Authoring for English Literature in Hypercard: Where in the World is Blake's Tyger?

Many universities are applying computers to English literature, but find it difficult to integrate the machine into actual teaching. The difficulties of using hypertext in critical reading arc outlined in the article, and several examples of its use appraised, including Brown University's Intermedia. There are several dangers in the 'open field? approach, however, which the article outlines. The possibilities of hypertext for representing the foregrounded features of a literary text are then described, as well as its capacity to mimic or at least draw attention to the reading process itself. The author outlines in detail his own attempts to program in HyperCard: first, two Katherine Mansfield short stories; second, Blake's poem 'The Tyger?. He concludes that teacher-programmers in the Humanities should focus on solving the pedagogical issues involved in using hypertext by exploring its graphic resources to produce programs which can be genuinely useful adjuncts to classroom teaching.     

Task-based method for creating usable hypertext

Although large hypertext documentation systems have many benefits in the commercial world, they can be difficult to build and use. To help overcome both these obstacles, a method under development at Hewlett-Packard assists authors in creating usable hypertext. A Wizard of Oz experiment was done with traditional on-line documentation and hypertext documentation to see what users liked and disliked. The experiment showed the need for a set of hypertext construction rules to ensure usability. Following these rules, and with computer assistance, authors are expected to do a task analysis of users' activities, to identify critical objects and create content nodes for them, to create links between nodes within clearly defined and cognitively justified limits, and to conduct usability tests on the resulting hypertext volume. Whilst this method recognises the importance of good clear writing, the rules and suggested prectices are not primarily about writing or screen design, but about creating a coherent navigational web that ensures success among commercial users of hypertext. The authoring system described in this paper has been developed for the HP Help system, which has been adopted as the common help delivery system for developers of Common Open Systems Environments on Unix-like platforms.     

The new frontier: conquering the World Wild Web by mule

This article offers a close examination of the effects that teaching hypertext markup language (HTML) has on students’ perceptions of class goals in a networked composition classroom. A networked classroom that requires students to send documents using a file transfer protocol (FTP) by command line and view the World Wide Web with a textual browser shifts the emphasis of the class from writing to coding. Helping students identify a balance between computer technology and writing goals becomes essential to a successful classroom.     

Current uses of hypertext in teaching literature

Literature instructors are using hypertext to enhance their teaching in a broad variety of ways that includes putting course materials on the WWW; creating online tutorials; using annotated hypertexts in addition to or in lieu of print texts; having students write hypertexts; examining the medium of hypertext as a literary and cultural theme; and studying hypertext fiction in the context of traditional literature classes. The article describes examples of each of these uses of hypertext in teaching literature and provides sources of further examples of and information on using hypertext as a teaching tool in literature classes.Seth R. Katz is Assistant Professor of English at Bradley University in Peoria, IL. His research interests include computer applications in teaching literature and writing, and the grammatical analysis of poetic language. His recent publications include Graduate Programs and Job Training in Profession 95.I presented a version of this article as part of a session on Hypertexts for Teaching Imaginative Literature at the MLA Convention in Chicago, December 29, 1995.     

Non-existence of systematic education on computerized writing in Japanese schools

In Japanese schools, from elementary to college levels, digital technologies are not widely used for writing education. It sounds paradoxical that computer use in writing education is not flourishing in a country where ordinary people, especially the youth, actively use the Internet and cellular phones to exchange written (or typed) messages, where schools are well-equipped with computer technologies, and where the government shows guidelines and rationales for using information and communication technologies in teaching and learning at schools. This article analyzes the background behind this paradoxical situation. After analyzing how much research on and the practice of digital writing education has been made in the country, this paper discusses the nature of writing education and digital discourse in the Japanese culture and its possible relations to the lack of computerized writing education in Japanese schools.     

Metadoc: An adaptive hypertext reading system

Presentation of textual information is undergoing rapid transition. Millennia of experience writing linear documents is gradually being discarded in favor of non-linear hypertext writing. In this paper, we investigate how hypertext — in its current node-and-link form — can be augmented by an adaptive, user-model-driven tool. Currently the reader of a document has to adapt to that document — if the detail level is wrong the reader either skims the document or has to consult additional sources of information for clarification. The MetaDoc system not only has hypertext capabilities but also has knowledge about the documents it represents. This knowledge enables the document to modify its level of presentation to suit the user. MetaDoc builds and dynamically maintains a user model for each reader. The model tailors the presentation of the document to the reader. The three-dimensionality of MetaDoc allows the text presented to be changed either by the user model or through explicit user action. MetaDoc is more a documentation reading system rather than a hypertext navigation or reading tool. MetaDoc is a fully developed and debugged system that has been applied to technical documentation.     

