TWWT & Hypertext Abstracts

Example # 1:

Hypertext Abstract
Susan Artkras
5317 Fall, 2003

Teachers prepare students for the future—their future. Technology is that future, therefore a teacher must prepare her students for a technology-rich life. A student’s means of communication, self-expression, and learning will be embedded in technological platforms.

These platforms or writing surfaces “participate in the ongoing cultural redefinitions of self, knowledge and experience” according to Jay Bolter (p.189). Public education should and must provide this platform.

The general purpose of my website is to create a multi-media platform for students that will facilitate communication, self-expression and learning in and beyond the classroom. The site might be compared to an airport control tower, directing and guiding students on a safe learning course, providing a take-off point with links to assistance, collaboration, learning activities and applications; and even provide a landing point, a place to synthesize their flight into a culminating multi-media task with an audience as large as they choose.
Students utilizing this site vary in their technological literacy. When they arrive at the middle school, many, despite the assumptions, do not know the basics of word processing, web navigation, or even the name of the computer peripherals that help them define themselves on an electronic surface, while others navigate the web’s commercial and communication sites expertly, reconfigure software and hardware, and present professional multi-media products.

The design of the site is primarily focused on facilitating communication and learning links. These will be accessible through the homepage and every page in the stack. Due to the various technology literacy levels, it’s important to present information simply and clearly but not unprofessionally, as this site will also facilitate communication between the teacher and the parents. The tone is important. While maintaining professionalism, the site needs to motivate students, administer to the range of literacy levels, and most importantly, enhance learning and collaboration in multiple circles. The design of the page might grow with the tech literacy of the students—adding or deleting links or adding graphics to increase the aesthetics as the site becomes familiar. This is an education site not a technotainment site, so the site must retain its consistency of basic pathworks and maintain its purpose while providing opportunity for modifications that meet the learners’ needs.
The project revisions that I foresee, first and foremost, include learning how to design with the publishing application. The site is still on paper. Moreover, the applications used to create the site may change when the available platform changes to the iBook.
Technology is interfering with the product’s production. The project doesn’t need revision, in my opinion, because it has provided a high level of techno-frustration, which will allow me to be more empathetic to my students’ troubles. The project and especially its frustrations have made me realize how carefully I need to look at the curriculum and state standards before embedding technology into the lessons. Technology facilitation challenges the curriculum for time, and in a one-to-one laptop classroom, the technology will win. The technology is here to enhance the learning environment—Social Studies and English, not interfere with it.

Example # 2:

Nancy Robb Singer
Teaching Writing with Technology
June 27, 2003

Project Title
Building Bridges

Audience
This site is developed for induction-year and novice teachers.

Project Context
Student teachers in English, speech, and drama participate each semester in an online listserv. During the practicum semester, the conversations documented on the listserv are riveting. Neophyte teachers provide emotional and professional support for one another; their narratives also show a deep level of process and reflection on their teaching practice.

Because the listserv continues after students graduate, I envisioned the listserv as a place where induction-year teachers would seek and give advice. However, few continue to use the medium for support. From interviews with beginning teachers, I know that they continue to need assistance; however, novice teachers do not find that the listserv completely fills that need. With that in mind, I believe a website that acts as a clearinghouse for timely, topical help for novice teachers might be the bridge that links the student teaching with a teacher’s induction-year experience.

Theory
Research supports the notion that writing is more than a physical act of committing words to paper. It is writing to learn, writing to construct new meanings, writing to construct the self (Emig, 1977; Murray 1996). On the student teacher listserv narrative storytelling is one way that student teachers explore their professional lives for both critical and developmental purposes (Brunner, 1994; Richey & Wilson, 2000). The Building Bridges website will be yet one more way new teachers can continue to digest what they are experiencing in the classroom by writing about it via the electronic medium.

