Mit Hilfe von sogenannten Links, d.h. von der Maschine unterstützten Referenzen zwischen einzelnen Text-Blöcken, kann direkt von einem Text-Block zum anderen gesprungen werden. Damit wird die Fähigkeit des menschlichen Gehirns, Informationen sprunghaft zu verarbeiten, auf dem Computer nachgebildet.
Hypertext links simulate and represent analogies in the mind; linkage is the electronic counterpart to analogy. Thus, hypertext permits student writers (and others, of course) to engage in the formation of concepts, and to explore the basis of their thought.
Clearly, these new modes of expression and understanding will not be absorbed immediately into conventional use, although they offer modes of representation that are possibly more similar to the working of the human mind than are the spatial arrays afforded by pages and pages of paper.
[...] the structure of HyperCard mirrors some of the successful strategies for learning and it therefore becomes a useful tool for thinking and developing reasoning. [...] The HyperCard structure actually mimics some of our thinking processes. For one thing, it tends to involve manipulating big-sized pieces of information - a graphic, a sound, an image. There is something quite natural about using nuggets of information here and there rather than accessing page after page of information.
Es ist nun unsere These, daß die Notwendigkeit der Linearisierung für den Autor und die sich daraus ergebende Folgeaktivität der De-Linearisierung für den Leser einen durch die Struktureigenschaften des verwendeten Mediums verursachten Zwang darstellen, der für die Kommunikation von Wissen nicht erforderlich ist. Die in dem Kontext dieses Beitrags zu ziehende Schlußfolgerung liegt auf der Hand: Das Hypertext-Konzept stellt mit seinen inhärent nicht-linearen Strukturen den Ausgangspunkt dar für die Entwicklung eines innovativen Mediums, das für den Austausch von Wissensstrukturen besser geeignet ist als klassische, lineare Dokumentstrukturen.
Because hypertext is a node-link system based upon semantic structures, it can map fairly directly the structure of knowledge it is presenting.
Hypertext structures can reflect the semantic network of an expert and map the expert´s schemata onto the novice´s schema. [...] hypertext also manifests principles of cognitive psychology. The network of ideas comprised in a hypertext system can mimic semantic networks of associated ideas possessed by the author or user.
Nicht der Ersatz des konsekutiv zu lesenden Buches war mit Hypertext angestrebt, sondern eine neue Form der Wissensablage, die eine Art lebendigen Austausch zwischen dem maschinell gespeicherten Informationsstand und dem Gedankenbild im Gehirn des Benutzers ermöglicht. ... Dies liegt wiederum in der Arbeitsweise des menschlichen Gehirns begründet, das einerseits (linke Gehirnhälfte) auf die Abarbeitung linearer Prozesse, wie z.B. Buchstabenreihenfolgen, spezialisiert ist und andererseits (rechte Gehirnhälfte) die Speicherung und Assoziierung von Bildinhalten beherrscht.
When data of any sort are placed in storage, they are filed alphabetically or numerically, and information is found (when it is) by tracing it down from subclass to subclass. It can only be in one place, unless duplicates are used; one has to have rules as to which path will locate it, and the rules are cumbersome. Having found one item, moreover, one has to emerge from the system and re-enter on a new path.
The human mind does not work that way. It operates by association. With one item in its grasp, it snaps instantly to the next that is suggested by the association of thoughts, in accordance with some intricate web of trails carried by the cells of the brain. It has other characteristics, of course; trails that are not frequently followed are prone to fade, items are not fully permanent, memory is transitory. Yet the speed of action, the intricacy of trails, the detail of of mental pictures, is awe-inspiring beyond all else in nature.
Man cannot hope fully to duplicate this mental process artificially, but he certainly ought to be able to learn from it. In minor ways he may even improve, for his records have relative permanence. The first idea, however, to be drawn from the analogy concerns selection. Selection by association, rather than by indexing, may yet be mechanized.
[Hypertext-Inhalt]
[Lernen mit Hypertext]