When they finally come to sit in front of the computer, it is easier to explain why and how HTML works by using the paper drawing as an example. See, if we put this tag here, then it'll put the picture right in the middle, just like on the picture you drew. One student came in for an Internet consultation with her entire site drawn out on a stack of papers about a half-inch thick. She had Brazilian maps sketched on the paper and it only took a few moments to utilize a search tool and find an image of a Brazilian map to use as a background. Students sometimes come to an Internet Consulting session with little experience with the web.
Experience is the key for creating texts and for drawing parallels between texts.
It is virtually impossible to expect a student to grasp the full potential of the web and to utilize their own creative possibilities if they have not read hypertexts and explored the web. In this situation, what we generally do is to perform a search at a search tool on a topic of their choice. We then visit some of the sites and discuss issues of layout and design with them. After a few sites, students begin to realize the capacity of the web and begin to use some of the critical thinking skills they have developed in reading traditional texts. This one is really boring, there's too much text and we can't go anyplace else.