Learning Essay

As I look at the first page I published as compared to the newest pages of my final hypertext I see a huge evolution in my work. I am a sort of arts and crafts investigator and I really like exploring and messing with new mediums of artistic creativity. Dreamweaver, then, has struck a chord with me. I think my websites have exponentially better the more I have tinkered with Dreamweaver.
I enjoyed the method of writing hypertexts. The multiple stages of composition helped me to develop my ideas in a way that I don’t think I normally do. When I sat down and scribbled out boxes and made diagrams to create the pages of my website it helped me to get my ideas flowing in a way that sitting down and writing a hypothesis, then forcing the information to follow didn’t allow. Transforming the scribbles on paper into pages in my hypertext helped me to then write a linear essay, and then revising my pages. The multiple stages of revision made my work better, in my opinion.

The topic of my civic engagement has been difficult, as I seem to get morally invested in my work, especially work that has an open-ended topic. I keep finding myself injecting my morality into what I think the solution. My solution, though, aligns with Juris’ arguments about horizontal distribution. I think that is the answer when talking about the influence that hip-hop music has. Though it is a very opinion driven hypertext, I feel that it is an important issue that isn’t looked into enough.
This class has introduced me into ideas that I had never thought of. Things like participatory culture are things that surround us daily in this day of technology. I never thought of them in the way we learned though. From the people who post videos of themselves singing their favorite singers song on Youtube, to the spoofs of popular movies- fan fiction is all around. Fan fiction is just 1 of many different ways that people in this age, can participate in the culture.
My ideas regarding hypertexts have changed. They went from a sort of essay spread out over a few pages into a more elaborate maze of web pages. The latter being the goal of hypertexts.