EDU 807 Spring 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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I see the roots of so many modern computer programs in this video. The hyper card reminds me of an operating system or a program where you can customize content and processes. The fact that the strings of commands were so easy to modify and create, I give them a lot of credit.
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The hypercard is a great tool to learn programming and functions. The roots and basic skills of how programs and apps are connected.
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In 1987, let’s keep in mind that most computer interfaces were command line, which is forbidding for anyone who doesn’t know the commands. The programmers here and programmers in general try their best to break down the barriers between users and creation by offering user-friendly interfaces. At this point, graphical interfaces were just becoming possible with increasing processor power.
It’s amazing to hear the word hypertext used here when it wouldn’t be part of the mainstream lexicon for another 10 years.
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… and, given the idea that it was pre-WWW, I wonder what you are thinking about bullet point 2?
What potential purposes could Hypercard — as a component of teaching and learning — and why/how was it different from other programs?
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It almost reminds me of a very primitive version of OneNote—at once an organizational and sandbox environment, but without the network capabilities. In terms of teaching and learning, it would be less of a collaborative tool and perhaps more of a lesson planning or demonstration tool.
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This closed ecosystem of information really anticipated what users would want when the web came to full fruition. Notice how the “find” bar accepted simple commands like “find horse.” One of the interviewers was actually surprised that it sounded like plain English rather than an arcane script.
The program anticipates the need for a desktop, or central hub that includes calendars and other organizational tools. The home screen that they show is fairly similar to a mobile OS. Imagine if instead of using the term “cards” the programmers used “apps.”
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Again, I deal more with adult learners so, I think for adults it is the freedom to explore and make the connections themselves that this system would have allowed. Certainly not an open system, but certainly moving closer. For the teachers the ability to organize information in an interface mechanism that was user friendly for learners with no technical knowledge or certainly lower technical knowledge than was required by their predecessors opens a lot of opportunities also.interactive. Whoops, this comment was supposed to go down a little way as a response to Dr Hicks.
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That’s crazy to look back on this time frame. I remember everything being Dos based. So this appears to be at the time frame right before we had true GUI systems. This looks to be a cross between a data base, gui and maybe something else. Who has the agency is an interesting question, certainly the designers but equally so the users.
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I don’t know that I understood that terms you just used. And in thinking about that, I don’t actually need to because these programs are designed to allow someone with limited or some technical knowledge to make these things work the way I want them to.
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I see your point, but going through training like this would solve so many issues with tech content knowledge. I know if my mom had training like this, I would be helping her a lot less now!
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This was a fairly significant change to technology capabilities for users at the time. I would think teachers could have developed presentations using it that may not have been the thought of by its developers. Even just linking knowledge bases would have been interesting for teacher sto turn their student loose for a minute
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… I think that you are picking up on a key point here, and I would be interested in hearing you expand on it a bit more.
Why is it important to think about how people (especially students) can connect knowledge in these ways? What does this do for them as learners?
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Being able to connect the multiple things you are learning is probably the most important skill to acquire. To solve big problems faced in the working world, you have to connect ideas. I think this is one way to stop using strictly memorization and response as a teaching method and move more toward creating and making connections in learning. Could this be a foundation to Problem or project based learning?
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I agree, this would be hard to implement as a teaching tool. I see it being able to teach users about computers, but for teachers to use this to present items to students would be very challenging.
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