the personified tools and the overarching metaphor of a city) and indicates that it is
underpinned by the mathematical laws of natural phenomena.
In summary, in Toontalk the work required of the user is to move between the
common sense conceptions of the everyday and mathematical formulations of them
and vice versa, to work with the mediating tools of the Toontalk system to re-
articulate the everyday in mathematical terms. The system enables the user to hold
both versions of the world in mind∕on screen and to learn through iterative movement
between these two versions.
The relationship between program mode and game mode is realised in the multimodal
design of Toontalk. The different levels in the game mode use the spatial dimensions
of screen in different ways and have different functions within the game mode. The
design of the relationship between the program mode and the game mode itself
contributes to the construction of the entity ‘rule’ in a programming application - the
rules become differently configured entities in this new mode. In turn the relationship
between program and game mode requires different kinds of ‘work’ from the user as
she or he moves between them and shapes what it means to be a learner in each
system.
The activity of the student with the Toontalk system creates different kinds of spaces.
The analysis of students game building with Toontalk presented in the second part of
this chapter shows that students create different ‘spaces of activity’ on screen when
using Toontalk, including ‘game design space’, ‘game play space’, ‘game
construction space’, and ‘resource construction space’.
The user seated on the floor of the house can engage with both the program mode and
the game mode simultaneously. The user can observe the mechanism of the
programming and the result of the programming at the same time. At this level of
177
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