EDU 807 Summer 2018 - Week 5 - Hypercard Introduction Group 1
Hosted on the Internet Archive, this video about Hypercard (26:50) is described as:
An introduction to Apple's Hypercard. Guests include Apple Fellow and Hypercard creator Bill Atkinson, Hypercard senior engineer Dan Winkler, author of "The Complete Hypercard Handbook" Danny Goodman, and Robert Stein, Publisher of Voyager Company. Demonstrations include Hypercard 1.0, Complete Car Cost Guide, Focal Point, Laserstacks, and National Galllery of Art. Originally broadcast in 1987. Copyright 1987 Stewart Cheifet Productions.
We are going to watch one segment of the video, both because I can't embed the media from the Internet Archive (and this segment was on YouTube) as well because you just got done doing lots of reading. Please view the video and respond to these questions:
- How is Hypercard described? Given the focus of computer-aided instructions in the 1980s, and the fact that this was pre-WWW, what was unique, interesting, useful, or engaging about this program?
- What potential purposes could Hypercard -- as a component of teaching and learning -- and why/how was it different from other programs?
- Though the video doesn't talk about it in particular, in what ways might this use of technology position teachers? In what ways might it position students?
- In short, who has power and agency as you look at the way technology is described?
Please offer at least two initial comments on the video, as well as two responses to your classmates. Despite the impulse to make comments on the clothing, hairstyles, and eyewear, please try (try!) to keep your comments focused on the content of the video.
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Hypercard is described as an erector set (blast from the past) for individuals without programing skills who would like to created interactive media. Hypercard is a collection of different cards or pages that are linked together and can be navigated through a series of buttons. Buttons allow users to not only navigate the collection of cards, but allows designers to embed different function that can be triggered by the buttons. The example of clicking a button and having it dial the phone must have been amazing in 1987. Cards contain both information and interactional element which was a new concept. Additionally, buttons within a card could be linked and searchable. Best of all the stack of cards could be easily transported on a series of 5.25-inch floppy disks!
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I had to look up “erector set” and take a look at the various mechanical building sets that were suggested as fitting the definition. Would Legos work?
This was 1989, I believe, and I remember using a 5.25 floppy for my Masters in Education coursework at Walla Walla University in Washington. It was my first time to do a research paper on a computer. I still had to go to the library and use index cards, real periodicals and microfiche for resources for my papers that summer. I still thought I was doing cool things, though, by using a computer for the first time for schooling.
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I think (as was mentioned) Apple retains a portion of the agency here. The design the platform and its affordances. I am not sure, pre-internet, if there is any communication with apple servers via a modem, but that would allow apple to have power and agency over user data.
However, I think this system is a surprisingly advanced application of features of Web 2.0 that were developed much later. Users can create, share and organize small bit of information and media. This puts the power and agency in the hands of the user.
In an educational setting, this power translates to the learners and the instructor nicely. An instructor can create and assign cards. Additionally the instructor could collaborate with the learners in the creating of knowledge structures built wit these cards. Last learners could work in groups to build these stacks to digest and elaborate on them.
Overall I think power rests more with the users.
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Hosted on the Internet Archive, this video about Hypercard (26:50) is described as:
An introduction to Apple’s Hypercard. Guests include Apple Fellow and Hypercard creator Bill Atkinson, Hypercard senior engineer Dan Winkler, author of “The Complete Hypercard Handbook” Danny Goodman, and Robert Stein, Publisher of Voyager Company. Demonstrations include Hypercard 1.0, Complete Car Cost Guide, Focal Point, Laserstacks, and National Galllery of Art. Originally broadcast in 1987. Copyright 1987 Stewart Cheifet Productions.
We are going to watch one segment of the video, both because I can’t embed the media from the Internet Archive (and this segment was on YouTube) as well because you just got done doing lots of reading. Please view the video and respond to these questions:
How is Hypercard described? Given the focus of computer-aided instructions in the 1980s, and the fact that this was pre-WWW, what was unique, interesting, useful, or engaging about this program?
What potential purposes could Hypercard — as a component of teaching and learning — and why/how was it different from other programs?
Though the video doesn’t talk about it in particular, in what ways might this use of technology position teachers? In what ways might it position students?
In short, who has power and agency as you look at the way technology is described?
Please offer at least two initial comments on the video, as well as two responses to your classmates. Despite the impulse to make comments on the clothing, hairstyles, and eyewear, please try (try!) to keep your comments focused on the content of the video.
