dimensional representations , determine what is important and what is not , segment information into nodes , link the information segments by semantic relationships , and decide how to represent ideas . This is a highly motivating process because authorship results in ownership of the ideas in the multimedia presentation .
Students in the Lehrer study were high and low ability eighth graders who worked at the multimedia construction tasks for one class period of 45 minutes each day over a period of several months . The students worked in the school media center where they had access to a color Macintosh computer , scanner , sound digitizer , HyperAuthor software , and numerous print and non-print resources about the American Civil War . An instructor was also available to coach students in the conceptualization , design , and production of the hypermedia programs . Students created programs reflecting their unique interests and individual differences . For example , they created programs about the role of women in the American Civil War , the perspectives of slaves toward the war , and " not-so-famous people " from that period .
According to Lehrer ( 1993 ), " The most striking finding was the degree of student involvement and engagement " ( p . 209 ). Both high and low ability students became very task-oriented , increasingly so as they gained more autonomy and confidence with the cognitive tools . At the end of the study , students in the hypermedia group and a control group of students who had studied the Civil War via traditional classroom methods during the same period of time were given an identical teacher-constructed test of knowledge . No significant test differences were found . Lehrer conjectured that " these measures were not valid indicators of the extent of learning in the hypermedia design groups , perhaps because much of what students developed in the design context was not anticipated by the classroom teacher " ( p . 218 ).
However , a year later , when students in the design and control groups were interviewed by an independent interviewer unconnected with the previous year ' s work , important differences were found . Students in the control group could recall almost nothing about the historical content , whereas students in the design group displayed elaborate concepts and ideas that they had extended to other areas of history . Most importantly , although students in the control group defined history as “ the record of the facts of the past ,” students in the design class defined history as “ a process of interpreting the past from different perspectives .” In short , the " design approach lead to knowledge that was richer , better connected , and more applicable to subsequent learning and events " ( p . 221 ).
Lehrer , Erickson , and Connell ( 1994 ) conducted another study with ninth grade students who were using HyperAuthor to develop hypermedia about topics such as World War I , lifestyles between 1870 and 1920 , immigration , and imperialism . They found similar results to the aforementioned Civil War project : 1 ) students ' on-task behavior increased over time , 2 ) students perceived the benefits of planning and transforming stages of development , and
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