Collecting Media Files
One of the major advantages of the Scalar platform is that can promote non-linear thinking whst when students save composing the text of their chapters for last. With just an idea of the textual content they want as opposed to working with finished copy, they can begin to compile media files—a collection of images, interactive maps, audio files, and video clips (that they either find on the internet or develop themselves). Here the mantra “Make the mess before you clean it up” applies. Like the brainstorming process, students should gather more media files than they think they will need before evaluating what they have collected and deciding which files best support the message of each page. Approaching the construction of pages and chapters in this counterintuitive way ensures that the relationship between the images and the text will be more dynamic and interactive than it is when students write text first then merely try to find images or media to "plug in."
