+ Page 24 + ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ####### ######## ######## ########### ### ### ## ### ## # ### # Interpersonal Computing and ### ### ## ### ## ### Technology: ### ### ## ### ### An Electronic Journal for ### ######## ### ### the 21st Century ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ## ### ISSN: 1064-4326 ### ### ### ## ### October, 1994 ####### ### ######## ### Volume 2, Number 4, pp. 24-36 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Published by the Center for Teaching and Technology, Academic Computer Center, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057 Additional support provided by the Center for Academic Computing, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 This article is archived as BARNES IPCTV2N4 on LISTSERV@GUVM ---------------------------------------------------------------- HYPERTEXT LITERACY Sue Barnes, Marymount Manhattan College INTRODUCTION Hypertext can provide students with a new type of interactive learning experience. However, the introduction of hypertext can easily become a barrier to those who are not familiar with the technology. For example, students need to understand the electronic context, learn the visual symbols, and know the mechanics of accessing, reading and writing nonlinear texts. This article is based on a hypertext literacy project that was developed for the Advertising & Communications Department at the Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), State University of New York. F.I.T. uses two different instructional methods to teach hypertext literacy. First, students learn to read hypertexts by interacting with online documents created in the HyperCard program. Second, students read about hypertext in a traditionally printed booklet. The booklet explains the hands-on navigational skills required to read a hypertext, describes its visual icons and terminology, and discusses hypertext writing skills. Hypertext's Background Hypertext is a unique computer application. Unlike many computer programs, such as spreadsheets, word processing, and desktop publishing, it has no parallel application in the real world. Hypertext is unique to computers because it uses the technology to enable readers to pick and choose blocks of text by interacting with the machine. Moreover, it is a way of organizing information and navigating through electronic texts stored on individual computers and networks. + Page 25 + The original concept for hypertext was first proposed in a 1945 _Atlantic Monthly_ magazine article written by Vannevar Bush. Bush (1991) wrote the article to address the problem of organizing vast amounts of information. During the 1940s, the growing numbers of published articles made it impossible for scientists to follow developments in an individual discipline. People did not have enough time to read the latest texts, synthesize the material and react to it. Bush stated, "professionally our methods of transmitting and reviewing the results of research are generations old and by now are totally inadequate for their purpose" (p. 89). Therefore he argued, new methods for reading and annotating research papers, books, and scientific records need to be developed. To solve this problem, Bush (1991) described a device called a Memex or memory extender. "A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility" (p. 102). The owner of a Memex would store all of his or her research materials on the machine. Information could be accessed directly or from remote locations. In addition to proposing a new method for storing and retrieving information, Bush described new ways of working with text. He introduced three entirely new elements for textual interaction, "associative indexing (or links), trails of such links, and sets or webs of such trails. These new elements in turn produce the conception of a flexible, customizable text, one that is open--and perhaps vulnerable--to the demands of each reader" (Landow, 1992, p. 17). Bush's description of new methods for customizing texts directly influenced the work of Ted Nelson. In the 1960s, Theodore Nelson coined the term "hypertext" to describe nonsequential reading and writing displayed on a computer screen. Nonsequential reading, as defined by Nelson (1987), is text that branches and allows the reader to pick and choose blocks of text by interacting with a computer. In describing his original concept of branching, Nelson (1992) states: First, there would be new documents, a new literary genre, of branching, non-sequential writings on the computer screen. Second, these branching documents would constitute a great new literature, but they would subsume the old, since all words, all literature would go online and extend to a new branching generality" (pp. 46-47). Nelson envisioned an online system where all of the world's literature would be digitally stored on computers. Electronic links or branches would interactively connect the digital texts as the reader goes through them. For example, when a reader encounters a footnote in a text, the first text branches out and links to the second footnoted text. The reader can easily move back and forth between the first and second texts to grasp the different author's ideas. For the past thirty years, Nelson has been working to make his vision of hypertext a reality. + Page 26 + Today, the need for a method to store and access vast amounts of information is greater than it was in 1945. The population of journals and books is exploding. For example, on July 9, 1989, _The New York Times_ reported that the Library of Congress receives 31,000 new books and journals per day. Many of these texts are stored on optical disk and microfilm to stretch shelf space in the library. As library storage space becomes a