“Reading” the Web: Making Sense on the Information Superhighway

Abstract

This article reports on ongoing research being undertaken by the Technology and Literate Thinking group of the national Center on English Learning and Achievement (CELA) and concerned with how people make sense of WWW-based information. It discusses researchers' preliminary observations based on the think aloud protocols of fifteen adult students, the model of WWW "reading" they are developing, and directions for future research. Of particular interest is the absence of the linking by association predicted by many media scholars.In 1964, Marshall McLuhan suggested that the "medium is the message," that the forms of communication embraced by a culture were more important than the content of the messages they carried [1]. We internalize, he argued, the symbol systems of the dominant media of our culture as habits of thought. Because the symbol systems of differing media can be very differently structured, changes in *

Effects of Overviews and Computer Experience on Learning from Hypertext

“…Computer experience may have influenced achievement because it reduced the cognitive load associated with learning from hypertext, thereby permitting participants with high computer experience to focus increased mental resources on learning. This explanation is supported by other studies indicating that individuals with increased computer experience show greater facility at recognizing hypertext structure [24,25] and studies showing that students with Internet experience move more easily through information presented in hypertext form [23]. Recognizing a hypertext's structure may reduce the mental resources needed to remain oriented in a hypertext environment.…”

“…In addition to the use of organizers, the amount of computer experience a student has may influence navigation and learning from hypertext. Swan, Bowman, Vargas, Schweig and Holmes examined how people make sense of electronically presented information on the World Wide Web and found that more experienced hypertext users navigated through electronic texts with greater ease than those with less experience [23] This implies that learners who are familiar with hypertext may expend fewer mental resources on navigation and orientation than learners who are less familiar with hypertext. Thus, experienced hypertext users may have more resources available for knowledge assimilation.…”