Having sketched the purpose of the thesis and given a sense of the interests that it
emerged from, in the next section I discuss the research questions that inform it, and
the themes that emerged from the analysis and are developed throughout the
following chapters.
Research Questions and Themes
The interests and aims outlined in the previous section are addressed throughout the
thesis by asking three interconnected research questions.
1. How do the multimodal resources (as they appear on screen) made available by
technology-mediated learning shape curriculum knowledge?
2. How does student engagement with these multimodal resources shape school
practice (e.g. reading) and what it means to be a learner?
3. What contribution to learning might students’ use of the multimodal resources of
new technologies make?
The process of applying these three questions to data of instances of technology-
mediated learning enables both aims of the thesis to be achieved simultaneously. The
analytical process requires the development of multimodal theory to the specific
context of technology-mediated learning, and at the same time yields insights into
how the multimodal resources of these technologies contribute to the shaping of
curriculum knowledge, practices and learning.
Six central themes weave through my analysis and discussion of technology-mediated
learning in this thesis. These themes emerged from my initial analysis of technology-
mediated learning presented in Part II of the thesis and review of the literature. The
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