Class 02: What is Hypermedia? Revisited

Held Thursday, August 26, 1999

Summary

• Technical details (Lab):
  • Getting online in the MathLAN
  • Using the Web
• Discussion of paper topic
• Due:
  • Introdutory readings
  • Draft of Is the Talmud a Hypertext?
• Assigned:
  • Reading: Bolter, Part I.
  • Reading: Writing in College

Handouts

• Outline of class 2
• Lab: Getting started in the MathLAN
• Reading Assignment: Writing in College
• Reading Assignment: Bolter, Section I
• SamR's Quick HTML Reference

Notes

• Rebecca will miss the next few classes because her son just had surgery.
• Welcome Izabella Staicut to our class. Izabella was unable to make the first meeting.
• I hope registration went well for everyone.
• Now that you know what courses you have, you need to sign up for a weekly fifteen minute slot to meet with me. I'll have a signup sheet with me.
• While doing signup, we'll also eat some Pop Tarts (TM) and pair off for writing exercises.
  • Give one copy of your paper to your partner and one to me.
  • Pairs: Ellen and Marti; Adam and Matt, Kevin and Jake; Izabella and Yasir; John and Sean.
• After this introductory stuff, the first hour or so of today's class will be held in the MathLAN, Science 2417.
• Today at 11:00 is Scholars Convocation. This week, President Osgood will speak about the Master Plan. I encourage you to attend Scholars Convocation every week, particularly this year as you're thinking about the various disciplines.

Getting Started in the MathLAN

• When we do computing in this class (primarily building documents for the World-Wide Web), we'll need to work with the Unix-based computers in the department's MathLAN.
• Today, we'll get started in the MathLAN by doing a few simple exercises to get you used to a somewhat different computing system.
• I have account information for everybody. Your MathLAN account is not the same as your Webmail/NT account.
• On Tuesday, we'll work in the MathLAN to start learning HTML, the language you use to create pages for the World-Wide Web.

Thinking About Hypertext

• We'll use a three-part discussion style ...
  • We'll lay out some basic ideas we've found in the readings.
  • We'll tell each other about our essays.
  • We'll try to begin a more in-depth conversation.
• I'm hoping that all three parts will help you as you try to refine your essays over the next week or so.
  • We may also use your advisee meetings this afternoon to talk about specific writing.

Initial Reflections

• For the first few minutes, we'll raise some basic points that we saw in the various readings. Think about the following as you raise basic points:
  • What were the most important points from the readings?
  • What new did you learn from the readings? Was any of that surprising?
  • What questions do you have about the readings?
• Here are a few to get you started.
  • Murray tells us that that the Talmud consists of ``biblical text surrounded by commentaries by multiple rabbis''. Is she correct?
  • Who was Vannevar Bush?
  • Why doesn't Bush's article use the term ``hypertext''?
  • How much of Bush's article is really about hypertext?

• This part of our discussion lets us get some basic information on the table.

Drafts

• We'll continue by considering your drafts.
• In the first section of today's class, you were asked to identify the thesis statement of your paper and your partner's paper.
  • Spend about five to ten more minutes identifying the topic of each paragraph. (In a good paper, each paragraph reflects on a single topic. That topic may not be expressed as a particular sentence in the paragraph.)
• Spend a few minutes comparing your perceptions of your thesis and topics from those your partner identified for your paper (and vice versa).
• You may also want to talk about the structure of the paper. I'd like to see
  • A logical progression of ideas from paragraph to paragraph.
  • An introductory paragraph that makes a claim and that suggests a line of argument.
  • A concluding paragraph that ties everything together (and, possibly, suggests future directions).

• After the small group discussions, I'll ask you to read your thesis statements aloud. Feel free to update your thesis statements before reading them to the class.

• This part of the discussion helps us understand some perspectives on the material.
• It should also help us as writers - what we think of as the topic of a paragraph may not be what our readers perceive.

Discussion

• We'll conclude by attempting a coherent (or at least continuous) discussion of the assignment and readings.
• When you speak, you must link your statement to the previous person's statement. Here are some links:
  • You can provide further evidence or examples to support a claim.
  • You can raise an objection to the claim.
    • This could be a possible flaw in the claim.
    • This could be a possible counter-claim.
  • You can suggest a possible refinement or correction to the claim.
  • You can distinguish between parts of a claim, often in conjunction with other links. For example, you might say something like ``Jack has claimed that X, which can really be considered a combination of Y and Z. While Jack is certainly correct in claiming Y, Jane has already disproven Z''.
  • You can summarize the discussion up to the present point.
  • You can relate two or more earlier statements.
  • You can request that someone clarify an earlier statement.
  • You can comment on structure or procedure of the discussion. For example, ``Joe's last comment seems to be bringing us further away from Jane's and Jack's earlier points''.
• Make those links explicit, either by a phrase that suggests the connection or simply by saying a key term (e.g., ``evidence'').
• If I note that some of you are not speaking, I may ask you to speak (and may even assign the type of link you must make).

• This is the core part of our discussion. We use our earlier notes and the linking technique to construct a more continuous and more in-depth consideration of the issues.