Just as the student teacher listserv helps to foster camaraderie among its participants, it is hoped that the Building Bridges website will reinforce a larger sense of community. Teaching is an isolating profession and new teachers in particular must feel connected and heard. A website where teachers can ask for and receive help fosters the kinds of collaboration that we encourage with our students, but rarely practice in our own professional lives (Portner, 1998; Rogers & Babinski, 2002).

Project Design
The website I propose is organized around the school year in order to give new teachers relevant information at key times. For instance, in August new teachers need help with developing classroom rules and procedures. They may need suggestions for organizing and arranging their classrooms. In October, they may need practical advice on how to conduct parent-teacher conferences. Resources for these areas would be available using the “calendar” format of the website. Teachers would also be able to search the site by topic. Additionally, a Q & A “chat” would also be available on the website. In this way, new teachers could exchange information with one another and, it is hoped, with experienced mentors as well.

Ideally, however, I hope that this kind of website would move way beyond what I am capable of doing. The No Child Left Behind legislation mandates that measures be taken to “train and retain quality teachers.” North Carolina has taken a big step towards this goal with its website Learn NC. In addition to the kinds of links I’ve provided in Building Bridges, this website offers other information pertinent for new teachers such as certification renewal, state standards, and instructional resources. This is the kind of site Missouri needs as well.

Example # 3:

Sharon Horner
Teaching Writing with Technology
Abstract for Web page project
June 24, 2005

My webpage was created in order to get my students into the language community (Condensed theory 2). My webpage serves as stepping-stone to sites that provide information that is covered in class, but also other topics that are addressed peripherally. While teaching Gatsby last spring, I mentioned the flappers and tried to ground my students in the Gatsby’s era, but I didn’t spend days on the flappers. Students will be able to extend the lesson in class outside of the classroom. Some links are to further the context knowledge. Just clicking around the page will result in links and a couple of interactive sites. Students will also be able to access assignments from class and will be able to print off a copy from home.

I plan to revise my webpage to serve more as a portal to discussion boards and web logs. I have one linked site for today for my English 9 students to chat about books (Condensed theory 3). I would like to have my Creative Writing Students interact with other student writers, share their work, and provide feedback. I have link for talking about fiction, but it is aimed at professional or serious writers who are in the process of publishing. I would also like my English 11 students to discuss their view on works and subjects such as Transcendentalism with other juniors in different parts of the country or even exchanging ideas on a class discussion board or through e-pals. I also want to make my pages more uniformed with the side menu bar and adding a menu at the bottom of the page and even linking related topics to jump down to the bottom or middle of the page as they grow.

Mostly my students and their parents will access my webpage. Since I teach collaborative classes, I have a high number of students with special needs. Besides utilizing my webpage for my students to increase their participation in the language community and writing, I would also like to have parents be able to see what eras and topics were are covering and assignments the class is working on. They would also have access to the reference sites for essay writing and grammar to help their children. Typically, most of my students are familiar with the Internet and have used it in a limited manner for educational purposes. Most students are quite aware of the entertainment and communication value, but do not view themselves as part of the larger language and writing community. I teach freshmen, juniors, and seniors. One user will have daily contact with the Internet and technology. She will download music to her iPod, check and respond to e-mail, surf the web for concert tickets, double check the extra credit on her Geometry teacher’s webpage, order her pizza on-line, and start her term paper in history while watching her digital cable. Another user will have less exposure to the Internet and computer usage. His experiences are limited to school, the public library, and his friend’s or family member’s house. He will not be as comfortable with the keyboard or computer shot cuts, like alt F4, and will tend to compose on paper first. Yet, he may be able to smash all challengers on Madden’s NFL and text message in a flash. As I develop webquests and more interactive lessons, my students will access this webpage from the writing lab. There will be both independent and collaborative group work opportunities, eventually. As of today, it would be primarily for independent users.

The overall design of the webpage is rather simplistic. Students will access their class page and either hit a link for a helpful site or download an assignment. I linked to my district’s web page and my department’s resource page. There is menu on the side of the page which I tried to keep uniform throughout the pages. It is rather simple without too many bells or whistles, but it’s functional.