problem, hypertext systems are developing as a method to electronically store journals, books and texts that were formerly stored on paper. Hypertext Today In the 1990s, there are a variety of working hypertext models. According to Heim (1993), "hypertext is a mode of interacting with texts, not a specific tool for a single purpose. You can realize what hypertext is_or can be_ only by sitting down with it for half an hour. Once caught in the interactive nature of the thing, you can begin to imagine an immense range of possible applications" (pp. 29-30). Today, the term Hypertext has been expanded to include a wide range of computer applications such as interactive books, encyclopedias, online reference indexes, and other forms of nonlinear reading and writing which are created by means of computer technology. These applications enable students to interact with blocks of text by picking and choosing topics of interest as they navigate through hypertext documents. To read documents, students must learn to navigate and explore the text rather than follow a single path. Learning text navigational skills transforms the student into an active information explorer who blazes trails through information space. Blazing trails through information space is "analogous to the trail of mental association in the [student's] mind" (Nyce & Kahn, 1991, p. 58). "Instead of a linear, page-by-page, line-by-line, book- by-book approach, the user connects information in an intuitive, associative manner. Hypertext fosters a literacy that is prompted by jumps of intuition and association" (Heim, 1993, p. 30). By jumping to different passages in a single text or to passages in different texts, multilinear hypertext presents multiple points of view. "No piece of hypertext ever sings solo; it always collaborates in a (cacophonous?) choir with all of the other nodes of the network in which it is implicated" (Fowler, 1994, p. 18). Multilinear reading requires students to make critical choices about which passage of text or point of view they will access next. The complexity of these decisions depends on the type of document and the design of the hypertext system. For example, HyperCard documents that reside on a single computer have fewer connecting texts than networked systems. Apple Computer's HyperCard is a relatively simple system to navigate. HyperCard uses the central metaphor of a stack of cards. Students view one card at a time on the computer screen. However, "the cards possess great flexibility of arrangement. A stack of them + Page 27 + can be seen as a continuous circle, which can be viewed equally well forward or backward" (Dickey, 1991, p. 146). Additionally, links between cards can be easily created by adding buttons. Visual iconic buttons are used in HyperCard to move the reader forward, backward and to linked texts. Clicking on a button with the mouse will direct the student to the linked card of information. Finding and selecting linked cards is as simple as identifying a button and clicking on it with the mouse. In contrast, networked hypertexts can be very complex. In large networked systems students can select textual passages that are stored on different computers systems around the world. For example, the World Wide Web (WWW) is a hypertext information retrieval system. Students are "presented with a starting document. Some of the words in the starting document will be highlighted, which marks these as hypermedia links to other documents on the Internet. Selecting one of these links will cause the requested document to be downloaded and displayed" (Santoro, 1994, p. 84). Keyword links connect the documents together into an associative information web. "Every keyword or important concept is linked through hypertext with another set of knowledge modules. This actually simulates association - the most important learning capability of the human mind" (He & Knapp, 1994, p. 33). However, the associations in these systems are not random. They are structured and systematically designed. For example, a student can search for information on a specific subject, such as vegetarian recipes. A list of categories and choices will then be displayed on the computer screen. Recipes can be selected by type of vegetable or courses such as carrot or deserts. Each category has a directory list of recipes. Once the selection is made, the program will access the information from the remote computer and display the selected recipe on the screen. This structured design aspect of hypertext eliminates ambiguous choices from the reading process. Hypertext and Reading Replacing ambiguous choices with predictable ones, improves reading in general. According to Smith (1985), prediction is an essential reading skill. We predict because the world is full of ambiguity and we can become overwhelmed with possibilities. A second "reason for prediction is that there would otherwise be far too many alternatives to choose among" (p. 77). Hypertext designs eliminate alternatives by linking together texts based on a theme or topic. By enabling students to select texts based on a related topic, they will not become overwhelmed with information. In contrast, students can gain a greater sense of control that will maintain their interest in the texts. Interest in texts can be sustained because the process of manually searching to find the cross referenced texts listed in a book + Page 28 + is eliminated. Cross references are automatically linked to a document. With a click of the mouse button a linked source or author's note will appear on the screen. "The reader can follow the link to another text indicated by the note and thus move entirely outside the scholarly article itself" (Landow, 1992, p. 5). This type of access to multiple texts improves critical