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

historical context, and the need (literally) to move beyond the immediate text. That is,
the structure of the CD-ROM provides a reflexive tool for the study of character as an
entity. The organisational structure of the CD-ROM Dossier and the ‘Novel as CD-
ROM’ (in particular the character guide Bindy) visually model the need to move
between studying character at the level of the novel as fiction, placing character (and
the novel itself) in a historical context.

In the Dossier the screens which automatically open when a file is selected include a
spoken and written description of the character, a photograph of the actor who played
them in the 1992 film version of the novel, and in some files a collection of visual
objects and hyperlinks. This ‘default’ screen is a multimodal engagement with the
entity character within the ‘fictional domain’ of the novel. Selecting a visual object
link on the screen leads to a domain of ‘linguistic’ commentary on character as an
entity. These linked texts are intertextual references, either in the form of factual
texts (such as letters from Steinbeck about a character, the actor who played a
character, or an academic writing about the character) or spoken, sung, or written
references to the construction of character within productions of the novel. This level
can be seen as a ‘factual domain’ beyond the fictional novel. That is, fiction is
constructed via the visual, while fact is constructed via ‘language’ written, spoken, or
sung. In the case of the ‘Novel as CD-ROM’ visual hyperlinks (and the multimodal
character guide ‘Bindy’) enabled students to move between the entity character in the
novel as a text in the ‘fictional domain’, and the social- historical construction of
character in the ‘factual domain’.

This structure indicates that two different kinds of engagement with the entity
character and the ‘Novel as CD-ROM’ more generally are required of the student.
The first, at the level of display, demands the students’ imaginative engagement with
character. The second, at the level of language (written, sung or spoken), demands
engagement with the social-historical context of the novel and its subsequent ‘life’ as
a text. The ideological expectation in school English that students should move

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