(source: my thesis- improving learning ability through hypertext system)
There are a number of significant contributions of hypertext to educational application. Following is a list from a number of literature reviews that indicates hypertext contributions.
1. Provide information faster using accessible paths. The path of hypertext permits the user to get deeper or augment their complex knowledge by setting up new interrelations and pathways or maps of understanding. Nelson [1965] said that hypertext provides information in a body of written that “…interconnected in a complex way that it could not be conveniently represented on paper. It may contain summaries or maps of its contents and their interrelations; it may contain annotations, additions and footnotes from scholars who have examined it". Since the information may become larger, the pathways of understanding have to endure and should be readily shared with other users, as they need [Bush, 1945].
2. Construct collective work, learning, and new way of writings. In a collaborative system, any user would be able to "define" a link at any time since hypertext allows multiple authorship of texts [Hager 1993], The author can communally use hypertext as a writing environment to stimulate the development of links between concepts [Glynn and Muth, 1994]. Newell, in a 1986 study [cited in Rivard, 1994] concluded that analytic paper writing could encourage learners to incorporate in new information with relevant prior knowledge. The result of this collaborative work, then, becomes a community of knowledge that can be associated and expanded in the future.
3. Allow reuse of materials. Hypertext is an easy, fast, and cheap medium in reusing, reproducing, and distributing documents. This issue is very valuable in education benefit and has been concerned by Australian Government [2001] in publishing electronic document.
…the economics and logistics of digital publishing make it possible to
provide more information to site users without the costs associated with
paper documents. To make hard copies of a report available to colleagues
you would have to print a copy for each person. Costs and practicality
dictate that paper reports be concise, and without much supporting material
or appendixes—thus the audience is often left without access to the
information upon which the authors based their conclusions for no reason
other than the high cost of printing.
4. Allow for distant learners.
5. Minimize time to study.
Hypertext’s contribution also radically challenges traditional print-based notions of writing and reading. Solli [1999], a historian lecturer from Bergen University who applying hypertext teaching, argues that linear customary academic writing obligates students to read sequentially that potentially to make students miss the arguments.
Academic texts like student papers have a very simple structure or outline.
First, an introduction presenting the issue or discussion is required, followed
by some questions to be answered or a hypothesis, some historiographical
references, one part of source-criticism, then a pro-et-contra discussion based
on textbooks or interpretation of the sources where the aforementioned questions
are answered and, finally, a conclusion. The most striking feature is the
linearity, a well-defined start and well-defined end--the conclusion. If the
paper is not read sequentially the reader can miss the line of arguments and
therefore also not fully understand the author's conclusion.
By using the feature of links, thus, the students can navigate through different nodes of the text according to their interest. There can be multi-order access with more than one beginning and ending point of the text and access to internal and external documents.
Actually in a book student is also free to choose his own paths through the text; however it is not always purposely structured for making their own way through the text. As a reader, student can stop to read here, and then jump to the next paragraph. However, what becomes challenge to hypertext is not merely ‘linking’ and ‘jumping’, but also a new way of both presenting and structuring knowledge [Solli, 1999]. Therefore relevant method should be established to build a good hypertext document. In doing so, it is important for school to provide some guidelines in writing for hypertext, dealing with the most basic elements of writing: style, content, and audience. As well lecturers must teach student how to use the hypertext sources actively and to develop the content of it, how to develop resources that can be read by other students and by a broader public [Solli, 1999].
References:
[Bush, 1945] Bush, V, 1945, Atlantic Monthly, July, pp. 101-108. Available on-line at: http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/computer/bushf.htm
[Glynn and Muth, 1994] Glynn, S. M. and Muth, D., 1994, Reading and Writing to Learn Science: Achieving Scientific Literacy, in Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 31(9), pp. 1057-1073
[Rivard, 1994] Rivard, L.P., 1994, A review of writing to learn in science: Implications for practice and research. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 31, pp. 947-969.
[Australian, 2001] Australian Government Publication, 2001, available on-line at http://www.dofa.gov.au/ausinfo/guidelines/guidelines_for_commonwealth_in.html
[Solli, 1998] Solli, A., 1998, Hypertext ‘papers’ on the Web: Students confronts the linear tradition?, The Journal of the Association for History and Computing, Vol.I, No.2, November.
[Hager, 1993] Hager, T., 1993, A rhetoric of hypertextual invention. Writing on the Edge, 4(2), pp. 103-115.
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