Month: July 2003

HyperStudio

Is HyperStudio off the market? I have been unable to connect to either the “official” “HyperStudio” or “SiteCentral” web sites although Google still provides inactive links. I also cannot find HyperStudio as an active product on the Knowledge Adventure web site. This has to be a fairly recent situation because I checked the web sites when submitting the final draft of our 4th edition.

This is a good example of why textbooks should have associated web sites. HyperStudio is our main example of a hypermedia authoring environment for students. The same is true for many of the other major texts in this area. Our newest edition has yet to be purchased by the first student and our “example” appears to no longer exist.

We will have to develop online content to promote MediaBlender or eZedia products.

I would like to know why HyperStudio was abandoned.

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Harvesting Web Information?

I have been reading David Warlick’s “Raw Materials for the Mind.” I like his work and would recommend this resource. We share many beliefs concerning the educational potential of Internet resources and have a similar model that involves finding, evaluating, harvesting, processing, and applying online information.

I must admit some of the specific suggestions for “harvesting” online information give me some trouble. To me harvesting can mean a range of things describing both note taking and wholesale copying. In the writing I do, I stay away from describing resources and techniques for “whacking” web pages and sites. Warlick is careful to acknowledge that he is not a lawyer or expert on Internet copyright issues and he does suggest that you should contact web authors for permission (Landmark-Project permission form). He lists some of the situations that might encourage “harvesting” – e.g., classroom computer does not have Internet access, conference presentation may not involve Internet access. Still, most of the suggestions seem about convenience. Authors seem reluctant to say – DO NOT COPY MATERIAL UNLESS YOU HAVE PERMISSION. It always seems like authors are hedging. To me, the message for teachers is unclear.

Any thoughts on this situation?

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WebQuest Portal

Bernie Dodge presented about WebQuests at NECC. For the next few months you can view this session online.

This session was interesting to me for two reasons. First, it is always interesting to understand how someone associated with a process or product understands his/her own vision. When you are acquainted with ideas indirectly, you may acquire a personal perspective that is different than originally intended. I use the word “different” to indicate that each of us brings our personal experiences to the interpretation of abstract ideas and the result may be more or less useful than the original. The opportunity to interact allows moving toward a shared vision (a social constructivist kind of thing). However, after listening to Bernie on multi-occassions, I am also convinced his own ideas drift (grow/change) as I am sure is true of all of us. Anyway, if you are interested in WebQuests, you will benefit from this presentation.< The second reason I liked this presentation was the focus on a “community.” This is an idea many of us have played with and considered how to develop. Dr. Dodge has made the assumption that those individuals interested in WebQuests represent a potential community and the collective wisdom and time of this community exceeds his own. The goal is to find a way to tap into this collective wisdom and time for the benefit of all. His present effort to do this is represented in a web site – WebQuest.org.

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