"The book is obsolete," declared theorist Marshall McLuhan ... He was quick, though, to explain himself: "Obsolescent does not mean extinction. Quite the contrary. For example, handwriting has been 'obsolete' since Gutenberg, and certainly since [the typewriter], there is more handwriting today than there ever has been." Instead, the book, he suggests, will be raised to an "art form."
He makes a good point in that just because we have keyboards and computers doesn't mean we have left our pens and paper idle. I write every day, and I also enjoy reading a text book rather than reading from a computer screen. Will we ever leave books behind for good? I can't imagine that happening. Although in our book Communications and Cyberspace, in chapter 17 (Pedagogy and Hypertext), author Stephanie Gibson argues that the hypertext form can be utilized in the classroom in many ways. For some, the textbook remains a one dimensional means whereas hypertext allows you to discover and interact with the material you are learning. Gibson sites one of the earliest interactive hypertext packages- The Perseus Project- that allowed it's user to explore ancient Greece. There were " archaeological photographs and diagrams, photos of period artwork, plays in the original Greek language with translations, contemporary commentary, maps, and several glossaries all linked together to allow myriad approaches to the material" (Gibson 282).
The classes which I have absorbed the most from were the classes that included both hypertext and text books. The two sources compliment eachother but when the balance leans too much towards one or the other, it usually becomes boring.
ReplyDeleteIronic that in a discussion of hypertext you didn't add the link for the URL at the end. What you have here is fine, but you need to relate it to the reading.
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