Tara Starr Pyne, Gerald Lucas, John Baker, and Charla BauerThe use of hypertext in the writing classroom is quickly becoming more prevalent as schools of all levels construct and utilize multimedia classrooms in the teaching of composition. Yet, many writing instructors are ill-prepared to enter these electronic environments because they approach this new milieu like a traditional classroom.
This workshop has the dual function of preparing students and teachers for the multimedia classroom and implementing HTML into the computer classroom. Many instructors do not have access to a classroom constructed with computers and writing in mind. The first goal of this workshop is to reshape how instructors teach essays, journals, and literature in the traditional classroom. Whereas students are normally instructed to create essays that have a clear, well-organized thesis that is carried out in the essay, writing with HTML is not easily adapted to this type of pedagogical approach. HTML, by nature, does not follow a traditional progression, but is more tangential. The first part of the workshop will be devoted to helping instructors reevaluate how they teach the traditional essay by providing practical exercises that will naturally lend themselves to linked thinking. We will primarily focus on preparing instructors to teach essays, journals, and literature in the multimedia classroom.
Once we have familiarized instructors with teaching HTML skills out of the multimedia classroom, we will concentrate on home page construction with special emphasis on posted journals, linked essays, and literary discourse. The implementation of the online journal will not only facilitate class interaction, but also introduce students to online discourse that will be further developed in the literature discussion. Whereas the journals will introduce students to online interchange, the linked essay establishes a new way of thinking and writing. The essay no longer has a destination that is set by the author, but the essay is co-authored by the reader who creates a new direction by his choice of links. Both skills mentioned above, however, are used most effectively in the study of literature. Not only are students encouraged to contribute to literary discourse via the Internet, but also to learn in a self-determined pattern.
The first section of this workshop will introduce instructors to the electronic classroom, while the latter will focus on applications for the computer classroom involving hypertext.