Another potential social problem is the long-term effects of nonsequentiality. Large parts of our culture have the built-in assumption that people read things in a linear order and that it makes sense to ask people to read “from page 100 to 150.” For example, that is how one gives reading assignments to students. With a hypertext-based syllabus students may show up at exam time and complain about one of the questions because they never found any information about it in the assigned reading.
Predictor: Nielsen, Jakob
Prediction, in context:Technology development and design guru Jakob Nielsen shares his views in “The Future of Hypertext,” in 1995. He writes:”Another potential social problem is the long-term effects of nonsequentiality. Large parts of our culture have the built-in assumption that people read things in a linear order and that it makes sense to ask people to read ‘from page 100 to 150.’ For example, that is how one gives reading assignments to students. With a hypertext-based syllabus students may show up at exam time and complain about one of the questions because they never found any information about it in the assigned reading. The professor may claim that there was a hypertext link to the information in question, but the students may be justified in their counter-claim that the link was almost invisible and not likely to be found by a person who was not already an expert in the subject matter. The reverse problem would occur when the professor was grading the students’ essays, which would of course be written in hypertext form. What happens if the professor misses the single hypertext link leading to the part of the paper with all the goodies and then fails the student? Actually the solution to this problem would be to consider hypertext design part of the skills being tested in the assignment. If students cannot build information structures that clearly put forward their position, then they deserve to fail even though the information may be in there in some obscure way.”
Biography:Jakob Nielsen labeled himself as an “Internet User Advocate” and built a reputation as a speaker and writer in that area. He co-founded the Nielsen Norman Group with Donald A. Norman (a former VP of research at Apple Computer). In the early 1990s, he was an engineer at Sun Microsystems. He invented and patented a number of Internet usability methods. (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: February 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: E-learning
Name of publication: Multimedia and Hypertext: The Internet and Beyond
Title, headline, chapter name: The Future of Hypertext
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.useit.com/papers/hypertextfuture.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Stotler, Larry