Pedagogical Shift from Text to Hypertext: Language & Literature to the Digital Natives

Lab Activity: Digital Humanities

This blog is about the lab activity in which we had to play the Moral Machine game and then watch the three video parts and provide a summary. Task assigned by Dilip Barad sir.

Your experience and learning outcome of Moral Machine Activity.

Experience :

While doing the Moral Machine car game, I had to make quick decisions about who the self-driving car should save in difficult moral situations. The activity placed me in the role of deciding between different lives—young vs. old, rich vs. poor, humans vs. animals, passengers vs. pedestrians. It felt challenging because there was no “perfect” or “right” choice; every decision carried consequences. The scenarios showed how technology like AI can face ethical dilemmas that are usually handled by human judgment.

Learning Outcome :

Ethical complexity: Moral choices are rarely black and white. Each decision involves trade-offs and value judgments.

Bias awareness: I realized that my own cultural, personal, and emotional biases influenced the choices I made.

AI and responsibility: The activity highlights how important it is to program ethics into machines, as they will have to make life-and-death decisions in the future.

Critical thinking: It trained me to think about broader questions—Whose life is more valuable? Should law-abiding behavior matter more than age or social status?

Moral Machine

Pedagogical Shift from Text to Hypertext: Language & Literature to the Digital Natives

Part - 1

“A Pedagogical Shift from Text to Hypertext” offered me valuable insights into how teaching and learning are being reshaped in today’s digital landscape. Rather than simply presenting a collection of slides, the session traced a journey—from the roots of conventional text-based teaching to the possibilities of interactive, hyperlinked, and learner-centered pedagogy.

Slide 1 – Introduction to the FDP

The opening slide outlined the broader aim of the FDP. It emphasized that modern teaching cannot be restricted to content delivery alone. Instead, educators must weave together traditional literary study with the digital practices of the present generation. This made me recognize the role of teachers as bridges between the classical and the contemporary.

Slide 2 – FDP Objectives

The second slide moved from the “why” to the “how.” Simply uploading lectures or notes online does not create effective learning. The goal is to design digital spaces where students interact meaningfully. This builds on the first slide’s point—once we acknowledge that traditional methods are insufficient, the next step is to rethink student engagement in digital terms.

Slide 3 – What is Hypertext?

This slide provided the technical base. Unlike linear printed texts, hypertext creates networks of meaning through links, images, and multimedia. While HTML organizes content and HTTP allows access, the key is that hypertext enables interactivity. It logically extends Slide 2: if the aim is engagement, hypertext becomes the medium through which that engagement happens.

Slide 4 – Theoretical Shift: Decentering

Here the focus shifted from the medium to the theory. In traditional classrooms, the teacher and the prescribed text held authority. In a hypertextual world, this authority is dispersed—students can move between perspectives, explore resources, and shape their own interpretations. This process of decentering made me realize that digital pedagogy transforms students from passive readers into active participants.

Slide 5 – Pedagogy in the Digital Age

This slide tied the earlier ideas together. With students at the center, the teacher’s role evolves from a knowledge-giver to a facilitator. Approaches like Flipped Classrooms and Blended Learning illustrate this shift, allowing students to take ownership of learning while the teacher guides them.

Designing the Digital Classroom

Slide 6 – Models of Digital Pedagogy

The session then introduced practical frameworks. Using the metaphor of a “Salad Bowl,” it suggested combining multiple methods rather than sticking to one. Flipped and Mixed-Mode models were highlighted for making classes more flexible and learner-driven.

Slide 7 – Digital Tools

To support these models, digital infrastructure is necessary. Systems like LMS, CMS, and e-portfolios help teachers organize resources, track student progress, and personalize feedback. This slide showed how pedagogy and technology must go hand in hand.

Innovative Teaching Tools

Slide 8 – The Lightboard

This tool allows teachers to write while facing students on screen, making explanations clearer and more engaging.

Slide 9 – OBS + Lightboard for Drama

By combining Lightboard with OBS, teachers can add visuals, animations, and videos—making even complex literary genres like drama come alive.

