Hypermedia and discovery-based learning: a historical perspective

The history of education shows a long-standing, comprehensive rejection of teaching based on discovery, exploration and individual experience—the cornerstone of the hypermedia revolution in education which we are told to expect in the near future. By looking at some of the many failed past attempts to change rigid educational practices into malleable, free-form ways of learning, the author argues that any such revolution in education is probably further away than is supposed by many of those working in the field of interactive technologies.