20% Project Reflection 3

I found an amazing report that has looked into hypermedia being beneficial in education, and in this report specifically, in teaching literature. The report is "Hypermedia and Response-based Literature Teaching and Learning: A Critical Review of Commercial Applications," written by Karen Swan and Carla Meskill at the National Center for Research on Literature Teaching and Learning, University at Albany. I have had all these great ideas concerning the applications of hypermedia in teaching and education, and it was so rewarding to see this report. It went over many of the possible advantages of hypermedia in the report, including: (1) the student’s ability to learn independently by controlling content (student-centered learning), (2) how hypermedia supports cooperative learning, enhancing “socially mediated learning processes,” (3) the student’s ability to learn by actively participating and building up their knowledge database, which makes the student more likely to internalize what they are being taught, (4) the ability to show different examples of knowledge in a format that the student can control, so that they can move at their own pace and in a way that makes sense to them, instead of in a linear fashion, (5) being able to reach all the different kinds of learners, visual, audial, and otherwise through various media, and (6), creating a stimulating, interesting, and engaging atmosphere for students to learn. It’s nice to have my ideas set into concrete points, and this source really helped me to do that. I was having a hard time explaining what I was talking about, and why I believed it could help, and this really helped me focus my thoughts on this project.