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Newsgroups: bit.listserv.mbu-l
Date:         Sun, 8 Nov 1992 23:55:43 EST
From:         David S Hogsette <dhogsett@MAGNUS.ACS.OHIO-STATE.EDU>
Subject:      Hypertext in comp and lit

I just recently subscribed to this MBU listing, and I'm still very unsure of
the various discursive conventions and commands.  I'm not even sure if this
letter will be mailed to the readers subscribing to this listing.  I have to
start sometime, so be patient with me as I become more comfortable and
proficient with this new (to me, at least) medium.

I have read many letters pertaining to using hypertext in the classroom, and I
would like to share, albeit briefly, what some of us in the Computers in
Composition and Literature (CC&L) program at Ohio State are brewing for the
near future.  This quarter we installed Storyspace (a hypertext program for the
Macintosh) into one of our computer classrooms and are piloting first year
writing courses centered around writing in hypertext.  Since I am new to the
CC&L program, I am not yet completely clear how some of our teachers plan to
use Storyspace in their classrooms; however, I can share with you what I plan
to do next quarter.

I will be teaching what's called 111C--a computer-assisted literature-based
first year writing class.  Basically, we will be reading shortstories,
discussing them in class (both orally and via synchronous network discussions
using Aspects), and writing interpretive essays.  The students will have to
produce three major paper projects.  The first will be the traditional
interpretive paper writen by each individual student.  The second will be a
traditional linear text produced by collaborative groups (4-5 students work to
produce one document).  The last project will be to create a hypertext
document, using Storyspace.  This document will not be merely an interpretive
paper, but, instead, will be an interactive, hypertextual environment which
includes the text to be interpreted, students' reactions to the text,
contextual information informing their various understandings of the text,
other critics' interpretations of the text, and their own collaborative
interpretation of the text.  The interesting part of this project--and the most
difficult to grade!!--will be tracing the students' electronic links that they
will make among the bits and chunks of information they use, links which both
create meaning and represent the process of that meaning-making.

I am very excited to see how this turns out.  My goal is to introduce them to a
new way of thinking, writing, and interacting with literary texts, and this
introduction will be, strategically so, gradual.  That is, I make them
comfortable with writing traditional texts, then nudge them into collaboration
and then, finally, into working in hypertext.  I think that writing in
hypertext allows for denaturing traditional linear writing strategies, and this
denaturing leads, in my estimation, to a production of polyvocal texts which do
not strive for closure or an answer to a question (like, what does this story
mean) but, instead, foreground the questioning process.  But I ramble.

That should be all for now.  Like I said, I'm not even sure this letter will be
received by anyone.  But if you do read it, I would appreciate any feedback or
reaction.  Also, I plan to create a neverending anthology of literature and
interpretation using Storyspace, a project I've already begun (I call in Entre
Nous).  I'm sure I'll be writing about it later.

Excited and confused,


David S. Hogsette
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU