First, the computer-expert students and most of the
students who were gaining regular As settled down to explore the text.
The computer savvy wanted to know how 'it' worked. In the process
they read many text blocks and acquired both a practical and textual
knowledge of the piece that turned into a valuable archive for the
rest of the class. The more expert readers and writers quickly adapted
their skills to the succession of text blocks.
A second group connected hypertext to the "Choose
Your Own Adventure" books they had read as children, which
quickly
domesticated the concept. As JM wrote, "My first thought was how silly
I was to get worked up about this new kind of novel. Wondering where
the beginning and end were, and how I was going to find them, when
in reality I had been reading these types of books all my life…Patchwork
Girl was a glorified version of the books I had found so exciting
as a child."
A third group rationalized the assignment as a step
into the future. JT claimed, "It makes me feel as if I'm living in
the future of the Jetsons." O felt, "I was reading the book of the
future." MC wondered aloud in class if this would be the way her children
would read books. This provided a motivation for continued reading,
even if it did not guarantee pleasure.
As the students worked out how to cope with this artifact
of the future, they also started to take control of it. I saw this
control much more clearly than the students did and would, if I taught
the text again, discuss earlier coping strategies, and focus more
class discussion on how the students felt their own relationship to
the text, the technology, and their peers changed as they read.
While the final essays were rich in this reflection,
the class had already dissipated, leaving no feedback loop for its
collected wisdom. I particularly regretted this. Not only had
the reading of
Patchwork Girl already started to destabilize the established
power relations within the class but it had also encouraged
students to claim
authority as teachers