Slide 10 – OBS for Poetry

The same method was adapted for poetry. By juxtaposing works like Simon Armitage’s Lockdown with Kalidasa’s Meghaduta, technology enabled a richer cross-cultural appreciation.

Slide 11 – Deconstruction through Lightboard

Even abstract theories like Deconstruction can be simplified visually through diagrams and notes on the Lightboard, making dense concepts more approachable.

Structuring Student Engagement

Slide 12 – TED-Ed as a Platform

This model—Watch → Think → Discuss—illustrated how online lessons can be designed for interaction rather than passive viewing.

Slide 13 – Flipped Learning Example

This reinforced the value of preparation before class, freeing classroom time for critical discussion and deeper engagement.

Slide 14 – Mixed-Mode Teaching

The final slide showed how even advanced theories like Derrida’s can be taught effectively when online and offline strategies are blended.

Overall Takeaways

Looking back, I realized that the presentation followed a clear structure:

• Slides 1–5 provided the conceptual foundation of digital pedagogy.
• Slides 6–7 described classroom design models and tools.
• Slides 8–11 demonstrated innovative teaching practices.

• Slides 12–14 outlined strategies for meaningful engagement.

From this journey, I learned that:P{a

• Learning is shifting from fixed text to interconnected hypertext.
• Teachers act more as facilitators than as authorities.
• Students construct knowledge actively, rather than just receiving it.
• Digital tools and blended models make classrooms more dynamic.
• The essence of pedagogy today lies in creativity, collaboration, and interaction.

Part - 2

The second segment of the presentation, “Pedagogical Shift from Text to Hypertext: Language & Literature to the Digital Natives,” concentrates on the real-world difficulties of teaching language and literature in a digital environment. It also demonstrates how hypertext tools and online platforms can transform these challenges into opportunities for richer, more participatory learning.

I. Teaching Language in the Digital Age: Problems and Remedies

The first concern raised is the teaching of language skills online, where aspects such as pronunciation, intonation, and rhythm often lose clarity. These subtle elements are vital for fluency but are hard to capture through conventional or online methods.

To overcome this, several digital tools were introduced:

• Chrome Live Caption automatically generates on-screen captions for spoken words, making it easier for learners to follow fast or unfamiliar accents.

• Google Meet transcription add-ons (like Tactiq or Meet Transcript) convert class discussions into text instantly, giving students ready-made notes without the pressure of writing everything down.

• Voice Typing in Google Docs turns spoken input into written form, assisting students in drafting essays, recording reflections, or creating transcripts.

Collectively, these resources bridge oral and written language. Instead of passively listening, students engage with real-time, interactive support that enhances comprehension and note-taking.

II. Teaching Literature: Overcoming Distance through Hypertext

The focus then shifts to literature, which presents unique barriers. Students often struggle to connect with texts due to cultural unfamiliarity, geographical distance, or imagery rooted in traditions they do not share.

A. Visualizing the Poetic Image

An example illustrates this challenge:

• “Hawthorns smile like milk splashed down / From Noon’s blue pitcher over mead and hill.”

• Without prior knowledge of hawthorn blossoms or the metaphorical “blue pitcher,” such lines may feel abstract. Hypertext offers solutions:

• Displaying images of blooming hawthorn helps students visually link the poem’s “splashed milk” imagery to white blossoms spread across a landscape.

• Exploring “Noon’s Blue Pitcher” through Google Images connects the metaphor to Susan Noon’s painting, clarifying how cultural references shape poetic meaning.

• Thus, hypertext transforms vague or culturally distant imagery into something tangible and relatable.

B. Hypertext as a Cultural Archive

The presentation also highlights Google Arts & Culture as a valuable hypertextual resource. By using it, teachers can integrate art, history, and literature into one interactive lesson.

For example, in a lesson on the myth of Icarus and Daedalus, students can:

• View Landscape with the Fall of Icarus to see how the myth is visualized in art.

