Texas Trends in Art Education, 2010 Page: 28

                                
2010).
By definition, there are two types of hypertext: exploratory
and constructed. Exploratory hypertexts are those that the stu-
dents enter on their own or as a group in the process of knowl-
edge construction. Constructed hypertexts are those created by
students or by student and teacher as a process of knowledge
construction (Landow, 2006). In practice, hypertexts can be both
exploratory and constructed simultaneously. The exploration
and construction of links builds context for students who many
times are unaware of the historical cultural connections built
into contemporary culture.
[The text that launch'd a thousand comments-Amy
During week one of teaching Homer's Odyssey: I reviewed
the Iliad with my ninth grade English classes, reminding them of
why Odysseus was in Troy. Using VUE, I linked all the events
leading up to the war, including the key players and locations.
Images were included from the time period in which the text
was written as well as modern day film clips. When discussing
Helen of Troy, I read a famous section of Christopher Marlowe's
The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus where he alludes to this beau-
tiful mythological character in his lines, "Was this the face that
launched a thousand ships / And burnt the topless towers of
Illium? / Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss" (Marlowe,
1903, p. 223). We discussed how this passage demonstrated
how people believed she was the most beautiful woman in the
world. We looked at some Renaissance depictions of her, and
the results were surprising. Students were shouting out through-
out the room how she was "ugly." I then showed them a picture
of actress Diane Kruger from the film Troy, 2004. The comments
around the room were much more positive, saying how she was
"pretty." This "launched" us into a discussion of how the con-
cept of beauty has changed throughout history. We touched on
what was beautiful 20, 50, 100, or 1000 years ago versus today,
and how the concept of beauty had changed. We addressed the
criteria that make someone or something beautiful. This teach-
ing moment would never have happened had the hypertext not
created a context for a war and its connection to a beautiful
woman, with images juxtaposed against each other.
In week two, as we began to read sections of the Odyssey, I
included popular culture references to the different gods and
goddesses, as well as storylines. We talked about the Greek god
Poseidon and the fact that he was the same as the Roman god
Neptune. We looked at images of both and examined reinven-
tions of this character, including the comic book character Aqua-
man and Walt Disney's Silly Symphony's cartoon short "King
Neptune." We looked at artistic depictions of Calypso and
watched a clip from Pirates of the Caribbean: At the World's End
as Calypso is released back into the sea. The hypertext map we
were constructing was becoming more and more elaborate with
each new connection. Then the breakthrough occurred; they
began to take ownership of the text. Students began making
their own connections to these characters and places. They
would talk about a film, and that night I would incorporate it
into the hypertext. In some cases, students brought in their own

Sutherlin    /  Counts       Acting    Out
films to add to the construction. It was no longer my creation
but ours. Students made connections to movies watched outside
of class, and they came in with a desire to talk about how the
plots and characters referenced other stories from mythology.
Week Three of teaching Homer's Odyssey: I was very
pleased when we discovered a software Wii Smoothboardv dur-
ing our third week of reading the Odyssey. The software allowed
us to take a Wiimote, projector, and screen and turned it into an
interactive whiteboard. We were able to Bluetooth connect the
Wiimote to my laptop and then interact with the projected im-
ages. Students were now able to actively engage with the hyper-
text we had created, reinforcing the connections we had made.
They pulled up the images and texts and asked questions, en-
gaged now in a process of teaching each other. They were inter-
acting with the material on a new level. My tools changed, and
the traditional teacher's podium transformed into a desk where
I, the teacher, was actively engaged with the learning process
alongside my students. The Wii Smoothboard placed the power
to direct learning in each classroom participant's hand.
Understanding identity as a component of literacy-
Matthew

FIGURE 1. Second Life Map
In my university course with pre-service elementary educa-
tors, I asked each student to select an image that represented
his or her identity. We dialogued about the ways in which iden-
tity could be represented in an image. The terms symbolic and
literal were used in relation to identity interpretation. These two
concepts were meant to leave image selection as open as possi-
ble. I modeled for students a hypertext created from a photo-
graph taken in Second Life. Second Life is a virtual environment
that allows its inhabitants the ability to visit virtual locations and
have simulated experiences. In relation to my identity, my intent
was to show students a part of me that exists outside of the con-
text of the classroom setting.
During this first cycle of teaching, student image selection
ranged from the inclusion of Polly Pocket and Strawberry Short-
cake to personal snapshots and images of home life. I then
asked students to incorporate the Feldman model of art criti-
cism to interpret their image (Feldman, 1994). Students de-

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