Multimedia/Hypermedia and Response-based Approaches
"Multimedia" can be defined as the integration of information from a variety of media
sources into a single presentation. A few decades ago, the term was most commonly
applied to presentations which combined multiple slide sources, sound, and sometimes
video in a whole group, projected format. More recently, multimedia has come to refer
to the integration of a variety of non-print media in computer-based programs, most
typically designed for individual use. "Hypermedia" refers to multimedia which includes extensive non-linear organization. Coined by Ted Nelson (1974), the "hyper" refers
to hypermedia's multidimensionality and the multiple paths a user can choose to follow
through it.
There are several reasons to believe multimedia/hypermedia might provide a promising
enhancement to text for supporting response-based pedagogies. Multimedia/hypermedia
supports independent learning through student control of information and events (Milheim, 1988) and has proved a powerful catalyst for cooperative learning (Jiang & Meskill,
1995; Johnson & Johnson, 1986; Webb, 1983). It is frequently used to instantiate
constructionist views of learning (Papert, 1993), and to support such constructivist
approaches as cognitive flexibility theory (Spiro & Jehng, 1990; Jacobsen & Spiro,
1995), which share with response-based approaches basic notions like student construction
of knowledge and the valuing of multiple perspectives. In addition, it can make
accessible the extensive amount of information from which multiple meanings and interpretations
evolve (Duffy & Knuth, 1992). Hypertext author Michael Joyce (1994) sees hypermedia
as a structure that will support kinds of meanings and interpretations that do not yet exist. In this vein, the use of multimedia/hypermedia creates an opportunity
for teachers to recast their own understanding of the role of text in the teaching
and learning of literature, and, accordingly, their own beliefs about and roles in that teaching and learning. Indeed, many contemporary scholars believe that hypermedia, in particular, is ideally suited for response-based approaches to the teaching and assessment of literary understanding (Bolter, 1991; Landow, 1992), but such notions have yet to be systemically explored.