超文本学习状态空间模型与学习控制

超文本教学材料的路径控制是超文本教育应用中存在的一个重要问题。文中以知识空间理论和一般的关系型超文本数学模型为基础,相入超文本学习状态空间的概念;通过定义学习状态空间的数学模型和学习状态跃迁阈值,实现对状态空间学习路径的控制,避免学生“走弯路”,提高了超文本的教学效果。在这种控制方式下,学生在学习状态内部有充分的自由浏览各个知识点;在学习状态之间学生的浏览则受到合理的控制,从而达到了自由与控制的统     

Collaborative Writing of Text and Hypertext

A good writer understands his audience. Collaborative writing allows authors to act as readers and thus to create text which an audience is more likely to appreciate. This paper describes four sets of experiences in collaborative writing. In one of the experiences secondary school students who were unable to produce a sophisticated document independently were able to produce a quality document through a group process. Given the correct combination of authors and goals, a simple computer editor can be very helpful. Hypertext differs from text in that links among chunks of text are made explicit. It could be argued that collaborative writing would work particularly well with hypertext because the links among the writers' ideas could be more easily explored. In experiences with graduate students at two universities, this hypothesis has not been supported. The students did not understand how these links should be created and thus could not collaboratively write hypertext.     

Reading between the code: the teaching of HTML and the displacement of writing instruction

The introduction of hypertext markup language (HTML) into the composition classroom often complicates traditional text-bound assignments. The process of incorporating HTML codes into writing can be frustrating because HTML is difficult to learn. More time spent learning coding skills may mean less time spent learning other writing skills. In many ways, learning HTML is like learning a second language. Unlike other pedagogical tools, though, HTML seems to blur the lines of our discipline. It turns the traditional composition course into a hybrid language/writing/computer course. This reshaping displaces traditional writing activities with technology-based instruction, thus challenging the notion of what constitutes appropriate curricular content within the composition classroom. This curricular change necessitates political action on the part of technology-focused teachers, for instance the establishment of new types of teaching collaboratives and the rethinking of departmental policies.     

How information organisation affects users' representation of hypertext structure and content

Previous studies have shown that hypertext users generate a mental representation of the hypertext structure and content. This study examines how information organisation in hypertext affects users' comprehension of the hypertext structure and content of the text. In a 2 × 2 factorial design text interconnectedness (low vs. high) and coherence (coherent vs. incoherent) were manipulated. Users' mental representations were accessed by various tests such as card sorting, summary writing and questionnaires. Results showed that participants' representation of hypertext structure and content was better under the coherent than under the incoherent condition. Interconnectedness did not have an effect on users' representation. Recommendations for hypertext designers are discussed.     

Hypertextual border crossing: students and teachers,texts and contexts

Collaborative hypertext writing in the college classroom can underwrite a pedagogy rooted in the cultural hybridity bell hooks has argued is central to progressive educational methodology. This article offers a narrative of the collaborative creation of a HyperCard hypertext called the E.A.R., and describes how the ideas developed in that project were adapted into a first-year composition course. In exploring the creation of a collaborative hypertext, we hope to gain insight into both the larger aims of the border crossings central to hooks’ ongoing project and the more local goals of hypertext pedagogy.     

Hypertext Writing Profiles and Visualisation

University students increasingly use hypertextto write their assignments. To employ hypertexteffectively, more information about thehypertext authoring process is needed. Thereare features of hypertext which are notreflected in traditional theories ofcomposition, especially the possibility tostructure information visually. Our studyindicates that graphical overview maps whichcan be edited are a rather attractive featureof hypertext authoring systems. Nevertheless,not all students profit from such features.Students employ different writing styles whenthey create hypertext documents. The majorityof students experiments with hypertext's newfeatures but others are still influenced by themodel of the book.     

