Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
G:
I guess click this thing over there
...
ok, we will go here and then go to other
related needs.
R: Ok
This excerpt shows that R and G were planning their exploration based on the
question: “Why do we need oxygen and how does the process go?” They selected
the link to the ATP cycle and other related needs involved in this process. They used
various strategies of connecting to their prior knowledge, for example, when G men-
tioned, “which is basically what I said” and paraphrasing the meaning of the content
(e.g., G paraphrased that “
you just store it to like where we need it”). This excerpt
also illustrated that this F-hypermedia dyad kept their attention focused on the ques-
tions they generated and judged whether the content was related to their questions.
In this way, they had opportunities to explore the interrelationships among the func-
tions and behaviors of various structures, which together comprise an aggregate
system function.
For comparison, we present an example from an S-dyad, S and J, that demon-
strates how they selected links during their exploration.
...
S:
So this is like the nose itself, like basically
...
J: Yeah
...
ahh trachea, that is how you spell it
...
there is also nose hairs that
filter out
S: Did I do this? Right?
J: Yeah we did that one.
S:
...
S: Ok, so they are all go to the spine and it protects the lungs and the heart
S: Did we do?
So let's go home
Yeah, we did.
J: What else? We did ribs, the cardiovascular system, we did not do that one.
Yeah, we did that one.
S: Ok, we did not do this one, yeah we did
J: Yeah, we did all this
...
...
I think we did everything.
This excerpt looks quite different from the one from the F-dyad, R and G. This
dyads set their goal to finish exploring every page in the hypermedia. Such explo-
ration may lead to intensive reading without deep reflection on the content. In
contrast, R and G set their goal of exploration as to answer some specific ques-
tions, which may lead to deep reflection on the content to see whether the content
answered their questions and whether it made sense. This S-dyad's focus was on
task completion rather than on monitoring and evaluating their learning progress.
Other dyads in both conditions showed similar differences. The following excerpt
displayed how another successful dyad from the F-hypermedia condition (N and V)
planned their exploration strategy:
V: Yeah, the whole oxygen, carbon dioxide thing I am really not too sure about, I
kind of thought we expelled carbon dioxide.
N: That's what I thought.
V: But I don't know if we push a button will it give us the answer?
N: Maybe
...
oh.
