A Multimodal Framework for Computer Mediated Learning: The Reshaping of Curriculum Knowledge and Learning

Opening
screen
video clip

Figure 4.3 The structure of Chapter One of the ‘Novel as CD-ROM’

From Writing to Multimodal Video Text

The CD-ROM version of the chapter opens with a video clip (lasting fifty seconds) of
the 1992 film of the novel. It shows the characters George and Lennie sitting by a
campfire, talking. This scene in the CD-ROM draws on pages 15 - 16 of the printed
novel (the chapter in the book is 18 pages in total). In other words, the ‘Novel as
CD-ROM’ effectively ‘opens’ near the conclusion of the chapter. The effect of the
move from writing to multimodal text is described in the transcript (shown in
transcript 4.1)

The Visual Representation of Gaze, Gesture and Movement

The transformation of the scene of the characters George and Lennie around the
campfire, from page to screen, opens the possibility for re-presentation through the
modes of gesture, movement and gaze rather than that of writing alone. The choice
of a video clip as opposed to an audio clip can be seen as motivated by modal
considerations. Gesture, movement and gaze offer different resources for meaning
making than does sound. Movement as a mode offers different possibilities than
sound for realising rhythm and pace (fast∕slow, smooth∕jerking), it has spatial
dimensions (close∕distant), and directionality (up∕down, left∕right, in∕out). Just as in
sound, there is the potential for silence; there is also the possibility of stillness in the
‘lack of movement’.

Actional modes are used in the ‘Novel as CD-ROM’ to construct the characters
George and Lennie as different. The character George maintains the same body

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