Final debriefing analysis -- HyperCard project



F-01 Tell me some of the things you have learned from being involved in this study.

E-1 If you do a project on HyperCard and then do it on something else it shows the big difference....

E-2 I've learned a little bit more about unsolved mysteries and unanswered questions....

E-3 I've learned some things from HyperCard.

E-4 I've learned how to add music or my writing to (...)....I've learned a lot. Making the music go with your work, art.

E-5 Interviewing can be kind of nervous and to hear yourself on the cassette is like did I really say that?... I learned that I can do a project-maybe in one day I can do a good project.

S-1 I learned about the desert and about the ocean.

S-2 In the desert I learned about the different animals and plants and in the ocean I learned about the shelves and the pollution and the deep sea digging.

S-3 The topics that we discussed I didn't know too much about them... I think the way I did my experiments I think I did very well and I did it in a way that I learned something... I learned more about deserts and oceans than I did.

S-4 I've learned a lot about the desert and the ocean.... I had overall information about the desert more than the ocean but you know this project kind of takes me another step.

S-5 The desert I learned about cactus and little shrubs-they keep water in em and in the ocean I learned that they use it for irrigation. They use it for farming such as sea shells. I learned about jelly fish, squids. Also in the desert I learned about jack rabbits, foxes and all these different kind of animals.

F-06 What are your views about the similarities and differences between doing projects on HyperCard and doing them with regular text?

E-1 ...if you are doing a project that you need to have a presentation I think HyperCard would be better than on regular projects. But if you are doing a project that you don't have to present you could type it up. I think that saves you more time.

E-2 ...like if you are a business man you wouldn't want to use HyperCard to present your ideas because it just wouldn't be right. If you present it in paper it is a more traditional way to present it. If you present it in HyperCard it has animation and animation doesn't have that much to do with business. Business have all word processing and spread sheets.

E-3 Organizing it, getting down what you think you're going to put. Just getting the story together really is the similar.... Regular text you just get your ideas together. You get them down on paper. Type them out. But with HyperCard you've got to put them into a field and stuff. It is much more work on HyperCard but it's more interesting. With just regular stuff it's not as interesting because who wants to hear a story or see no pictures or nothing to go with it. It's kind of boring.

E-4 Myself I like doing them on the regular tests because I know more about them than I do HyperCard.... Similarities between HyperCard and MacWrite. The typing. How you want to write it and you do the same thing on HyperCard as on MacWrite. The differences - MacWrite don't let you make up a picture right then. You have to go back but HyperCard you can make your picture right then. All you have to do is change it to the picture style

E-5 I think regular projects are boring, not to put it in your perspective.

S-1 HyperCard there's a lot of options and you can really create if you have the time and if you have the information to put it together. The text is what you make of it.

S-2 I think that depending on what you're doing it could be very helpful of it won't be helpful at all. It all depends on what you're doing.

S-3 ...the text was boring and HyperCard was exciting.

S-4 If I'm doing it on HyperCard I would think about how presenting ideas-that's the same as any other project but it makes it more easier because of what they already have laid out for you and you can always change. With the information you have you can always switch it to a different card and show different pictures instead of the same picture for a long script. I think that's real important because you want to get the reader interested.

S-5 Well it's similar because you're still typing everything...but it's different because on the computer you just type it on one big piece of paper and you print it out. You can type it like a lot of different ways but with mine I just types it in a little box and you scrolled down and read it and so it's similar in the way that you're still writing but it's different in the way that you put it together and how you would write it.

F-09 What ways do they serve similar or different purposes?

E-1 HyperCard you could mostly show animation and music. Like if you put too much text with it then there is no use for HyperCard because like when you are using HyperCard people expect you to animate it and stuff. They don't see it like television and all that but if you use text if you use another program people aren't going to expect you to animate it so they know for sure that you are going to use text.... I think HyperCard it's only useful purpose is for animation.... Regular writing it's good if you are writing a business letter or anything that has text with it.

