Summer 2003: developing vertical hierarchy (subdirectories) -- are they "support pages" in nature? Example: script.vtheatre.net got two "class subdirectories" -- script.vtheatre.net/413 (all are index pages) and THR215 Dramatic Literature. I teach THR413 Playscript Analysis in the Fall and made four new subdirectories in "413" subdirectory! Craft, Art, Theory and Writing (four main areas we need to cover during the semester). In the main "script" directory the pages are around playwrights and periods. Topics such as "composition, exposition, plot, story" and etc. are in different place all together (200X Files and Dramlit). So, what do I do with the "Part I. Craft"? Or "Part II. Art"? I have another subdirectory: Themes, which was started for the purpose to discuss individual styles within the continuety of the eternal ideas and questions... This is why I do not teach online.
Questions
Do I make too many new pages? And I make more every day -- the web and the net are not in place, too many holes! The hypertext requires your own www -- the organization is everything! But how?
Notes
To see the evolution of my hyper-system, read "notes" pages (in every directory).
"...let us save what remains: not by vaults and locks which fence them from the public eye and use in consigning them to the waste of time, but by such a multiplication of copies, as shall place them beyond the reach of accident." Jefferson, Thomas. [1791] 1984. Thomas Jefferson to Ebenezer Hazard, Philadelphia, February 18, 1791. In Thomas Jefferson: Writings: Autobiography, Notes on the State of Virginia, Public and Private Papers, Addresses, Letters, edited by Merrill D. Peterson. New York: Library of America
2005: The purpose of my online production books was to assist myself, cast and crew during pre-production and rehearsal periods. After the show is over I use webpages for my classes: directing, acting, drama.
NB: I mean it when I say that I am my own #1 user. The old fashion "files" system led me to the web. I have master-files for each class I teach and cary the monsters to the class (my notes, class plans)... Before class I go through the pages (according to the syllabus) and make changes(!) -- so, I began to do it on webbages in order for me to print the revised pages before each class.
PS
Concentration: performance, directing, film.
I only wish I could be here ten years ago. The true webpages (chapters?) can come into existence naturally only when you do rework your webtexts several times over. Or you should write the textbooks the old fashion way -- each as a special (writing) project.
Questions
How to be smart? Smart as a teacher. As a webmaster....
Teaching questions (list). The target: teach them how to do the homework! They must come to class with QUESTIONS! Thye should even ask them before they come to class (electronic forums).
There must be the follow-up: how to know what they understood and what they didn't before the test? More online tests.
How to know that they read the textbooks and DO understand what they read (again, before the exams -- often we have to go back to fix the topics they didn't get). Reviews must be rethought in principle.
Notes
New page.
I am using htmlgears too much. I try to restucture the ways of navigating without redesigning pages and directories (too much work).
Theme-thought, according to different playwrights (Shakespeare, Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov and so on) and directors (Fillini, Kurosawa, Tarkovsky, Bergman pages).
Connections with other themes (list): family, gender and sex...
Finally, my own practical investigations: shows.vtheatre.net (only recently I began to make themes pages, Don Juan 2003, for example).
And the nonfiction (writing), of course: HIM, Father-Russia, PostAmeriKa, Self, POV, Tech (gatepages are in WRITE directory).
Web? Oh, this is just medium. Like stage, screen, writing...
2005 * After so many years of webbing I cannot change the nature of my webpages -- they are what they were from the start; notes, thoughts, points I make for myself for classes and productions. Do they have an independent existence? Maybe, somewhere in the future...
prof. Anatoly Antohin Theatre UAF Fairbanks AK USA
