First, a note about the difference between multimedia and hypertext software.
Hypertext is defined by Huntington Lyman (a secondary English teacher/English Ed. doctoral student) in his Jan. 1998 English Journal article "The Promise and Problems of English On-Line: A Primer for High School Teachers," this way:

Hypertext, the language of the World Wide Web, allows individual words, strings of words, or images to serve as links. The target for a hypertext link might be a different section of a document or a different document altogether. Hypertext permits a document to be connected to an infinite number of other documents, thus providing the foundation for the metaphor of the Web. While hypertext is most obviously a convenient navigation aid, it has profound potential benefits for language arts instruction. (58)

Storyspace
This is a hypertext program that has a feature, pictured at left, that in my research looks to be unique. This is the Storyspace map, which shows each hypertext writing space and each of its links. Writers can add, link, and reorganize by moving writing spaces on the map. What this means is that as a hypertext document is created, the student/author can see and revise a visual representation of the overall logic of his or her presentation during their work. In addition, multiple ways of viewing and mapping the hypertext, to see both the hierarchical structure and the links are instantly available, and many views can be kept open at once, as shown here. I am still in the process of downloading a working demo of this program onto a Mac, so I have no advice to offer on how easy or difficult this program is to learn, but it seems easy enough in Eastgate's advertising material. Storyspace can also translate your document into HTML, which would then be in a format to upload directly to the Web, or to import into a multimedia application like Director (reviewed on my Multimedia Authoring Software page) to add graphics, sound, or animation, or into a web page builder like Netscape Composer or Macromedia Dreamweaver. I would love to have this program and will be lobbying my school district to buy it. Downside: a pretty hefty price tag, even with the educational discount. They quote $545 for a 10 workstation license or $1395 for a 50 workstation license, not including shipping and handling.

Thinker
This is a basic, low-cost hypertext editor and word processor. If all you want to do is create text documents with the capability to link from any word in the text to other parts of the same text, other text files, other applications, or to mail or the web, then this program should work well for you. You would also be able to publish your work on the web and install the software on a network. At $30 a copy, for Mac or PC, this might be a good place to start if you have older non multimedia computers or a very limited budget.

HyperCard
A demo version of this program is not available, so I have not seen it work. I do know that it was the original hypertext program created for use on Apple computers, and that it still will only run on Macs, which is a problem for most of us in schools that have switched to PC hardware. Sorry I can't offer more helpful information on this program!

Palimpsest
This program is similar to Storyspace. I have played with the demo version (only available to download on a Mac), and I can tell you that it is not geared toward students. The user interface is text heavy and dense. On Palimpsest, you can take any text and add annotations, one-way and two-way cross references, headings, and colors.  The major drawback I can see is that if you want to continue to use the program from year-to-year you have to update your subscription at the rate of $50 per workstation. For most of us on limited and unpredictable technology budgets, that ongoing cost may be prohibitive. If you want hypertext, I would put my money on Storyspace. Eastgate's marketing seems aggressive and up-to-date, which portends at least a little more time left to get tech support and/or updates from them.

Note: These programs represent the best of what I found to be available for use in secondary English at the time of this project (April 2001). For a more extensive, broader (PK-16 and all subjects), and continually updated list of software reviews done by educators, you can go to EvaluTech, a site maintained by the Southern Region Education Board. They also have a page called Other Evaluation Resources which will link you to other educational software evaluation sites, the most useful of which I found was the Florida Educational Software Project.

If you teach in a public school in Georgia, you can check out the UGA Technology Training Center's web site for current information on how you can attend technology training relevant to your classroom situation. Look on your state's Dept. of Ed. web site for a training center near you! (The address is usually www.doe.K12.yourstate'stwoletterabbreviation.us)

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