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For the developers and users of the new tech Hypercard, there was plenty of excitement and attempts to utilize its affordances for business, home and industry. No mention was made of school.
It would have been perfect for education (and probably soon found its way there, though the video doesn’t mention it). For collecting, linking, sharing and creating more information, this program couldn’t be beat in that day. It could be used for teaching information, for research, for analysis, and for application of content. Sound familiar?
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Macintosh computers had the initial power and the agency because people could use Hypercard only on a Mac. The use of the technology was limited by that fact, especially for schools in 1987. My college had a computer in each dorm room by 1986, but we were not doing library research from our bunk beds. The connectivity of today did not exist on my campus anyway.
The potential for users to have power and agency was built into the tech, though. To be able to search for, organize, and share information, and to create more cards was empowering. On the full video clip, one businessman said it “gave him the tingles.” He was a youngish man. I wonder what he thinks of the tech of today.
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You raise an interesting point, Susan, about the fact that – just because the computers were there – it doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone begin using them immediately and to their full capability. Part of this, of course, is just a learning curve for everyone, including the teachers.
Part of it, however, also has to do with mindset. Helping others develop an open-minded and constructive approach to technology use is always difficult, especially when we are simply unaware of the possibilities.
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I agree Dr. Hicks, people have to be aware. I, personally, have never heard of these. I went to a very rural school that did not even have computers in 1986. We were taking word processing/typing courses then. That is one of the things that I really like about this doctoral program. It really opens up everyone to learn and see what others are doing in the same areas. We are all learning, there is so much out there to help us and so many people that want to help us learn with greater cause.
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Michelle, I agree with you that the DET program is fascinating to me with it’s opportunities to observe, converse, learn and lead. Ten years ago perhaps this degree did not even exist. I’m glad that my opportunity to study for a doctorate came exactly when it did.
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This is one of the things that attracted me to the program- that it is so unique. I looked at several EdDs and this program had everything I was looking for while being unique.
Online and blended learning has progressed so much in the last 5 years. As we look back at videos like this we see that in some ways technology is just catching up with ideas that may have been around for quite some time. This was also apparent as we read Clark and Kozma last semester.
I am happy to have the chance to look back at where EdTech was 20 years ago to inform where we are going.
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It is a cliche, but technology and using technology for education in any arena is an ever-moving target. Even if the educators had had everything figured out in 1989, and 1999, and 2011, those of us in 2018 have new tools, new standards to meet, new learning preferences among our students, new worries ourselves, and what worked before may or may not be super relevant now. The possibilities you mentioned are even greater now!
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It did not even occur to me that these were only on Mac’s until I read your comment, Susan. That is definitely a debilitating factor for these hypercards. I wonder how many people even had computers back then. I think that these were very empowering for people though, too. All users had to do was type in a name or click on a section of the screen and they could find the information they were looking for. That was high tech and very organized back then for something that just controlled words and black and white images.
I agree and wonder what those creators think of the hypercards today. I imagine they were probably involved with creating hypertext project later on.
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Michelle, those men on the screen would most likely be alive now, tinkering with Google and screen casting, and blogging and more. They were SO enthusiastic and amazed by the clicking and finding, the sorting, organizing, and creating opportunities offered by the rather internal www created by Hypercard.
My husband and I sat and watched the whole YouTube video selection that included the Hypercard interview (that’s where I learned that the Hypercard was only on Macs.) We enjoyed the part where the announcer told of the latest tech being shown at the Las Vegas convention, in its tenth year at the time. We have really advanced since that day.
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I agree that the creators of Hypercard would be blown away by current technology, but I do not think they would be surprised. Hypertext in general seems to have just been a flash in the pan as an interface with innovations quickly moving away from self-contained systems. However, the innovations of linking elements and non-linear content design are foundational to how media is designed and organized today. The men being interviewed were ahead of their time and laid a significant foundation for the fields of educational and interactive technology.
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They were ahead of their time. It was exciting to see things from their perspective—during the interview.
Who are the tech thinkers now? Who is ahead of our time and what is he/she talking about, excited about?
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The description that the creator of hypercard gives is that it is “software erector set,” it lets people with no programming knowledge “program” their own information. I had honestly never heard of hypercards before, so I thought this was pretty advanced for its time. Hypercards are interesting because they allowed individuals to change the software and customize it to what they wanted. Normally, in software from the 80’s, individuals were limited on what they could do by the software itself. These hypercards allowed the users to link themselves however they deemed fit. The “programmer” could link whatever they wanted, however they wanted. They are engaging because the buttons could be programmed to make noise or the pictures could be programmed a certain way to link to each other. It is a very interesting way of organizing.
