Middle School Hypermedia Composition: A Qualitative Case Study

During a six-month naturalistic study, the author conducted an ethnographic examination of a seventh grade hypermedia unit. Beginning with the global question, “In what ways are computers used to support the education of middle school students? ” the researcher coded and analyzed observations, interviews and projects. Three themes emerged: the seventh graders ’ understanding of electronic conventions, their abil-ity to demonstrate awareness of audience, and the curricular communication climate in the school. The fact that students were developing signifi cant compositional skills in the com-puter lab, went unnoticed by the literacy teachers. The po-tential for better and more integrated core discipline learning cannot be reached by perpetuating the traditional isolation of computer skills. This study carries implications not only for computer technology teachers but also for curriculum direc-tors, administrators and college of education faculty members. Background In the late 1980s, language arts teachers began to see the simple benefi ts of electronic editing and sharing of resources (Grabe, 1996). Since then, the meaning of text has been broadened as seen in David Bolter’s (1991) Writ