E-2 Like when you do a regular project I guess you write it out. HyperCard lets you do that too. Type it out and a scrolling text field or just put it on your screen.

E-3 One difference is I don't think you can print your stuff out on HyperCard like you can on regular text. You can just paste it on the paper and then print it but I don't think you can do that on HyperCard...regular text you just paste it and send it to print and you'll have it within minutes or whatever but if you have it on HyperCard you've got to save it on the disc and something could happen to the disc and you've got to create buttons and stuff like that and it takes you longer and if lose it and you have it already printed out it's not so bad because it's right there and you can go get copies or something.

E-4 ...if you don't have HyperCard in the field...it won't show your writing but all you have to do is with MacWrite all you have to do is start to type.

S-1 You can use the text and the HyperCard and the pictures. You could just print them out in text but with HyperCard you can arrange them and make them look nicer.... HyperCard kind of keeps you interested. The text is what you're used to seeing in every kind of class. A report.

S-2 With HyperCard you can do things a lot better and you can be more creative.... You can really do everything putting down on paper. You might be able to but it will take a lot longer.

S-3 ...they can both write text-on the text you can't have no motions in there because HyperCard is the own system of its own and its got different stuff you can do with it but you can't do much on the regular text.... Basically it boiled down to all of us had pictures and paragraphs. I guess everybody had the same idea whether it was HyperCard or text.

S-4 The purpose is writing for the audience or especially doing these kind of projects it is like writing for other people to read it and really get (...) to what you're trying to say and both HyperCard and regular projects makes you think of what you're writing and present it but then it's a different way of presenting ideas. I think that's the main difference. Presenting a certain idea on different uses of the resources you have.

S-5 They can serve similar because in the writing-you can write in both of them and you can tell a story and you can get your point across but the differences are that you can get your point across in different ways on HyperCard and in text you just write. In HyperCard you can have a picture there with it. You can have buttons. You can have animation even. You don't have to write. I'm sure you could somehow music. You can show a laser writer on HyperCard. In text all you can do is write this down.



F-10 In what ways do they contribute to learning different things?

E-1 Regular text you can read it and then you can learn from that and if you were to put HyperCard and text together you could read it and you could watch it so you would learn something. You just read a story you understand it but if you watch the movie of that story you would understand it more. So the two things would make it more interesting.

E-2 Well regular text...you're just writing it out and reading it to a person or people but HyperCard you're showing a different view of things.... You can add pictures. You can show pictures when you write it out but I think by having it on the computer makes it more interesting.

E-3 In HyperCard you have to be careful of what commands you use because something could go back and you couldn't find it or anything and then in regular text usually it just shows up on the paper and you could erase it or you usually know the commands when they're on regular text than you do HyperCard.

E-4 On HyperCard there are so many different things (...) margins that you can see what you can do.... Because my writing has art to it I can put art with my writing but you can't do that with MacWrite.

E-5 Maybe HyperCard would be more wanting. The viewer can enjoy it more.

S-1 Usually you can pay attension more when it's HyperCard. You want to find out how they did the projects. You want to see if they did it in a different way than you had never seen before. Usually pay attention more. A regular project is the same old thing you've been seeing from seventh grade.

S-2 It shows you different ways to do things.... When you look at all the options that you could have done and you may not have known how to do something and someone else does it you can go to that person and ask them to show you how did you do that.

S-3 You lose that information you'd better not be so slack about saving that text and HyperCard there is always something there.

S-4 HyperCard kind of breaks it down and makes you read it kind of memorize it more than a big sheet of writing and stuff like that so when I do my regular project you can see how I divided it up into little sections and have pictures and stuff like that.

S-5 ...when you learn something new in the text I don't think its as interesting. Now in HyperCard I think that that is really good because when people talk I like it a lot when you can see something. Like when they have an animation. I think that really catches you attention because you see something on the screen and you're like what is That?....there are so many ways that you can catch their attention and so it makes you remember more.

