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

Multimodality is an emergent theory, and while there is a small (but significant) body
of work on multimodal theory that sets out to address the theoretical questions that it
raises many of the theoretical concepts and tools remain unsettled (e.g. Khess and van
Leeuwen, 1996; Kress and van Leeuwen, 2001; Finnegan, 2002). Despite this,
educational researchers have actively taken up multimodal theory across a wide range
of learning contexts. This includes, among others, pre-school learning (Lancaster,
2001; Pahl, 1999), bilingual language learners (Kenner, 2000), literacy (Moss 2001;
Street, 1998), English education (SEP, 2002), and science education (Kress et al.
2001; O’Halloran, 1998). Multimodality has generated much interest among
designers, academics and educational practitioners working in the area of new
technologies and technology-mediated learning. However, with a few notable
exceptions (e.g. Burn and Parker, 2001; Lemke, 2002; van Leeuwen, 1998) there has
been little multimodal research in the field of technology-mediated learning.

Background

The ideas and questions that inform this thesis emerged from watching the children of
friends and my own daughter, ‘play’ and ‘work’ on computers. I watched them ‘read’
books, ‘play’ music, write, draw, build and destroy cities, and kill armies. I listened to
the sound-effects of the software, watched the visual display of animated (revolving)
icons and characters, the use of colour on screen, the spatial construction of the
screen environment, and all the time I wondered what was going on. The children sat
at the computer, they looked intently at the screen, moved the mouse, clicked on
icons, pressed keys, and pointed at things on the screen. In these moments I wondered
whether the multimodal theory of meaning making that I could apply relatively
quickly and easily to my daughter’s other kinds of ‘work’ (her drawings and writing
on paper, the books we read together, the three-dimensional objects that she makes
from a variety of materials - beads, boxes, clay, cardboard) could be of any use in
understanding this ‘world’ on the computer screen.

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