications of new technology take away from an educational experience, or add to it?