thinking skills because readers can decided if a note warrants careful reading or if the reader should return to the main text. Moreover, students have access to multiple texts with different points of view. In contrast, printed books tend to present a single vision. To access multiple texts in a hypertext system, students need to learn how to navigate through electronic space. Navigation is a nonlinear process with multiple paths. In contrast, traditional books are linear with a single path. Books are linear because they are structured by the written word. Nelson (1987) states: "Ordinary writing is sequential for two reasons. First, it grew out of speech and speech-making, which have to be sequential; and second, because books are not convenient to read except in a sequence" (p. DM 29). In contrast, hypertexts are nonlinear because they are based on computer technology. "Computer storage and screen display mean that we no long have to have things in sequence; totally arbitrary structures are possible" (p. DM 29). The nonlinear characteristic of hypertext creates a new type of reading and writing environment. It is an environment that supports the development of interactive learning materials. These materials include reference works, electronic magazines, and instructional how- to tutorials. Currently, F.I.T. has been introducing hypertext learning materials into computer-oriented curricula. For example, Hypertexts are currently being used by the Advertising & Communications Department (ADCOM) in the course _Multimedia Computing for Advertising Communications_. In this course hypertexts are used as hands-on computer based learning tutorials to teach students the usage of various computer programs and computer-oriented concepts. Specifically, we use hypertexts to create interactive learning environments to introduce students to spreadsheet computer programs, computer-based drawing tools, computer networking concepts, and hypertext literacy. Hypertext Barriers While hypertext learning environments provide students with an new type of interactive learning and reading experience, the introduction of hypertext can also become a barrier to those who are not familiar with the technology. Hypertext documents are different from printed texts in three ways: first, hypertext requires that students be familiar with computers and know how to access the hypertext information. Second, hypertexts present information in the form of verbal text and nonverbal images. "Hypertextuality inevitably + Page 29 + includes a far higher percentage of nonverbal information than does print" (Landow, 1992, p. 43). Hypertexts use icons that are not found in printed texts, such as arrows, buttons, and scrolling bars as a navigation tool to guide a student through the text. Third, hypertext presents information in a nonlinear reading approach. The ability of hypertext to "link" or connect various pieces of information together makes it possible for the reader to pick and choose topics from a directory list or click on an iconic button, and access additional information about the textual information. Thus, students are now "experiencing a text as part of a network of navigable relations," (Landow, 1992, p. 126) instead of a linear sequence of ideas. It is this characteristic of hypertext that creates an interactive style for reading textual information, and consequently is altering the form of reading. Therefore, hypertexts are fundamentally different from printed texts and they change a student's instructional experience with texts by requiring a student to learn interactive reading and text navigation skills. While students entering college are experienced print-based textbook readers, the same assumption cannot be made about their hypertext reading skills. A survey taken during the project in introductory computer courses indicates that 14% of the students entering the courses had never used a computer. Additionally, 65% of the students entering the courses had never used a computer-based interactive learning tutorial. Moreover, 83% of the students stated that they had never read an interactive book on a computer screen, and 70% had never heard of the term hypertext. The survey revealed that students attending college courses have varying degrees of experience with computers and some are totally computer illiterate. For the past three years, I have been observing hypertext literate and illiterate students read hypertexts in the course _Multimedia Computing for Advertising Communications_. Illiterate computer students get confused and disoriented by the iconic navigation tools used to read information. In contrast, computer literate students appear to be able to navigate a path and complete reading the document. However, neither group understands how to use a directory of information to access topics as an instructional tool. For example, students do not tend to go back and use the hypertext as a "textbook" to review or re-read information to study for exams. Additionally, students do not understand how information in a hypertext document can be accessed to support class assignments and projects. On the other hand, once a student is taught how to navigate and read the hypertext, the student begins to use hypertexts as a learning tool to support classroom and homework assignments. Hypertext Literacy Project Therefore, this past semester, the Advertising and Communications Department implemented a hypertext literacy program to teach students + Page 30 + how to use hypertext learning materials. The methodology used in this project was twofold: first, a printed document was created to instruct students how to access hypertexts on a computer and use hypertext literature as a learning tool; and second, a hypertext interactive instructional