My son, who will be 15 tomorrow (7/14), has been a "special needs child" since birth. For many of his early years, I thought he was mildly autistic. I've been reassured many times that he is not. However, at about age 3, he was diagnosed with several neurological disorders, along with a diagnoses of ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), in a very severe form. Together with the neurological problems which caused the synapse in the nerve cells to not 'fire' properly and therefore he had little hand-eye coordination, and dyslexia -- his outward perception of life was either very withdrawn, or reacting, as if in fear (which it really was, for things he could not perceive correctly or understand) -- in a violent or angry manner. Things improved with the correct diagnoses and several mild medications ... but not significantly.

The computer changed my son's life. I quickly found that the simple act of interacting in a TEXT environment, mostly his own writings, opened a new way of carrying those skills into the spoken word, and the interactive human relationship. My position as Media Director here in Denver had shown me what could be done with angry, even hostile, high school "gangsters." I simply began to really work with my son in the same manner I worked with those kids. He was much younger than they, but the techniques worked. There is something very elemental in the human spirit, I believe, that has to do with COMMUNICATION. When one cannot communicate, for whatever the reason, it creates many, many negative feelings -- and then, outward actions.

This commentary is, therefore, kind of a continuation of my previous posting to this thread. I fully believe that multimedia is a wonderful tool. It can enhance, invite, provoke and aid in so many ways. But the essential element of the Internet (and all digital learning tools or environments) has, from the inception, been that of the human need to communicate. The Internet has gone much further in that it also is the granddaddy of all information tools.

If we look at all of "education" (the passing down of information) in its various forms since the dawn of time, the "archiving" of information -- either by mouth, by written word, or now, by electronic means -- is simply a way of communicating what has gone before, and what has been experienced and discovered. It is a living legacy to those who come after us. It is the ultimate in communications tools.

If asked, I believe any of us in this career area would admit to succumbing to the siren's song and lure of such highly effective methods! The elements of multimedia are simply enhancements on an already good idea -- the almost instantaneous delivery of information. I still maintain that the most essential element of multimedia is hypertext. It is the core of what we are dealing with.

We, as human beings, are set apart (or, so we are told) by our communication abilities and the tools (brain size, body structures such as throat and 'round' tongue, etc.) to formulate ideas, thoughts, logic, cognitive reasoning, and emotional expression. These happen, in great part, by WORDS, strung together in meaningful ways.

Auditory experience can strengthen and even amplify a concept. Visual experience can inspire and explain a concept. A "hands-on" experience certainly may reveal details for better mastery of a concept. But, the original concept is still best explained and elucidated by words. AFTER the experience is finished, chances are that the learner, user, person-at-large -- will still TALK or WRITE about his/her experience. We are then, again, back to the importance of words, and our abilities to not only use words to understand, but then to convey to someone else, a life experience.

I am not talking about the use of words as we traditionally have used them in education. The Age of Information has altered the written and spoken modes. Text, especially hypertext, is NOT ... just another text book. How potent are our new tools?

My son has been in a special school in Utah for 3 years. (I am in Denver, CO.) They have helped him immensely. One of the neatest aspects of the school is that it is a ranch school in the mountains and has a large, almost zoo-like collection of animals. Interestingly, Rion's interest and love of animals as a tiny child were recognized and encouraged by this school. This too -- intense communication with animals -- provided a door to reach my son.

In recent months, one of his counselors had a home computer and an Internet-based small business. Rion was allowed to come to his home and use the computer. My son is very non-communicative when it comes to almost every human interactive method, including writing his mom. When computer access was made available to him (they are not computer-equipped at the school) -- all of a sudden, my son was in frequent contact with me.

The freedom of the written element gave him the missing elements, and he was able to reach out. The early work I had done with him was much more important than even I had realized. This boy, who, at 11, scrawled pathetic notes home -- each letter painfully constructed and often un-readable -- arrived in a printed form similar to a first-grader. With the counselor's computer, suddenly he was able to express himself. Not only at grade level (9th, this past year), but in what amounted to eloquent ways, Rion began to talk to me about his future, about his frustrations, about his love of his family -- something he never was able to do.

The counselor has left the school for another position. This has left a gap in Rion's life, our lives. There is no access to a computer or the Internet. My son's letters have stopped. When I initially spoke earlier in this thread about our real mission being to take this wonderful tool to everyone, globally -- ghetto and government-choked countries -- my unspoken inclusion was the special children, right under our noses.

I am a severe multimedia-holic, myself. Much of it (now, be honest!!!) is our OWN love of the elements. We like to play and call it work. We work extremely hard to MAKE it work, but it feels like play. Hopefully, we will always be able to inject this joy of creation, these enhancements of sounds, sights, illustration, words, and perhaps real-time simulated experience, into what we do. I'm sure we all envision the user at the end of the project. But, I am equally sure that we have one hell of a good time while we are doing it!

But the initial -- and the final -- huge, important element is COMMUNICATION. For this time in space and history, the written word (electronic, too!) is still the most basic tool. The hyper-word -- the link -- stands above even mere words. Hypertext embodies the power to search another portion of missing knowledge. Hypertext has opened the universe to any who would search.

Music and art and touching and executing actions are wonderful accompaniments. However, I do not see how any of them are able to do a "stand-alone act" like words can do. Until we have come to a point where the digital offerings leap us into a different form of language (see my previous posting about Levy), we really must choose the most appropriate tools for the job. In my estimation, this means that most of our projects WILL INCLUDE text and hypertext, but perhaps will not include the other elements.

I've seen it in action -- words reach even children with special needs (and I include the social disease of a gang culture!) when you finally find a way to present them in a way that each child can understand and relate to. I think the most important objective of our arena, lies in the ability to allow the user to interact. Many times, multimedia will enhance that. But, just the ability of a computer and the 'Net to engage a child who believes in his/her soul that he/she is set apart -- is perhaps the brightest, most beautiful part of this new medium.

One reason I am so insistent about text/hypertext is that, for now, it still is the "shell" of any project. On the Internet and also in many challenging learning products (Encarta '98 comes to mind), the excitement of being able to hunt down what you seek is a huge part of that unquenchable human thirst for knowledge. The "hunt" becomes like play. Your work becomes what you love, and not what is expected that you churn out in a given time frame. 

Le Corbusier said, "I demand of art, the role of the challenger ... of play and interplay, play being the very manifestation of the spirit." (Siegel, 1997). That sounds very much like the challenge we all face as we learn to help others to learn, in a multimedia-driven environment (one which, I still maintain, only needs two, and not ALL elements, to be considered "multimedic.")

We must preserve the love of the hunt -- where work is play -- alive.

I'm praying that Rion's animals help him keep that door to communication open, until which time he has access to another computer. It was overwhelming, seeing what connected access did for one boy. My boy.

---

     Seigel, David. (1997). Secrets of successful web sites: Project management on the World Wide Web. Indianapolis, IN: Hayden Books. p.241.  

• Leanne C. Boyd (at home)
• (at school)
• (BoydZoo Studio • Instructional Designs)