To Entropy, or Not to Entropy

I have been preparing for a class on web based instructional design, and as a result have been considering some of the basic assumptions we make concerning the presentation space for e-learning. While the class will need to consider a variety of browsers, one that will need to take a central focus must be Internet Explorer. While I hesitate to cite Wikipedia, on the page for browser market share, the graphic for Internet Explorer looks remarkably like the old Packman graphic.

So what is the issue?

I have noticed that there is a new category of flotsam accumulating on computer screens, the unasked-for addition of toolbars. The worst, and probably the most extreme, case was a friend who asked me why his printer had stopped working. When I looked I found that his browser had added a piece of malware, in the form of an additional toolbar that had simply hijacked his printer driver. But the other thing that was apparent was that he had a LOT of toolbars. He could search using Google from the convenience of his browser toolbar. He could search using Yahoo the same way. He could also search using AOL. He could access history, favorites, an additional row of MSN tabs, and multiple windows in the event he grew bored with one.

I do not begrudge anyone the use of as many search engines or additional tools as they might want, but each of these toolbars had eroded the window for viewing content, and deposited another line of noise into the communication channel. It seemed that there was as much information around the edge of any page he was viewing as there was on it. Given the nature of most web pages, this is probably not that big a problem, but I am focused on how we learn using web pages here, and that focus presents a number of problems, some trivial and I fear, some not.

The most mundane problem for a course designer is what assumption should be made about the viewing area for course content. Will the addition of multiple toolbars force the window to scroll? While this might not be bad in cases where there is significant content below the scroll line, in the case of a page that does not have any content, but only shows a scroll line that needs to be moved to see
that there is no content, it is at best annoying.

Another issue to consider, and one that I have not yet answered to my own satisfaction (and which I suspect will be the subject of future musings) is the effect on the learner of multiple and significant distractions around the learning space. An analogous situation would be a classroom in which everyone was allowed to talk in a normal speaking voice all the time. There would be no focus for anyone on anyone or anything. It would just be noise.

I will be curious to see what the class thinks about this. I suspect the discussion will take place according to the civilized rules for discourse in place in college classrooms. Have we defined those rules for browser based education?

R