hypertext and memes

Last week in class, we were discussing the use of hypertext and its relationship to reading patterns and abilities in the secondary classroom. As an English teacher, considering and addressing the kinds of cognitive and skill-based demands that reading texts online makes of my students is an essential part of my role as an educator in the 21st century. How hypertexts are used and 'read' (within the broader skills set involved in 'digital literacy') are part of these considerations. It's certainly interesting (for me, anyway) to think about how I read when I encounter hypertexts and the ways in which it forces me to reorganise information or reassess what I think is important in answering the questions I have set for myself in my reading (if indeed I have set any questions at all). And, of course, to recognise that following hypertexts usually sets me on a distracting course of useless tangents.

Questions then: how are we to teach about and with hypertexts in the classroom? What is important to teach? What do students need to know to be able to use and read hypertexts? And what other considerations are there in the reading of internet-based texts that we might need to teach students about? Food for thought, especially if you're sending students off on an internet search for resources or information.


In related news, I've also been a bit obsessed lately with the idea of memes and the kinds of implications they have for the way students are creating, manipulating, understanding, analysing and valuing texts. (If you're not sure what a meme is, check out the Wikipedia definition). I think they are a really exciting springboard for a range of activities and learning in lots of domains, from thinking about cultural practice and values (History, English), pop culture's influence on behaviour, humour, interests, trends etc. (Psychology, English, Humanities), and media manipulation and referencing (Media, English).

Here is my current favourite product from a meme that began evolving a couple of years ago.

speaking of looking at things

It might be true that students like to look at stuff, but not as much as this guy.

you'll have to imagine that these words are a picture of a blog post title

Participating in some interesting conversation over here at Butler's Blog about using technology in the classroom to help with providing visual aides, particularly in an ESL classroom context. 'Ave a geez.

English teachers' resource

For the English teachers among us... e is for english is a great website that I came across in my lit. review research which guides you through a barrel-load of online resources to do with language, literacy and literature and provides a forum for English teachers to discuss pressing issues.
It's great if only for the fact that it brings together in one well-organised space the plethora of useful websites that are out there for English educators to use for research and planning. Check it out.

Why don't you blog that? ... I'll tell you why.

Well, I've just finished an epic literature review for my English teaching method subject. In a very topical move (*pats self on back*), I looked at the factors that are involved in English teachers' engagement with digital technologies and literacies in the secondary English classroom (this also extends on the conversation I started in an earlier post on the relationship between ICT and English). This is especially interesting to think about in the era of the new National Curriculum, which so deeply embeds teaching and learning with and about digital technologies (and, in this regard, is so unlike VELS, which 'tacks on' ICT as a something separate or 'additional', rather than integral). Here's two of the interesting things I now know:

- a teachers' sense of their subject's underlying ideologies or rationales are going to play a significant role in how they view the use of digital technologies in the classroom. It's particularly interesting to see how this plays out in the context of subject-English as things like face-to-face discussion and debate, books and handwriting are highly valued by most (all?) English teachers and digital technologies and literacies can be seen by teachers as a threat to these things;

- although most authors advocate the use of constructivist pedagogies when teaching with and about digital technologies, and really emphasise the importance of collaborative learning and critical thinking, the research shows that many English teachers do not adapt their pedagogy in any meaningful or purposeful way when using technologies in the classroom.

It would be interesting to know more about the kinds of factors that are in play in other teaching domains, particularly, I think, the humanities and sciences (where, like English, it seems so crucial for teachers to be at the forefront of the kinds of teaching and learning that digital technologies demand and enable).

Any thoughts from anyone out there in the ether...?