Children's literacy perceptions as they authored with hypermedia.

Abstract

The first hypermedia project was based on one novel and the children authored in teams of two to create a stack-like presentation of their perceptions of the novel. The second project utilized an Internet web authoring to tool. The children applied their knowledge from learning the link authoring process to create a web-based project related to three novels they had read in class. The three novels were intertextually linked by a central social issue theme and formed the basis for the link authoring project.

Findings indicated that the children made a distinction between two types of literacy with regard to writing. Their definitions of literacy reflected both linear and non-linear types of reading and writing. Writing conventions utilized by the children included traditional writing and non-linear writing conventions and tools. Non-linear writing conventions and tools added to the meaning of documents based on the sign systems chosen by the children. The children constructed meaning within their documents through their use of semiotic sign systems. Notions of readability were redefined to reflect new definitions of literacy and included design and semiotic sign systems as a way to mean for the anticipated reader.

This study explored children's literacy perceptions as they authored with hypermedia within the context of classroom literacy lessons. The children authored two hypermedia projects and linked these projects to novels that they read in their classroom. The learners used two different multimedia link authoring tools to author. The hypermedia projects were based on critical literacy themes suggested by the children in the classroom.