Very expensive computer hardware, weak performance compared with
what was required, and the equipment lacked essential features
such as the ability to use colours. Software development was extremely
expensive, and neither development methods nor suitable software
tools for these tasks existed - perhaps we even might add that
skills and know-how in this area were negligible.
One major weakness that has always been with us in regard to instructional
software has been called "paging" or the "tunnel
syndrome". This reflects the way software never allowed freedom,
students always met walls on either side of their path, as if
in a tunnel. The freedom for students to choose where to continue
on their way was always lacking. During the 80s comprehensive
research and development attempted to break the "tunnel syndrome".
Examples from this country and the other Nordic countries are
the development of the Grimstad concept and the Mosaic/Winix-Toolkit.
Towards the end of the 80s computers gained enormously in performance
capabilities while prices plummeted. Thus the price/performance
ratio greatly improved and less money purchased more computer.
Colour monitors became commonplace, while the physical size of
the hardware became easier to handle. The outcome was that now
an ordinary PC was able to handle chores previously only dreamed
about, enabling the use of hypermedia. There were great expectations
of hypermedia, the technique which might give us the longed-for
freedom in the use of computer-based teaching, which was important
for open learning.
Paradoxically, the longed-for freedom to navigate in instruction
programmes became too great. Students lost their overview and
got lost in hyperspace. Questions like "Where am I? Where
did I come from? Where am I going?" became the order of the
day. The former is called the orientation problem, the latter
the navigation problem. Solving such problems is now one of the
prime hypermedia research areas. The new user-friendly technology
brought other new problems with it, to some extent inherent in
the comprehensive use of hypermedia, such as the ability to scan
in pictures. Scanned images require vast storage space when stored
in this format instead of storing in vector formats. The use of
audio and video also required so much storage capacities that
teaching regular courses via diskettes became difficult or impossible.
In conclusion I would say that there is still no super highway
to the development of comprehensive instruction programmes, with
or without using hypermedia. Nevertheless, hypermedia looks extremely
promising for the future, albeit instruction programme designers
will have to count on both sweat and perhaps some tears as they
go beyond the traditional methods. (Even so, one important component
less than what Churchill said the British would have to give in
their endeavours during the war!) Nonetheless, the requirements
for instruction programmes have reached completely different dimensions
than previously witnessed, for example, I heard a teacher on Norwegian
TV early in the 80s claim that technology was about: "Building
software to keep track of the content of your deep-freeze."
In order to understand hypermedia possibilities it is essential
to understand how hypermedia works, therefore this is given focus
in this course, without delving into the technical aspects. Some
literature references have been provided, as I assume that some
course participants might want to dig deeper into the material
than we do here. But these references are not necessary reading
for this course. A major portion of the course material is based
upon material put together by a former student at NTNU (Norwegian
University of Science and Technology), cand. scient. Eirik Sneen.
I was his supervisor. The Department of Information Technology
at NTNU is working quite extensively in the field of hypermedia,
as is also NITOL.