tutorial was programmed for students to learn how to navigate and read hypertexts through hands-on experience. The printed and online materials were developed in this project to support both traditional reading and hypertext reading styles. Therefore, we created materials in a printed form and as an interactive hypertext demonstration to provide two different learning styles to teach the concepts of hypertext literacy. The print-based and hypertext literacy materials both include a description of hypertext and its history, an illustrated section on hypertext terminology with HyperCard button icons, an explanation of how to navigate through a hypertext, examples of different types of documents, and a discussion of writing hypertexts. Additionally, the printed materials include a step-by-step visual and verbal description of how to access the online tutorial on the computer. Once students learn to use hypertexts, hypertexts can become a valuable instructional tool. Learning to use hypertexts provides four major benefits for students. First, hypertexts instruct students by presenting verbal and visual information about a topic, such as how to use a spreadsheet. The students can use the visual and verbal information to (a) learn about spreadsheets, and (b) see what computer skills are required to create a spreadsheet. Thus, students are able to more completely understand the material they are learning because they receive information in both a visual and verbal format. Second, hypertexts installed on computers can be used during any lab session as a method of self-study. After students learn to read hypertext literature, they are not dependent upon a teacher or lab assistant to use hypertext instructional materials. Third, students can use hypertext instruction beyond a single semester or an introductory computer course to reinforce skills and concepts. For example, students, who have completed basic courses and are working on assignments that use spreadsheets, (such as an advertising media plan or a product development plan), can study the skills and concepts of creating a spreadsheet on the computer by reviewing hypertext tutorials. Thus, information presented in one course can be applied to a project in a different course by accessing hypertext literature. Lastly, hypertext instruction can be used as a review for tests and exams. Hypertexts are designed as an instructional method to explain a specific subject, such as how to create and use a spreadsheet. In addition to basic instruction, hypertext literature can also be used to review and study course information, just like a regular textbook. + Page 31 + The benefits of learning to use hypertexts include providing the student with a more active role than is possible with traditional textbooks. Students are required to make decisions about the information they are reading and accessing through the computer. Students using hypertexts must be mentally active while they are interacting with the information. Consequently, learning with hypertext becomes more student-centered because the emphasis of hypertext is on an active reader. Because hypertext is student- centered, hypertext systems are generally called learning systems, rather than teaching systems. Hypertext learning systems introduce an exploratory or discovery method of learning into the classroom. Students who learn to use hypertexts become active learners. Simultaneously, while students are becoming more mentally active, they are also interacting with new ways of presenting information through computer-based technologies. When using hypertext for learning, Nelson (1987) states: "a principle point is that the student is in control and may use his initiative dynamically; the subject is NOT artificially processed into a presentational sequence" (p. DM 31). However, some hypertexts are written to present information in a continuous progression. For example, several software companies distribute hypertext tutorials along with their programs to help users learn the software. While, these tutorials are visually engaging and encourage self-paced instruction, they are simultaneously "locked" or "fixed" tutorials. Students cannot incorporate their own notes or easily modify the information. Educators introducing hypertexts into the classroom should be aware that some hypertexts are "read only" and others are for reading and writing. Generally, commercially distributed hypertexts, such as software tutorials and encyclopedias on CD-ROMs, are read-only texts. In contrast, academic projects (Bolter, 1992; Landow,1992) can incorporate hypertext reading and writing skills. Hypertext Writing Skills At F.I.T. we introduced hypertext reading skills in our introductory computer course, but now we are developing a second course to address the issues of hypertext writing skills. Writing hypertext documents can bring together a variety of different visual and verbal communication skills. For example, during the online document design process for this project, the following skills were required: traditional writing skills, graphic design skills, interactive message design skills, and computer authoring (programming) skills. Traditional reading and writing skills are necessary in the initial research for a project and to write text for the document. Once the written materials are developed, a hypertext needs an overall visual design. In traditional printing, the visual design or page layout is arranged by a graphic designer. "Most people view graphic design as a purely aesthetic endeavor: How good does it look?' But + Page 32 + graphic design has always been much more than just a concern for the aesthetic properties of the printed page (or computer screen)" (Lynch, 1990, p. 9). For example, we tend to forget that