abstract

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software instruction
default to linear
theory gap
design

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For some, instruction in the various graphical user interfaces of current HTML and image-editing software threatens to eclipse the larger purposes of a course on the theory and practice of hypertext. Shauf (2001), for example, calls for less technical wizardry and a far greater emphasis on (or a return to?) the rhetorical basics.

"Our goal is to foster not technical invention but rhetorical invention, and yet the composition (or design) classroom is increasingly given over to technical troubleshooting - why does the spin work in Netscape Communicator but not in Microsoft's Internet Explorer? - or, even worse, software instruction. What I fear is that the art of rhetoric is not helping shape the content and form of multimedia artifacts but rather that new media technologies, and the considerable cognitive demands they place on composers, are instead subsuming entirely the practice of rhetoric" (Shauf, 2001, p. 36).

I am very much in favor of increased attention to rhetorical techniques in academic hypertexts. And Shauf (2001) seems genuinely interested in academic essays that exploit new media. It seems to me, however, that Shauf's concern that animated gizmos like the spinning email GIF, highly legitimate technical concerns like cross-browser (or platform) compatibility, and software instruction will subsume rhetorical concerns is misplaced. Where else but the composition classroom can an instructor channel "technical invention" in the direction of considered digital rhetoric?

software instruction | a value in techno-gimmicks

abstract | background | theory | praxis | models | course