• Read collections such as 7 Poems About Famous Artworks to explore literary responses to paintings.

• Engage with multimedia exhibits like Watch Icarus Falling! that animate the myth for modern audiences.

Through this web-based exploration, learners not only understand the myth more deeply but also encounter broader critical frameworks, such as the mythical method and postmodern ideas of decentering. By seeing multiple interpretations, students realize that texts hold no fixed meaning and can be read in diverse ways.

Key Insights from Part 2

• Digital tools make spoken language more accessible by converting speech into captions, transcripts, or written text.
• Literature becomes clearer and more engaging when abstract imagery is paired with visuals and cultural references.
• Hypertext platforms like Google Arts & Culture encourage interdisciplinary learning, connecting literature with visual arts and history.
• Students actively participate by searching, analyzing, and interpreting information rather than depending on a single explanation.
• Most importantly, hypertext pedagogy nurtures critical thinking, as learners are encouraged to engage with multiple perspectives and co-create meaning.

Part - 3

The final section of the presentation explores how the digital revolution is transforming literature, methods of analysis, and even the way students are assessed. It highlights how new forms of creativity, data-driven research, and innovative evaluation practices are reshaping the educational landscape.

I. The Emergence of Generative Literature

Jean-Pierre Balpe defines generative literature as a form of digital writing in which computers themselves create ever-changing texts. Using algorithms, rules, and digital dictionaries, machines can generate works that are never the same twice.

This concept challenges traditional understandings of literature. Instead of a fixed text created by an author, these works are fluid and dynamic, requiring readers to think differently about authorship and interpretation. The act of reading itself becomes an engagement with something that is constantly shifting.

Practical demonstrations, such as poetry generators, show how algorithms can compose haiku, sonnets, or even song lyrics. These examples illustrate that creativity in the digital age is no longer the sole domain of humans—machines now play an active role in producing literary art.

II. Digital Humanities: New Modes of Analysis

The presentation then turns to how digital tools are reshaping literary criticism and cultural studies.

• Matthew Jockers’ Microanalysis and Macroanalysis highlight two complementary methods. Microanalysis mirrors close reading, while macroanalysis uses computational tools to study massive amounts of text, uncovering broad historical or cultural patterns that individual reading cannot detect.
• Culturomics, a term coined by Aiden and Michel, refers to the large-scale quantitative study of culture using tools such as Google’s Ngram data. Their work (Uncharted: Big Data as a Lens on Human Culture) shows how big data can reveal cultural shifts in vocabulary, ideas, and trends across centuries.
• Corpus Linguistics in Context (CLiC) applies digital methods specifically to 19th-century fiction, especially Dickens. With tools like Key Word in Context (KWIC), it demonstrates how digital stylistics can reveal recurring patterns and help us understand how readers construct characters and narratives.

III. Digital Assessment and Changing Pedagogies

The final theme of this section focuses on how assessment practices are evolving in the digital classroom. One of the most promising innovations is the digital portfolio. Instead of submitting assignments that are graded and forgotten, students can now compile their work on personal websites, linking and curating it as part of a permanent learning archive.

As Holly Clark emphasizes, digital portfolios are more than a storage space. They promote digital literacy, encourage students to take ownership of their learning, and allow them to showcase their achievements to a wider audience. In this sense, assessment becomes dynamic and future-oriented rather than static and disposable.

Learning Outcome from Part 3

• Generative literature redefines creativity by showing how machines can actively produce texts, making us rethink the role of authorship and reading.
• Digital Humanities demonstrate that both close reading (microanalysis) and large-scale computational methods (macroanalysis, culturomics, and corpus linguistics) enrich literary studies in ways unavailable before.
• Digital portfolios shift assessment into a more interactive and long-term process, giving students a sense of ownership over their work.

References : 

DoE-MKBU. “A Pedagogical Shift From Text to Hypertext | Language and Literature to the Digital Natives.” YouTube, 15 Sept. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1H-ejKTGQM.