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

whirring sound (figure 5.1). The player controls the movement of the helicopter by
the mouse.

The image of the city is a conceptual image. It serves to classify the houses and
‘areas’ of the city in a way that shows they have something in common - in this case
that they are all resources for use in the program. The use of a grid system also makes
a clear link between the city and a built and planned human environment, rather than
a natural or organic environment: the constructed character of the city is
foregrounded. The potential to build in the city is visually signified by the empty
grids.

The visual resources of angle and distance or length of shot are used in the opening
screen to construct the visual point of view of the user. The user (viewer) is
positioned looking down on the helicopter, in a ‘god-like’ position above the
helicopter and the city. The high vertical angle of the viewer position is suggestive of
power. Through the resource of social distance the user is visually positioned nearer
to the helicopter than the city which is shown in the background. The detailed texture
of the helicopter is shown - a further sign of its (near) proximity to the user.

The primary and highly saturated colours of the helicopter serve to mark its salience
on the screen. This is visually confirmed by the position of the helicopter in the centre
of the frame.

The coding orientation of this image is used to position the user of Toontalk in
relation to its elements. The strong primary colours and texture of Toontalk realise a
highly ‘sensory’ realism: “sensory coding orientations are used in contexts in which
the pleasure principle is allowed to be dominant” (Kress and van Leeuwen, 1996:
170). This is a matter of design, rather than the affordances of mode. The realism of
Toontalk is associated with computer and video games and is a visual sign of the
potential for user action and control in the game environment.

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