F-11 How would you characterize or describe the type of things you learned from doing HyperCard projects vs regular text projects?

E-1 When you are doing stuff on HyperCard it's more interesting in that it helps you create things. You can be more creative on HyperCard than you can on text because you can manipulate your projects around with HyperCard.

E-2 ...it was just different kind of topics. Most of the topics I usually work on are not based on answer questions and stuff.

E-3 I've learned that in HyperCard I think you can do more creatively and you can have things move and you can have them change pictures and stuff like that. In the regular text you've got to maybe like close that thing up and then you've got to open another one. But in HyperCard you've got to push a button or something and it will fade away and then another picture will come up. You can do a lot more changing and changing pictures....

E-4 HyperCard and MacWrite they're the same things. They have the same style, the same text...the only thing different between those two is you can add art with HyperCard.

E-5 They're about the same.... Using MacWrite you can't put the graphics over the text or the text over the graphics and you can do that in out program but on MacWrite it's just on word processing and you can't really combine graphics. In MacPaint you can do that...there are two 2's in HyperCard. There is a text 2 and there is an art 2. You can combine those two. It's like having MacPaint and MacWrite together.... Well the advantage is you don't have to use one software and then skip to another software and back.

S-1 In History when we did the Bill of Rights we mad animation and put our graphics in with it and in a regular project you really couldn't get people interested because the people would think it's all boring.... With HyperCard you can kind of separate it. It doesn't have to be all together. You can separate it so it doesn't seem like there is so much so they'll read it all.

S-3 ...the extension of HyperCard never stop. To me it does. With the text you know as much as there is to know. With text you just write down what you want to write down.

S-5 ...it was more interesting in HyperCard.... I think I listened more or watched it more when it was on HyperCard...her reports were good but it's just that she had pictures with her HyperCard and I wanted to see what they were because they were cute. And then with the text like I said it's just read it.

F-03 Based upon our observations of your finished products, what do you think we will learn about the work of putting together these projects.

E-1 On HyperCard it takes like more time to pull it together but also the results are much better than the ones that you don't use HyperCard and only use like one program or two programs.

E-2 Well to make it better it takes more time but less time if you work quick you get it done.... The more time you have the better your project will be.

E-3 You might learn that some people can do more than other people or know how to do more than other people and that others are better drawers than other people.

E-4 You have to really take time with the project and the stories that I thought were (...) putting them together.

E-5 ...doing the regular HyperCard project with some animation it probably take the same amount of time as a regular project but if you're going to do HyperCard and video describing that puts more time into it and I would say if you want sounds into your HyperCard, a Mac recorder would be good....

S-1 Probably it takes a while to get everything together and you have to be organized and be on task to get it done.

S-2 I think you'll find that we worked hard and you'll see that we put a lot of time and energy into what we did so that it turned out to be the best you could do.

S-3 I think you will learn it is fun to get print across. And in some ways are lots easier than others

S-4 Maybe how we start putting it together. What we use first, what we use last and all that.

S-5 I think you'll see that it was a lot easier to put it on HyperCard. To put together HyperCard than do ( ) because like I said how I had it on HyperCard I had them all on the card and all you had to do was flip through the card but with my report I have the report plus I have a bunch of separate pictures, like 8, 9 different pictures so it's a lot easier to put together.

F-12 In what ways do you approach HyperCard and regular text projects differently?

E-1 If I was doing a project on HyperCard I'd first of all do what was necessary to (...) everything, all the steps, (...) steps before I'd put it into HyperCard.

E-2 ...The organization is a little different because with the text just jot down-just write out the story and write it in but with HyperCard I have to think of different scripts and how I was going to organize the stack.... You've got to do more planning what you do when you use HyperCard.

