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

concept. Through this analysis I show that the choice of representational modes in the
design of the program is central to the potentials for user engagement. Modes (e.g.
image and writing) provide the maker of an application and the user of it with
different features for making meaning, and in this case, for understanding what is at
issue in engaging with aspects of programming and building games.

Using ToontaIk and School Mathematics

Numeracy is core to current government education policy. The National Numeracy
Strategy was launched in 1998 and has been formally implemented in classrooms
since September 1999. The National Curriculum asserts that,

Mathematics equips pupils with a uniquely powerful set of tools to
understand and change the world. These tools include logical
reasoning, problem-solving skills, and the ability to think in abstract
ways. Mathematics is important in everyday life, many forms of
employment, science and technology, medicine, the economy, the
environment and development, and in public decision-making.

(Dfes, 1999)

Information and communication technologies are seen as central to the teaching and
learning of Mathematics in schools. The after school computer club (and the
Toontalk Project) that the data discussed in this chapter is drawn from sites outside of
the formal classroom environment. However the students’ work with Toontalk, and
their game making involves concepts and practices that are central to school Maths,
the National Curriculum, and the government’s Numeracy Strategy. In particular, as
the students work together to design and build a game in the computer application
Toontalk I show that they are forced to engage with the mathematical concept ‘rule’,
and the relationship between ‘condition’ and ‘action’. The students also work with
the concept of ‘angle’ in order to make a bullet fire and bounce in the way that they
want it to, the work of estimating and understanding angles is highlighted in the
Numeracy Strategy.

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