Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
as Critical Literacy
Guest Authors Jamie Myers, Richard Beach
Editor’s Message
k/
Palgrave; http://www.arts.cuhk.edu.h
In his Critique of Pure Reason (1929, ge
showed how it can be that all our knowled
Philosophy/Kant/cpr), Immanuel Kant must
to make sense of those experiences we
begins with experience, yet in order e exp eri-
especially on the fact that we fram
know other things first. He focused out of
derive the ideas of space and time
ences in space and time but cannot ctiv ist edu ca-
foundation for the constru
experience. His analysis provided the
otsky, and John Dewey.
tional theories of Jean Piaget, Lev Vyg
al constructs knowledge out of inter-
Kant’s conception of how an individu ividual
extended to models of how the ind
nal representations has since been this
esentations. A fundamental idea in
makes use of socially constructed repr w
wledge shape what it is possible to kno
work is that the ways we represent kno ons and
h empowered by our representati
and what we need to know. We are bot that
ted by the m. In today’s real m of learning technologies, we would say
limi
ces and constraints for sense-making.
representations provide both affordan
ns of digital technologies can be so
This is why the new representational mea space
ond our human capacities in terms of
important. Although we cannot go bey rge the pos si-
ender experiences that enla
and time, we can use new media to eng anded
xt is one such medium that has exp
bilities for making meaning. Hyperte
ermedia, the expansion continues.
those possibilities, and now, with hyp
Rick Beach ask how hypermedia can
In this month’s column, Jamie Myers and by
the social aspects of inquiry afforded
foster critical literacy. They emphasize 1), they exam -
book (Beach & Myers, 200
the new media. Drawing from their new inqu iry-
lities for six major dimensions of
ine how new tools enhance the possibi t
language arts classrooms to show tha
based learning. They use examples from and in turn are
called for in the new literacy
critical awareness and engagement are
representation.
fostered by immersion in new forms of
Original version published March 2001 in the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy
©2001 International Reading Association
233
Issue
How Hypermedia Fosters Critical Literacy
Hypermedia combines hypertext (texts linked together by multilinear nodes)
and multimedia (e.g., photos, video, art, audio, text) to produce an interactive
media experience for participants. Because hypertext allows participants to
choose optional paths through multimedia, participants can construct and re-
spond to hypermedia interactively. Literacy instruction has recently been enabled
and broadened enormously through the rapidly developing array of technologi-
cal tools used to create hypermedia. Our representations of the world are viewed
electronically as quickly as we move whole paragraphs to change the flow of words
and the position of graphics. Discussion groups and live chat rooms provide wide-
open spaces for the negotiation of subjectivities and the construction of our
possible identities. The image, the animation, video, and music spill in and out
of our desktop computers contributing to the expanding intertext we create to
name ourselves, others, and the world. It will be just as critical in the next 10
years, as it has been in the last 10, to constantly remind ourselves that the pow-
er of technology is generated within our cultural uses of these tools and not
simply determined by the nature of the tools themselves.
That said, we cautiously set out in this column to highlight some pedagog-
ical frameworks in which we believe students have used hypermedia tools such
as Storyspace™, HyperStudio™, HyperCard™, and various Web authoring programs
to generate a practice of critical literacy (McKillop & Myers, 1999; Myers,
Hammett, & McKillop, 1998). Our underlying assumption is that our uses of rep-
resentational tools to signify and negotiate meanings are embedded in larger so-
cially constructed literacy practices in which our symbolic activity helps us to
(a) achieve the culturally valued purposes of a community and (b) negotiate the
opposing values of multiple communities.
How we speak, dress, gesture, listen to music, and use texts from print to
video provide the symbolic tools through which we interact and interpret one
another and the world. Our ongoing symbolic interactions and activity within a
community, or what we refer to as a social world, not only result in our implicit
acquisition of the symbolic tools needed to keep the community going, but also
construct the ideology of possible identities, relationships, and values realized
within that community. Hypermedia authoring for critical literacy pushes this one
Because acts of critical literacy are embedded in larger cultural practices that
circumscribe how and why we create and use texts, we must pay particular at-
tention to the pedagogical frameworks in classrooms in which we ask students
to author hypermedia as critical literacy.
Ninth graders at State College High School used a range of hypermedia tools
to inquire into various social worlds in which they were members
(http://www.ed.psu.edu/k-12/socialworlds). Three of the projects introduced
students to specific hypermedia software while the fourth involved students
videotaping themselves playing computer video games. Across the projects, as
students analyzed multimedia texts and created new texts to represent their ideas
My favorite picture is one of a group of girls standing together in the bathroom. Every
girl in there is from a different group, and yet the girls all mingle and talk. This is one
of the best examples of an objective group because, although I know this sounds
odd, no one is judged in the bathroom.
Those who added sounds of children playing violent kicking games after watching the
Power Rangers, or playing peaceful creative games prior to watching television, were
able to move beyond generalities into specifics. Rather than standing off from the scene
and observing clinically, the authors moved into their texts, orchestrating effects—
talking about particular children and particular television shows. (p. 345)
Students have also used sound and music as ironic or contradictory comments
against the official meanings associated with the image or text. In a literature-of-
wars project in Browning’s (2000) class, students opened the project on the liter-
ature of war with Jimi Hendrix’s version of “The Star Spangled Banner.” Ironic
Other Views
Hypermedia/Hypertexts
We have illustrated several instances in which hypermedia authoring generates
what we define as a form of critical literacy. We are less sanguine about
Glossary
Hypermedia: a combination of hypertext and multimedia that creates interactive experi-
ences with media.
Hypertexts: texts linked together with various navigational tools so that users can se-
lect a range of different paths or trails.
Lexia: the different pages linked together in hypertext, triggered by clicking on words
or buttons.
Multimedia: music, sound, images, artwork, graphics, or video, for example, incorporated
into hypermedia.
REFERENCES
Beach, R., & Myers, J. (2001). Inquiry-based English instruction: Engaging students in life and lit-
erature. New York: Teachers College Press.
Bolter, J.D. (1998). Hypertext and the question of visual literacy. In D. Reinking, M. McKenna, L.
Labbo, & R. Kieffer (Eds.), Literacy and technology: Transformations in a post-typographic world
(pp. 3–14). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Bolter, J.D., & Grusin, R. (2000). Re-mediation: Understanding new media. Boston: MIT Press.
Bolter, J.D., Smith, J., & Joyce, M. (1990). Storyspace. Cambridge, MA: Eastgate.
Browning, T. (2000). Hypermedia design in the English classroom. In D. Hickey & D. Reiss (Eds.),
Learning literature in an era of change: Innovations in teaching (pp. 137–151). Sterling, VA: Stylus.
Guest Authors
Myers teaches English Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction
at Pennsylvania State University, University Park, USA. Beach teaches English
Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of
Minnesota in Minneapolis.