Educational Hypertexts

[Note: The system is not online because of copyright issues, this is only the introduction. Links will work only to the entry page of each hypertext, but not within the hypertexts, if you want more information please mail me]

This is a set of educational aids that use the specific properties of hypertext to throw light on to a particular literary work: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce. The project wants to go beyond the use of hypertext as a mere storage vehicle, as it has been traditionally the case in educational projects related to humanities computing.

The proposals below are not the only possible applications of hypertext to the teaching/learning of literature. In fact, each particular work will call for a specific way of applying the technology, and my proposals are as much based on my ideas about hypertext and user interaction as on the structure and meaning of the Portrait… itself. More...

The hypertexts are meant to be used as a complement to reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce, either during the reading or after having finished the book. This is not an edition of the text nor a contextual web of information. Each hypertext can be navigated separately and can be considered independent, since each one explores a particular interesting area of relevance to the study of A Portrait. There are four hypertexts: labyrinth, senses, voices and genesis, and you can find detailed information on them by going to each hypertext's index page (follow the above links). There is also a help section and information about the author of this project.

This version was compiled in July 2001 to illustrate my PhD thesis. It contains the "empty" system plus a selection of responses from the first tests carried out with Oxford Brookes University students during the same year. All discussion areas in the hypertexts show posts, but the system is now static since the forms are not working. The project is offline at the moment.