printed books are visually organized with page numbers, chapter headings, table of contents, and indexes because we have been learning to read books since we were children. But, book design is based on established publishing standards, information management, and aesthetics. It has been evolving since the Gutenberg Bible of 1456. The visual organization and standardization of hypertext will have to go through a similar evolutionary process. In hypertext the role of graphic design is crucial because these documents incorporate data types that are more visually oriented. For example, hypertexts (referred to as hypermedia) incorporate text, graphics, animation, audio and video in a single document. However, it should be noted that hypertext or hypermedia is different from multimedia. "Many multimedia systems are based mostly on displaying various film clips to a passive user who does not get to navigate an information space. Only when users interactively take control of a set of dynamic links among units of information does a system get to be hypertext" (Nielsen, 1990, p. 10). The ability of hypertext to display animation , film, and video clips in a document adds another level of visual literacy and media skills to the creation process. In addition to presenting visual information, visual elements in hypertext are also navigation tools. Navigation tools create interactive messages by indicating links to blocks of text and visuals. The reader has the option to explore various reading paths by selecting these visual linking elements. Icons, pictures, arrows, buttons, and scrolling bars guide the reader through the nonlinear sequences of text and images. Hypertext authors need to include these visual nonverbal navigation cues within their texts. Navigation cues indicate reading paths and they need to be easily understood by readers. Thus, designing visual elements to guide readers through a text is an integral part of the hypertext writing process. Reader orientation is a challenge for hypertext authors. Readers need to be able to understand some of the differences between electronic and printed texts. To assist hypertext authors, Landow (1991) has developed a set of rules to help writers create hypertexts that are meaningful for readers. These rules include: the creation of links that encourage habits of relational thinking in the reader; providing devices that stimulate the reader to think and explore; and creating markers for orientation. These markers enable readers to determine their present location and their location in relationship to other sections of the hypertext. While, the nonsequential characteristic of hypertext encourages exploration of texts, it also creates a new level of complexity for authors. Authors can create several reading paths in a hypertext. For example, the online Hypertext Literacy document, developed as part of + Page 33 + this project, has two different reading paths. The first path is sequential because it was written as a single HyperCard document. HyperCard is based on the metaphor of a stack of cards or an office "Rolodex" of cards. The last card in the stack brings the reader back to the first card. This feature of the program allows a reader to read the document in sequence from the beginning to the end, just like a regular book. Additionally, the literacy project hypertext was designed to be read nonsequentially by selecting visual buttons. By incorporating visual buttons into the text, the reader also has the option to go to a "Topics" card and read the text by selecting specific topics of interest. At any time, the reader can click with the mouse on a "Topics" button that will link the reader to the Topics Card. It functions as a directory or index for the hypertext. Clicking on the written topics highlighted on the card will then link the reader to the selected section or "chapter" in the hypertext. By designing the hypertext to be read both sequentially and nonsequentially, two different reading paths were created by the author. Designing the reading paths in a hypertext requires a knowledge of simple programming or authoring skills. For example, authors need to know how to create buttons with links between cards. There are two methods for creating links in HyperCard. Establishing links is either typed in as a script written in the programming language HyperTalk or by selecting menu commands with the mouse. "The link may be embedded in the body of a document, embedded as part of a graphic or video image, listed at the end of the document or contained in an index" (Shneiderman & Kearsley, 1989, pp. 3-4). Links produce a variety of results. They can move to a new topic; show a reference; provide a footnote, a definition, or ancillary information; display a "topic" card, directory or index and they can show a video sequence or display a photograph or illustration. All of these various links create interactive reading paths for students to explore. Conclusion Programming reading paths for students to navigate, selecting visual elements as navigation tools, and creating documents that looks visually exciting are challenges for hypertext authors. But meeting these challenges provides students with a new method to express their ideas. Integrating hypertext writing skills into the classroom enables students to find new ways to assemble and present projects. Students can expand text-oriented assignments to include graphics, pictures, and video clips to further explain an idea. Additionally, students can work independently or in collaboration over networks to create texts. Students and teachers can write stacks and share them with each other within a school or across distances. For example, schools around the world have been exchanging HyperCard stacks through Apple Computer's