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Romanticism &
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Approaches to teaching hypertext vary according to the kind of equipment available at one's institution and the size of the class. These thoughts, which were generated in response to a recent email from NASSR-L list-member Kay P. Easson (University of Memphis), are preliminary rather than comprehensive. |
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First hypertext class. It is important to introduce students
to hypertext via an in-class demonstration prior to their first reading
assignment. I have experimented with letting students plunge in cold,
so that they can have the truly disorienting or defamiliarizing experience
that hypertext often evokes. Generally, however, the incomprehension and
dismay provoked has outweighed the few benefits of going it solo. I always
devote a period to giving students a guided tour of the mechanics—logging
on, navigating the hypertext, possible reading strategies (most hypertexts
have several "implied reading strategies," to coin a term modeled on the
familiar notion of "implied reader"). This class session comes with a
strong dose of reassurance, encouragement, and validation of their anxiety
and potential fears. I acknowledge in advance the bewilderment students
are likely to feel and explain the ways in which the hypertext plays with
these feelings, theorizes them, and (in the best cases) induces one to
move beyond them. I use terms like "transference" and "working through"
to get at the transactional character of reading hypertext. And, of course,
most hypertexts contain pages (or "lexia," as they are more commonly called)
that foreground ideas such as the "collaborative" and "intertextual" nature
of reading, signification, etc. These motifs allow me to emphasize feminist
themes, as well as counter-cultural or other avant-garde positions that
I think will motivate the students. Here I'm trespassing on topics that
inevitably come up in later classes, but some introduction to the rationale
behind the hypertext helps justify the difficult experiment in reading
that one is asking students to perform. |
| 2 | Equipment. Everything depends
on what is available. The best option is to hold the class in a computer
lab where every student has his or her own computer, with a copy of the
hypertext loaded onto the local network (or an individual copy loaded on
each machine). If one has required students to purchase copies of the hypertext
for the class, I see no copyright barriers to loading the hypertext on a
restricted local network. Barring the availability of a computer lab, teachers
need at the minimum to arrange for an LCD projector, so that they can project
their computer screen up onto a monitor or screen for all students to see. |
| 3 | Assignments. This issue is one of the
hardest to resolve. In order to preserve the reading experience of moving
freely through the hypertext, I encourage students to explore any reading
approach they prefer (choosing among the options for navigating around the
text that I have demonstrated on the first day, as well as inventing their
own strategies). As a result, I assign a set number of hours that students
should work with the text for each class period rather than a particular
number of pages. Alternatively, one could require that students read a set
number of lexia and perhaps ask them to turn in a list of the titles of
the lexia they visited. Other techniques that have proved helpful include
arranging "scavenger hunts," where students are assigned lists of motifs
that they need to locate in the text; providing discrete paths through the
text that students must navigate before launching out on their own; asking
students to do reports on different aspects of the hypertext; and requesting
that students keep reading journals or logbooks of their journeys through
the text, which they turn in to the teacher or report on to the class as
a whole. |
| 4 | Pedagogy. Teachers will have
to get used to the different pedagogical rhythm required for alternating
among lecture, demonstration, discussion, and interludes for exploration
or experiment. I have found discussion to be difficult, particularly when
a student wants to illustrate a point. When that happens, the whole class
has to take a moment to find the lexia under question. I would be interested
in learning about other teachers' experiences with finding ways to foster
discussion. |
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Romantic Circles - Home / Praxis Series / Romanticism and Contemporary Culture / Jay Clayton, "Patchwork Girl in the Romantics Classroom" / "Teaching Strategies for Hypertext in the Classroom" |
