Hypertext: links, multimedia, multiple views and authors

• Links may be familiar from Hypercard or Encarta. The idea is simple; a page of material has hotlinks that lead to more information about a topic:

  • The Illinois Math and Science Academy is a magnet school's home page.

  Pressing the hotlink button takes you to more information about that school. You can return (i.e. go back) when you have learned enough.

• Multimedia just means the merging of text, sound, images, video, etc.

• Multiple viewpoints means the text does not have to be read or presented in one order. It can have several viewpoints each of which is implemented with links.

  For example the site History of Mathematics can offer multiple was to organize and access information.

  By TOPIC, we might see:

  	Arithmetic
  		...
  	Geometry
  		...
  		Triangles
  			...
  			Pythagorean Theorem
  				Pythagoras' Proof
  				New Proofs
  			...
  

  Or organized by MATHEMATICIANS, we might see

  	Euclid
  		Elements
  		Use of Sand
  	Pythagoras
  		Little known theorems
  		Pythagorean Theorem
  			Pythagoras' Proof
  	Gauss
  		...
  		New proof of Pythagorean Theorem>
  

  Note that the same material (Pythagoras' Proof) is part of different presentations and organizations.

• Distributing the Workload Since this is all based on the Internet, many author's can share the workload, organize source material in different ways or selections, or give different proofs, methods of teaching a theorem, and so on.