networking service called AppleLink. + Page 34 + Also, stacks can be exchanged over the Internet. Using hypertext combined with AppleLink or the Internet, creates a networked classroom that facilitates the exchange of written assignments. In this context, hypertext "moves everyone involved with the networked writing classroom toward a more dynamic understanding of the writing process as open-ended interaction" (Bunting, 1993, p. 19). Students now experience the writing process as an interactive experience that is shared with other students and teachers. Thus, classroom writing is transformed from an isolated and solitary act into a written group discussion. Students and teachers who overcome the barriers of hypertext literacy skills enter into a new type of literacy experience. This experience transforms students from passive learners to active information explorers. Moreover, hypertext provides a method for students and teachers to interactively collaborate on projects and present ideas with interactive visual and verbal messages. REFERENCES Barrett, E. (1989). The society of text: Hypertext, hypermedia, and the social construction of information. Cambridge: MIT Press. Bolter, D.J. (1992). Literature in the electronic writing space. In M.C. Tuman (Ed.), Literacy online, pp. 19-42. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. Bunting, T. (1993). Designing interactive writing classes in HyperCard. Technology for New Learning Environments, Presentations at the Conference on Instructional Technologies, June 9-11, 1993, pp. 19-21. Sponsored by the State University of New York, Faculty Access to Computing Technology (SUNY FACT). Bush, V. (1991). As we may think. In J.M. Nyce & P. Kahn (Eds.), From Memex to hypertext, pp. 85-110. Delany, P. & Landow G.P. (1991). Hypermedia and literary studies. Cambridge: MIT Press. Dickey, W. (1991). Poem descending a staircase: Hypertext and simultaneity of experience. In P. Delany & G.P. Landow Hypermedia and literary studies, pp. 143-152. Cambridge: MIT Press. Fowler, R.M. (1994, July). How the secondary orality of the electronic age can awaken us to the primary orality of antiquity or what hypertext can teach us about the Bible. Interpersonal Computing and Technology: An Electronic Journal for the 21st Century, pp. 12-46. (archived as FOWLER IPCTV2N3 on LISTSERV@GUVM) + Page 35 + He, Peter Wei & Knapp Sara D. (1994). The teaching of the Internet and its influence on instruction. New faculty roles in new learning environments, Presentations at the third conference on instructional technologies, June 1-3, 1994, University at Albany, State University of New York, pp. 31-34. Sponsored by SUNY FACT. Heim, M. (1993). The metaphysics of virtual reality. New York: Oxford University Press. Landow, G.P. (1991). The rhetoric of hypermedia: Some rules for authors. In P. Delany & G.P. Landow (Eds.), Hypermedia and literary studies, pp. 81-103. Cambridge, MIT Press. __________ (1992). Hypertext: The convergence of contemporary critical theory and technology. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. Lanham, Richard A. (1993). The electronic word: Democracy, technology, and the arts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Lynch, P.J. (1990, September/October). Graphic design and multimedia. Syllabus, pp. 9-10. Nelson, T. (1987). Computer lib/dream machines, (Revised Edition). Redmond, WA: Tempus Books of Microsoft Press. __________. (1992). Opening hypertext: A memoir. In M.C. Tuman, (Ed.), Literacy online: The promise (and peril) of reading and writing with computers, pp. 43-57. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. Nielsen, J. (1990). Hypertext & hypermedia. Boston: Academic Press. Nyce, J.M. & Kahn, P. (1991). From Memex to hypertext: Vannevar Bush and the mind's machine. Boston: Academic Press. Santoro, G.M. (1994, April). The Internet: An overview. Communication Education, 43(2) 71-86. Shneiderman, B. & Kearsley, G. (1989). Hypertext hands-on! Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. Smith, F. (1985). Reading without nonsense. New York: Teachers College Press. Tuman, M.C. (Ed.) (1992). Literacy online: The promise (and peril) of reading and writing with computers. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. + Page 36 + ----------------------------------------------------------- BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Sue Barnes Assistant Professor of Communication Arts Marymount Manhattan College 221 East 71st Street New York, N.Y. 10021-4597 Phone: 212-517-0400 Fax: 212-517-0413 E-Mail: sbb3007@acfcluster.nyu.edu Home: 212-679-0086 Fax: 212-576-1180 Sue Barnes, M.F.A., is an assistant professor in the Communication Arts Department at Marymount Manhattan College. The Hypertext Literacy Project described in this article was developed with a 1993-94 State University of New York Faculty Grant for the Improvement of Undergraduate Instruction. Sue Barnes is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Culture and Communication at N.Y.U. Currently, she is writing the last section of her dissertation on the history and development of the graphical user interface. Professionally, she is an Apple Consultant and multimedia designer. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Interpersonal Computing and Technology: An Electronic Journal for the 21st Century Copyright 1994 Georgetown University. Copyright of individual articles in this publication is retained by the individual authors. Copyright of the compilation as a whole is held by Georgetown University. It is asked that any republication of this article state that the article was first published in IPCT-J. Contributions to IPCT-J can be submitted by electronic mail in APA style to: Gerald Phillips, Editor IPCT-J GMP3@PSUVM.PSU.EDU