Hypermedia, Education, and ‘That Strange Part of YouTube’

The Internet consists of an infinite amount of knowledge, and it is through purposeful research combined with hypermedia integration that we are able to navigate it. As I have come to learn, the role hypermedia plays within navigation is immense, and is an integral component to our learning and online experience, as aptly described by Cope and Kalantzis:

Reading the screen requires considerable navigational effort. Today’s screens are designed for many viewing paths, allowing for diverse interests and subjectivities amongst viewers, and the reading path they choose will reflect the considerable design effort the viewer has put into their reading. In fact, the commonsense semantics is telling—“readers” of books have become “users” now that they are on the web. (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009, p. 181)

Additionally, hypermedia reflects the nature of the human mind due to the fact that we naturally think associatively and not linearly (Bolter, 2001, p. 26). It is interactive, nonlinear, multimedia, and fluid rather than fixed (Dobson, 2009, p. 6). This characterization describes the human stream of consciousness within psychology and reminded me of Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway, in which it is used as a narrative mode and each scene closely follows a character’s thoughts moment to moment. Through hypermedia, we are similarly able to, as users, navigate to and from information on different web pages as dictated by our own streams of consciousness in real time. Bolter says that if we think of hypertext spatially, “the links constitute a path through a virtual space and the reader becomes a visitor or traveler in that space” (2001, p. 21). I wholly agree with this statement, for if we did not have a guiding pathway of sorts, there would be too much information for our minds to assimilate and we would be lost and without direction whilst using electronic media (p. 23).

Thanks to hypermedia, Internet users can enjoy ‘surfing the Internet’, by starting at one point of interest and ending up at somewhere entirely different. Throughout the journey, users can discover new information and learn by further exploring areas of interest, while skipping over information that is already known, irrelevant, or not of interest.  The beauty of associative thinking and multidirectional text via hypermedia is that the order of thoughts and ideas is not sequential or bound. This allows for users to explore uncharted areas of the Internet, exposing themselves to new and different ways of thinking and understanding the world – both in a physical and virtual sense. It is interesting to note, however, that Dillon (1996), as cited by Dobson, has raised the valid argument that a given hypertext may not mimic or facilitate associative thinking for anyone save the author of that hypertext (Dobson, 2009, p. 7).

Hypermedia in Education
In moving from static printed text to multimodal electronic text, however, the question is how this shift has affected education.  What does it mean for learning and comprehension, as well as reading, text value, and creative processes? George Landow proposes that:

Hypermedia revolutionizes education by freeing students from teacher-centred classrooms, promoting critical thinking, empowering students, easing the development and dissemination of instructional materials, facilitating interdisciplinary work and collaboration, breaking down arbitrary and elitist textual barriers by making all text worthy and immediately accessible, and introducing students to new forms of academic writing. (Landow 1997, p. 219ff as cited in Dobson, 2009, p. 7)

When utilized to its fullest capacity, hypermedia can modify and extend literacy practices by improving comprehension and motivation by mimicking the associative processes of the mind (Dobson, 2009, p. 7). A positive example I observed of one of my students occurred during art class one day when that student used the iPad to think of ideas for an art project I had assigned to the class. The student searched up “line art examples” on Google Images and came across a black and white geometric image that stood out to him.  He was so fascinated by it that upon clicking the link, he learned it was an example of Op Art (Optical Illusion Art). Upon clicking yet another link featuring an assortment of Op Art examples, he was able to find inspiration for his project, and also learned about an art genre he had never known about previously. In this case, a student’s curiosity resulted in self-learning that did not require teacher prompting whatsoever.  Hypermedia made the information readily available and accessible to him and empowered him to find the answers to his questions by himself.

Alternatively, however, associative thinking might also have no effect upon improving comprehension or learning. While hypermedia may provide direct access to relevant and useful information, it may also direct to irrelevant, useless, or unvetted (false) information. Additionally, multidirectional text networks that promote associative thinking may result in user disorientation, affecting productivity and staying on task. This is all too relevant, as I often find myself on YouTube looking for teaching ideas and inspiration.  I’ll start by clicking on a few linked ‘recommended videos’, and then later find myself watching some completely irrelevant video from that strange part of YouTube. As mentioned earlier, this can be extremely enjoyable when leisurely surfing the web but is also a huge distraction when trying to be productive and focused.  Like many other issues discussed during this program regarding technology usage from an educational standpoint, I can only conclude that while hypermedia provides users with many positive learning benefits, it is only in a controlled and regulated environment that these benefits can prove fully effective.

References

Bolter, Jay David. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print [2nd edition]. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2009). “multiliteracies”: New literacies, new learning. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 4(3), 164. doi:10.1080/15544800903076044

Dillon, A. (1996). Myths, misconceptions, and an alternative perspective on information usage and the electronic medium. In J. F. Rouet, J. J. Levonen, A. Dillon, & R. J. Spiro (Eds.), Hypertext and Cognition  (pp. 25-42). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Dobson, T.M. and Willinsky, J. (2009). Digital Literacy. In David Olson and Nancy Torrance (Ed.), Cambridge Handbook of Literacy, pp. 286-312. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Landow, G. P. (1997). Hypertext 2.0: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology (Revised ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.