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

of the movement of the bombs∕bullets is realised spatially in relation to the static
bars, the alien, and the little figure.

The affordances of pen and paper both enable and constrain the design of the game
and the students’ interaction with these affordances brings forth different elements of
the game, ideas of ‘bounce’ (and notions of game itself). The students then design the
game with the resources of Toontalk.

Designing the Game on Screen

Toontalk offers the potential for temporal sequences of movement across∕within the
space of the screen, which realise visual rhythms, and the illusion of three-
dimensionality. The affordances of Toontalk demand that the students re-specify the
generalised elements of their game design in pen and paper. The visual design of the
game (figure 5.11.) and of the elements and their spatial relations, in session one is
not ‘merely’ a matter of decoration: it is the design of the game narrative itself.

The “little figure” needs to be fully depicted and the students select an image of a
little dog from the Toontalk ‘notebook’ of images, a motivated sign. The dog is a
sandy brown colour, it is depicted wearing a rocket strapped around its waist and is
shown flying, and wears a pair of sunglasses. The alien selected from the notebook
is green, smaller, and a more monster like with a large trumpet shaped nose and four
eyes (and less human) than the original drawing of the alien. Similarly the bombs of
the original design are transformed in the move to the screen into small white bullets.
The background of the game named in the writing as ‘place’ and represented in the
drawing as grey rectangle (screen) is represented by an image of the planet Jupiter.
The planet is brightly coloured in shades of orange and red, both hot warm colours
(hence the narrative thread of the dog’s sun glasses). The frame of the game on screen
is transformed from a rectangle to a circle - emphasising the planet location of the
game.

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