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



Table 5.3 The modal affordances and epistemological commitments in the students’
written, drawn and Toontalk game designs.

Technology

Pen and Paper

Toontalk

Mode

Writing

Still image (drawing)

movement, still image, sound-
effect, and colour

Epistemological
commitments

• Names the
elements

• Tells the
sequence of
events

• Names the
actional relations
between
elements

• Displays the
elements

• Displays the
relationship
between
elements

• Displays the
events∕actions
simultaneously

• Constructs
‘bounce’ as
outcome

• Shows the elements and
their relationship to one
another as movement in
time and space

• Shows the action of the
elements as a sequence in
time and space

• Identifies the ‘agents’ of
events

• Constructs ‘bounce’ as the
conjunction of agency,
movement and angle

The design of ‘bounce’ in the game occurred over a series of six frames of activity.
The iterative move of the students between playing, planning, and programming
enabled them to recognise and solve problems in the game design. Having identified
a problem the students planing was multimodal, using speech, gesture, and interacting
with the visual objects on the screen. Gesturing at the screen the students were able to
introduce new elements and to produce their imagined game as a ‘gestured overlay’.
These gestures were one indicator of the students’ uncertainty, for example what it is
that ‘produces’ the bounce. At such moments of uncertainty the visual mode is
crucial. If an element is not visually available it can not be easily brought into the
imagined game through students’ gesture and is at risk of being ‘invisible’ in the
problem solving process.

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