Issues in Hypertext Interchange

An important area of hypertext research focuses on the establishment of reference models and standards. In addition to defining the essential elements of hypertext systems, these standards can be elaborated as data structures and used as an intermediate format for hypertext interchange. The resulting interchange format is then used by a set of program modules which perform hypertext interchange between existing hypertext systems. This paper discusses the major issues in static and dynamic interchange of hypertexts. Definitions, methodology and goals of hypertext interchange are given. Static issues discussed include: ideal mappings, node size, node contents, multiple destinations, overlapping anchors, link directionality, partial hypertexts, system attributes and other attributes. Dynamic issues discussed include: system support, access to remote systems, identical remapping and partial hypertexts. Practical solutions to these issues are given where possible. A case study discusses the results of a research project that used the Dexter Hypertext Reference Model as the intermediate format in the transfer of hypertexts from Intermedia to KMS. An overview of the Dexter model is given and the Dexter interchange format, an implementation of the data modelling aspects of the Dexter model, is described. Issues and difficulties with hypertext interchange that arose in this implementation are presented and discussed. A list of open research issues concludes the paper.     

Book review

Stuart Moulthrop is assistant professor of Literature, Communication and Culture at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has published numerous papers on hypertext and virtual technologies and is the author of Victory Garden, a hypertext fiction (Eastgate Systems, 1991). His current project is a book entitledPutting Us On the Dream, a study of science fiction and the future of writing.     

Effects of different metaphor usage on hypertext learning

There are many studies that offer different opinions on the effects of hypertext usage as an educational tool. Given the differences of opinion, it is useful to research the effects of metaphor usage in hypertext education and the use of hypertext as an educational tool. In this study, the effects of metaphors' uses in constructing the characteristics of the hypertext teaching have been approved. A between-group design experiment was conducted to study the effects of four metaphors on four different groups. Survey results emphasise the importance of metaphor usage and the manner in which metaphor is used. It was also discovered that metaphor usage in the hypertext teaching affects the construction duration of the hypertext but does not have any effects on the acquisition of knowledge.     

An expertext system for collaborative authoring

This paper describes the principles behind and the design and implementation of a collaborative expertext authoring tool. The system presented aims to act as an intelligent assistant. It is based on a model of writing as a problem-solving activity, constrained by goal and audience, in which success depends on allowing the user to witch at will between the different phases of the task. Key to achieving this role is its ability to make explicit the implicit semantics of associative links in the hypertext. In order to guide the user, a knowledge base is provided by the system which an author can edit and which determines how the hypertext network is edited and traversed in the course of generating linear documents. In this way, minor modifications of the knowledge base can readily lead to significant reorganization of a document.     

Using XML for Supplemental Hypertext Support

Our overall research goal is providing hypertext functionality through the WWW to hypertext-unaware information systems with minimal or no changes to the information systems. Information systems dynamically generate their contents and thus require some mapping mechanism to automatically map the generated contents to hypertext constructs (nodes, links, and link markers) instead of hypertext links being hard-coded over static contents. No systematic approach exists, however, for building mapping routines to create useful links that give users direct access to the ISs' primary functionality, give access to metainformation about IS objects, and enable annotation and ad hoc (user-declared) linking. This paper contributes a procedure for analyzing ISs and building mapping routines that supplement information systems with hypertext support. This paper also contributes an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) DTD that declares a set of elements and attributes for representing mapped information in a human-readable, machine-readable, structured, and semantic way. We implemented a prototype to demonstrate the feasibility of using XML to represent mapped information.     

Designing user interfaces for problem solving,with application to hypertext and creative writing

Interactive computer systems can support their users in problem solving, both in Performing their work tasks and in using the systems themselves. Not only is direct support for heuristics beneficial, but to do so modifies the form of computer support provided. This Paper defines and explores the use of problem solving heuristics in user interface design.A demonstration hypertext system, Hyperwriter, was developed as the outcome of considering general problem solving heuristics as goals of interactive systems design. Whereas hypertext joins and relates ideas, Hyperwriter additionally, and as a direct outcome of the design approach, has ways of separating, ordering and polishing ideas. As an application for creative writing, Hypertext supports effective thinking over a period of time. (This paper was drafted, organised and re-organised using the system itself.) Some issues arising in implementing Hyperwriter are also discussed.     

Authoring and Searching in Dynamically Growing Hypertext Databases

In this paper we show how an application in the domain of Office Information Systems can be modelled so that a dynamically growing database of hypertext documents is created and automatically extended, as well as easily searched. We propose a method for analyzing office applications which relies on a model based on statecharts to record the flow of documents within the system. A prototype implementation is described of a hypertext system to support the creation, storage and retrieval of documents associated to formal face to face meetings. Special features to be incorporated into hypertext systems aimed at supporting the storage and retrieval of office documents are also identified.