thesis. I demonstrate that traditional conceptions of literacy are reshaped and
expanded in the multimodal learning environment of technology-mediated learning
(and elsewhere) and I argue that literacy can more usefully be thought of as a process
of multimodal design.
In the following section, in order to situate the thesis clearly in the fields of
multimodal theory and technology-mediated learning, I discuss the themes introduced
above in the context of the relevant literature.
The Multimodal Character of New Technologies
Representation and communication on the computer screen are increasingly realised
through the complex interplay of still image, colour, moving-image, writing, sound-
effect, speech, and music. In other words representation and communication on the
computer screen are multimodal (Kress, 1998; Kress and van Leeuwen, 2001).
Multimodal communication is central to the design and use of the majority of new
technologies (such as CD-ROM and Hypertext).
Visual representation is considered especially important, particularly in School
Science and Mathematics, as it is thought to make some concepts more easily
accessible to students in the classroom, thereby making inquiry and learning ‘easier’
(Ligorio, 2001). Indeed, visual communication, it has been said, is expanding to the
extent that the written elements on screen are now merely what cannot be done in
images (Bolter, 1998). Images on the world-wide-web often enter into co-operative
relations with words in which images function as 'characters' that link screens. An
element's salience on the screen, for example, the use of vectors, symbolic processes,
and gaze can draw attention to it as a linking tool.
The multimodal character of new technologies is acknowledged in the field of the
usability and design of software and interfaces, although the focus is on the
interpersonal level of the ‘attraction’ and ‘appeal’ of the interface.
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