Using Hypermedia to Enhance Response-Based Literature Teaching and Learning

This article reports on the Multimedia and Literature Teaching and Learning Project which explored the potential of multimedia and hypermedia for enhancing the response-based teaching and learning of literature. The project's initial phase involved the development of criteria for considering multimedia applications from a response-based perspective and the application of these to a critical review of commercial software. Findings revealed that while such software was technically quite good, the pedagogical approaches taken were not response-based. The project's second phase, therefore, involved the development of prototype hypermedia applications designed to support response-based teaching and learning at both the elementary (Kidspace) and secondary/post-secondary (the BEATS) levels. These prototypes were tested in real classrooms during the project's third phase. Results suggest that hypermedia can support unique and important responses, but only within compatible classroom cultures.