E-3 I approach HyperCard with a lot more care than I do with regular text because you have to really be careful because you could accidentally hit something and it will come up with blank screen and you won't know anything then.... In regular text I approach it with care and everything but I think you can be more to just about anything and you know where it has sent and you know how to get it back but in HyperCard you can't do that because there is so many directions, whatever you can go and there is so many buttons or whatever that you can push that you won't know where it went.

E-4 Like take it step-by step. If you're like rushed or something on HyperCard you're going to really miss a lot of art they're giving you, how to get help, how to get information.

E-5 In HyperCard I prepare what sequence I want the stacks to be. Regular projects you can write on paper and then just put in the sequence you want. HyperCard is a step-by-step.

S-1 You read everything; you make your notes and you have to think about how you want it to look. Buttons, card fields, what kind of graphics you need.... I usually don't think of the whole project before I start it. I usually start some way and then I change it around.... You just write the report, everything that is supposed to be in the report, find graphics, print it out....

S-2 With HyperCard before I go into the project I will take about an hour or so and just go somewhere off on my own and think about it. Think about all the possibilities, what I could do and find out-think about everything that I know about the program. That way I know what I',m doing. But with regular projects I'll take the materials that I have, go ahead and do the projects.

S-3 I look forward to doing HyperCard. I don't look forward as much to doing regular text.... Just write, that's all.... (HyperCard?) Do different things. There is so many different things you can do.

S-5 ...it just depends on what you want because you have so many different choices of how you want to approach it. Do you want to do animation? Do you want to just write or have a button that will pop up? Do you want to just have a picture? It depends on what you want but with the text you have to write it and then with text you can have pictures and stuff with it.

F-13 What types of things are easier, more difficult, and why?

E-1 On HyperCard it's hard to write a big giant report because you have to find lots of pictures and you have to scan and do all the things and then the hardest thing would be the script...on text it's harder also to do a big project because then you get boring.... All you do is just keep typing and typing....

E-2 (easier) Typing in text in HyperCard. (difficult) Getting the scripts together cause if you're going to have everything right it won't work. Like if you make a button and you put a script on it to print something if you don't got every little thing right, the program won't run.

E-3 I think it's more harder on HyperCard to write and to save a copy and stuff than it is on the regular text and I think it's harder on the regular text than on HyperCard to show your pictures. You've got to close it or you've got to scroll down and you don't have that much space.

E-4 (easier) MacWrite is a lot easier...you just start typing what you want to type. When you get to HyperCard you have to take your time because you don't want to misspell a word and you already saved everything and you can't go back and erase it... (difficult) On MacWrite there is nothing hard on it. Like a three year old can go through MacWrite but HyperCard if you're just starting the disc because you don't know what (...).....(easier) The art on HyperCard.

E-5 I would say HyperCard is more easy.....It is just more fun and you can put speed into it.

S-1 (easier on HyperCard than regular text) Probably cause it's condensed it's easier to understand it.....(difficult) Getting the (...) and card fills, everything more organized. Making sure it works right.

S-2 (easier) With HyperCard? Animation...being able to use pictures with that and getting a story, making a button, make a story pop up.....(difficult) With HyperCard I think not knowing what to say or not knowing what to tell it to do...but with regular projects it takes a lot of paper and a lot of material to do something like that.

S-3 (like the best) Animation.....(easier or more difficult) There is nothing. It's just an experience learning. There is nothing real easy or hard about them.

S-4 With HyperCard if you're doing a project like what we did on the desert because I used that on HyperCard it's presenting the ideas that are easier.... I don't think there's anything hard except if you do more sophisticated work. Not the one I'm doing but if you want to add music or video discs you have to do more scripting and that's harder and it takes more time.

S-5 ...in writing text on a text if that's all you want to do it's a lot easier than HyperCard because HyperCard to write you have to get out a field and lock the text and do all this stuff so it's easier to do it if you just want to write but if you want pictures and stuff along with it it's much easier on HyperCard because you can have the picture right there with it and also with an animation you can just have the animation right there and you don't have to do anything else. It's just there for you.

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