Russell Smith's BLOGical

ECI 511--The use of Hypermedia applications and Constructionist theory

Another one of the types of software that educators use to determine a students? understanding of a topic is the use of hypermedia applications.  They are programs that allow students to produce media presentations which could include the use of text, graphics, audio, and video as well as hyperlinks to the internet.  Hypermedia programs allow students to organize information as they see fit and link different bits of information together in a way which allows the user to skip from one subject to the next without needing to view each successive screen.  Types of hypermedia software include AuthorWare, Director, Hypercard, Adobe Flash, PowerPoint, Keynote, Quark Immedia, Acrobat, Microsoft Office Suite, Visual FoxPro, and FileMaker Developer. (Source?Wikipedia)

Many educators have found that requiring students to use hypermedia programs to produce presentations demonstrates a student?s true understanding of a subject and the relationships between the different facts it is associated with.  In the article ?Moments of Joy: Student Engagement and Conceptual Learning in the Design of Hypermedia Documents?, written by Pearl Chen and Diane McGrath, research studies have indicated that students who participate in the construction of hypermedia presentations also have a positive effect on their engagement in class.  These students tend to be enthusiastic and proud of their work, and commit extra time to their projects compared to students who do not participate in these types of projects.  These types of projects allow students to construct their own meanings of the course content, and find themselves learning with hypermedia, rather than from it, according to Chen and McGrath. Students are also able to re-organize their thoughts and make new connections to the corresponding facts if their initial planning does not work out.  Hypermedia projects are constructionist activities in that the participants learn by creating the projects and develop their own meanings, and often are helpful even for at-risk students, according to the Chen/McGrath article.

The article, ?Constructionism as a High-Tech Intervention Strategy for At-Risk Learners?, written by Gary Stager, illustrates this point. The article tells the story of the Constructionist Learning Laboratory at the Maine Youth Center where students who are at-risk academically and legally engage in numerous long-term projects that allow them to pursue their personal interests and experiences in order to construct knowledge.  They are expected to make or produce projects that show evidence of their ability to learn, such as building robots, developing video games, writing plays or poetry, making animated movies, creating musical instruments, or digital films.  They also have access to a large classroom library containing books on numerous subjects in case they require reference.  These projects allow students to work at their own pace and solve problems throughout the course of their completion of the project.  If a problem cannot be overcome, they must figure out a way to reorganize or rethink their plans in order to successfully complete their task.  The teacher?s role in this type of school is to support the students in the construction of their projects and help the students make connections to the ideas that are represented in their projects.  The students feel more comfortable and confident about their abilities to succeed because they are not subjected to standardized testing or competing with classmates in order to reach a certain goal.  The students own their mistakes and failures through this process, which allows them to feel all the more triumphant when they achieve the completion of their goal. 

Chen and McGrath?s article also emphasizes how important the sense of ?play? is when working on a hypermedia or constructionist project.  Students will feel more involved and dedicated to their work when their effort is construed as ?fun? instead of being a chore.  This is evident in the case of the students working at the Constructionist Learning Laboratory. 

I think that incorporating this type of activity would be a great way to get students to employ their creativity in a project. For example, students could use hypermedia software to produce a presentation that could illustrate how the Native Americans? displacement by the colonists during the early days of America?s history has affected their current social status.  They could conduct research about the ways in which the Native Americans were displaced off their original land and trace how this has affected where they live now, their population amounts in different areas around the country, and whether they have been treated fairly by the United States government.  These hypermedia presentations could include sound files from different leaders of the Native American community, as well as depictions of Native Americans in the media.

Students would have to show an outline for their presentation by showing a concept map of some type showing how the different elements of their project connect together. As the students become more involved in their work, hopefully they would enjoy the creation of the project more and incorporate more into the project than they?d originally planned.  

Posted at 03:50PM Oct 22, 2006 by rjsmith3 in General  |  Comments[0]