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

Designing a Game

The chapter focuses on two students, Emily and Rachel (age 7 and 8 years) building a
game from scratch using a limited set of eight anima-gadgets (anima-gadgets are
collections of ready-made pieces of code - or ‘behaviours’). Initially, the students
were given worksheets that directed them to explore the functionality of the anima-
gadgets. They turned each anima-gadget on and watched the behaviours while
discussing them with each other and the researcher. They mapped out the design of
their game, through talk, drawing and writing. The students were encouraged to be
specific about what the game would do, and how the components (behaviours) would
make the game work. Finally, the children were asked to draw a picture and to write
the rules of the game.

The two students made the game over three one-hour sessions. In the first session the
game is designed on paper and then visually on screen. In the second session the
students concentrate on one aspect of programming - making the bullets bounce. In
the third session the students program the ‘blow up behaviour’ on the bullets and
complete the game. In a fourth session the game was shared and re-designed with
students in Sweden. The collaborative game design with students in Sweden is
discussed elsewhere (Noss et al., 2002) and is not focused on in this thesis.

Designing the Game on Paper

The students’ representation of bounce through the medium of pen and paper
described below differs from the traditional design of bounce in a math's textbook; it
is already shaped by the centrality of the demands of the screen. The students’ design
of the game on paper is shown in figure 5.10.

Design in Written Mode

Analysis of students’ writing shows that the sequential affordances of writing realise
the entity ‘rule’ in which the elements of the game are named - the alien, the little

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