A Hypertext on Hypertext

I was interested in Bolter's chapter on hypertext and the remediation of print--that if we consider hypertext in a material sense, we can respect the cultural work it does in getting rid of traditional hierarchy. I'm fascinated with the notion of hypertext as material--it seems that all new media is material, as well. Not only is new media concerned with the material and physical, but it does so to a greater extent than "traditional" forms of media and older technologies. New media forces us to be physically active; it encourages us to click on that link and be led to another site. We refer to hypertexts, as Bolter notes, in physical/material terms: we "visit" a site online (29). By clicking on hypertexts, we are forced to participate in the new medium and are then active learners/readers in it. Gunther Kress, in a lecture at the recent Watson conference, made the point that new media design forces readers to be active and to take control of their learning. Comparing the photo placement in a traditional, text-based book to photo, text, and sidebar placement in a DK (coffee-table) Guide book, Kress pointed out that the DK book's use of text alternately with photos and sidebars got rid of the usual hierarchy--or proscribed order--in which a book is supposed to be read. Therefore, the reader was implicated in constructing the order and was actively participating in the text, rather than just passively following along, reading each page in order from top to bottom, left to right. This shows that new media is an excellent starting point in order to get students to be active readers and writers, physically participating in the conversation.
--eliz25 (26!)

Hybridity and the Benefits of Journaling

As I was reading the articles assigned for this week concerning online writing environments, I kept wondering, what is so original or unique about web-based learning? As Danowski and others note on journaling, it is a practice that is valuable in any environment, not exclusive to online spaces. Reading further, I realize that it is two main aspects of web-based learning that make it special: (1) its hybridity and (2) its interactivity. First, it is a hybrid combination of types of writing--for example, this blog is neither exclusively personal or exclusively academic. This online writing environment, along with other distance and web-based learning spaces, hybridize writing into a mix of formal and casual. This hybridity more accurately captures the new media literacy that has come out of electronic media such as this. Second, the space's inherent interactivity is also what makes online learning unique. I would say that my students in our CMC are interacting more with their writing than previous traditional classroom formats. The reason is because spaces like Blogger encourage responses from others--responses that we often give and get in this class. This interactivity fosters students' active learning.

--eliz25

Computers and...

What I believe is so successful about Hawisher et. al.’s history of computers in the teaching of writing is its ability to integrate the technological aspect into the history of the field to the point that it is nearly transparent. Instead of privileging the history of computers over composition studies, or writing about them separately, in each chapter Hawisher et. al. expertly integrate both histories into one, being careful to balance the history of people with the history of machines. As Hawisher et. al. note in Chapter 4, technology has been becoming more and more transparent in comp studies since the early 90’s—as observed by the diminishing number of presentation titles beginning with “Computers and…” (186). It seems that Hawisher et. al.’s history demonstrates Inman’s concept of the cyborg era, in that the history has struck a balance between people and machines, and does not privilege the machine over humans (as was done early on in the history of computers). I think, though, that Hawisher et. al.’s concerns by the end of Chapter 5 are still relevant ten years later, with funding issues and training concerns—however, I wonder if application of Inman’s principle would help here? If we considered people’s needs and the site’s needs along with the technology requirements, common problems might diminish.

--eliz25