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Thanks, Michelle, for your thoughts on this. Indeed, thinking about knowledge making through “hyper cards” or any kind of hypertext connection is still something that – even with tools like Onenote, Evernote, Google keep, and others I don’t know that everyone fully considers the possibilities.
In addition, I’m not sure that this is how many students experience school, or how teachers continue to construct knowledge making opportunities. To what extent do we – even here in graduate school – really allow for diverse and hyperlinked opportunities for knowledge making?
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I agree, in my experience hypertext seems to be an underutilized technology. Many instructors will link to outside resources or post supplemental content from the web. While this is a great use of resources, it does have its disadvantages. We have all at one point or another found ourselves meandering down the rabbit hole which is the internet. With a significant percentage of students not being well versed in strategic internet skills, the robust amount of information available (especially poor quality resources) on the web can be counterproductive to the learning process (Van Deursen & Van Diepen, 2013). By having information and interactive elements linked in a self-contained learning environment, designers can better control student’s interaction with the content. This provides the affordances of allowing students the ability to engage in the content in a more personalized and immersing fashion, while allowing instructors to better control content delivery.
Van Deursen, A., & Van Diepen, S. (2013). Information and strategic Internet skills of secondary students:. Computers & Education, 63, 218-226.
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Thanks for mentioning the ability to create and implement button in the HyperCard platform. This takes the platform from being a note-taking tools to also functioning as a simple authoring platform.
I use current authoring systems like Articulate and Captivate to create elearning modules, so this system could have functioned similarly to these to convey information to learners, but also allowing for constructivist style exploration of content.
Surprisingly, the HyperCard system has some features that still are not present in these modern authoring tools. For example, scripting is somewhat limited. While JavaScript can be integrated, it’s more of an add-on than part of the tools. HyperCard has scripting built-in.
This shows that the ideas are out there to improve interactivity in these elearning modules, including integrating more 2-way communication. In fact the technology is also there, as evidenced by numerous Web 2.0 tools over the past 15 years. However, for some reason there is a gap in the development of 2-way interactivity in these modern authoring tools.
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As far as power goes with hypercards, I think that both teacher and students have it. I may be wrong, but I feel like the teacher has to make the original stacks or at least show the students how to make stacks. Then link the ones together that they want the student going to or viewing. After that, I feel like the power shifts to the students. Once the students know how to do it or see how it is done, I feel like their power would take over and they would be the ones linking and creating. So, I feel like this power starts with the teacher then ends with the students.
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I believe Hypercard had three significant advantages over other tools at the time. The most significant advantage from an architecture standpoint was it allowed designers to organize information and interactive elements in ways that let users navigate the information in a non-linear pattern. Buttons allowed designers to link to not only different cards, but to different stacks as well. The second significant advantage was buttons allowed designers to associate different elements/buttons and add meta-data to make elements searchable. This allowed users to interact with the cards using natural patterns of language. The third and potentially most significant advantage is that Hypercard simplified the programing process. This allowed lower level users, without programing experience, to take advantage of the tool. This advantage holds the most significance in terms of Hypercard’s ability to be implemented as a learning tool. Now teachers who had the resources and creativity, but perhaps not the programming background, to create interactive learning environments which could be customized to their content.
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What are the “buttons” of today that open more and more doors technologically?
What tech is especially cherished by teachers who have no programming background, yet the tech lets them play anyway?
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I found this video quite surprising and really relevant to my research in this class. I am looking at linking, notation systems and web annotation. While this system predates the Internet, there are numerous affordances that enable users to keep, share and link information.
This system has essentially many of the same features as something like Evernote or OneNote. The modular system appears to make the platform very flexible and powerful.
I was especially impressed with two features: the linking capability and the ability to share with other users. These features and the eas e of UI presented in the video were surprisingly advanced for the time. I think the linking capabilities could be utilized by todays note taking platforms!
Additionally the WYSIWYG editor that auto converts to scripts is pretty amazing too. In short Im’; surprised this didn’t catch on.
In terms of uses, I think research (especially collaborative research) could be enabled with this system. Additionally a module or lesson could be created by an instructor and distributed to students. Since the cards are so adaptable, the instructor haas the opportunity to design knowledge structures as they like.
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