As indicated on the abstract page, this article can be read in several ways. One way is as a “traditional” web document (your choice for now) that makes the reader responsible for blazing a trail across the content. In this version, readers select links on their own, thereby assuming responsibility for organizing the article's macrostructure. The obvious benefit of this approach is that whatever learning occurs has the potential to be very personal.

The down side, however, is that empirical studies suggest that learners sometimes find it difficult to stay on track when navigational decision making is added to other demands. An alternative approach is to follow (closely or loosely) a predetermined path especially designed to preserve a particular perspective on the ideas presented (which may not be as clear when a reader uses his or her own path). The notion of alternative readings isn't exhausted, however, with just these two possibilities. It may, in fact, be more useful to think about the alternatives in terms of a continuum that ranges between two different poles that maximize either reader or author control.

Although it would be counterproductive to shackle readers permanently to a single perspective on the content presented, there are compelling pedagogical reasons to guide learners to greater or lesser degrees, depending on their needs and the instructional objectives. The central issue is one of designing appropriate levels of control so that learners can benefit from the experience and knowledge of others (especially teachers) while still finding room for their own unique insights and understanding. One of the most powerful aspects of the new online technologies is that these levels of control can be adjusted “on the fly.” Learners who find the support offered too intrusive may be able to scale it back, and those who are in need of greater degrees of support can scale it up.

In the path-based version of this article, I have attempted to incorporate degrees of control by providing both a path mechanism and links that allow readers to “step off” the path. Most of these links are internal to the document and provide a limited freedom to wander. Some, however, are external to the document (i.e. they are out on the web) and, as such, provide a substantial degree of freedom.

It is also relevant to note that the links that appear in the link panel at the bottom of the path-based version are dynamic -- they are created by a script at the time the page is loaded. The important point about links created by scripts is that they can be made contingent on a reader's prior choices. A common example of this sort of linking on the web occurs when you use search engines (e.g. Yahoo or Altavista). Next time you use a search engine to find pages on a certain topic (say, travel), note the advertisements that appear on the page with your search results. Almost invariably they will be related to your search topic, because the links to them were created dynamically in response to your search term(s).

One way authors can use script-driven linking is to assure that readers visit pages that are deemed especially important. If a reader (for whatever reason) never loads a page that is deemed important, a script could gradually withdraw other links until the only remaining possibility is to load the important page that has not yet been visited. Moreover, this narrowing of alternatives could be either very explicit (links begin to disappear) or far more subtle (multiple links that appear to be independent actually direct the reader to the same page).