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Incorporating World Wide Web technology into a multimedia learning
environment
Introduction
Richard Picking
School of Computing
Staffordshire University
Stafford ST18 0DG
England
tel: 0044 1785 353444
e-mail: r.picking@soc.staffs.ac.uk
This short paper describes a hypermedia environment to support essay and dissertation development for music
students. The hypermedia system has been named HECTOR, an acronym for Hypermedia from Essay
Conception TO Realisation. HECTOR is a composite system which incorporates a number of novel artefacts as
well as some off-the-shelf products. It provides an integrating environment for these artefacts, and a structure
which reflects a model of essay and dissertation development proposed in earlier work [Picking 1996]. The
system is still under development, but executable prototypes have been tested at the City of Leeds College of
Music (CLCM) in the UK.
The rationale for HECTOR
The study of the writing process has been of interest to cognitive psychologists for some time. Many models
have been proposed, the best known of which is perhaps that of Hayes and Flower [1980]. A number of
specialised computer-based writing and argumentation environments have recently been developed, for
example gIBIS [Conklin & Begeman 1988], WordProf [Ferraris et al. 1990], SEPIA [Streitz et al. 1992],
MediaText [Hay et al. 1994] and the CLASS Project [Gunn et al. 1995]. Such tools tend to be focused
particularly at the cognitive level of writing, and in this respect they are based very much on cognitive models
of the writing process [Buckingham Shum & Hammond 1994]. They do not consider the influence that other
artefacts may have upon writing strategies, for example the availability of research material and alternative
media requirements. Certainly, in education, reading and writing go hand in hand, as one must read to learn
before demonstrating any newly acquired knowledge.
Earlier work by Picking [1996] in the field of music education has resulted in the proposal of a classification
model of essay and dissertation development. The model was developed at CLCM through semi-structured
interviews, which utilised the technique of repertory grid analysis [Kelly 1955; Bannister & Mair 1968]. The
interviews enabled students to provide their strategies, perceptions and preferences of essay and dissertation
development. The analysis of the data collected from this study resulted in a three-dimensional typology,
broadly covering activities related to research, planning and writing, referred to as type I, type II and type III
respectively. Consequently, HECTOR’s artefacts support research (type I), planning (type II) and writing (type
III) activities.
HECTOR enables users to structure and annotate multimedia from a number of information artefacts, such as
the World Wide Web (WWW), CD-ROM and music compact disc servers. Users can seamlessly perform type
I, type II and type III activities within HECTOR’s graphical environment. The artefacts supported by the
current prototype of HECTOR are summarised below. Figure 1 displays a typical screen from a session with
HECTOR.
Type I Type II Type III
Netscape browser Overview Word processor
CD player Bibliography
Music reader Concept mapper
Jazz encyclopaedia