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



into clusters (drops of water) and fall back into the pan of boiling water. The
‘particles’ are not shown in the boiling water; that is shown as having ‘bubbles’ in it.
Several students made comments like the following one that a student, Kylie, wrote
on her worksheet:

I have decreased the temperature and the particles go up singularly but
come down in clusters.

This observation focuses on the number of ‘particles’ and directionality; while the
observation is accurate, the student’s comment highlights a difference to the point at
hand, that is, that the single ‘particle’ represents ‘a gas’ and that the ‘clusters’
represent a liquid. That is the word ‘particle’ is used to signify ‘molecule’ in a gas
and ‘droplet’ in water. The representation serves to foreground the transformation
that is to be attended to - the transformation from a gas to a liquid. The
transformation of a liquid to a gas is represented by the use of a bubble texture which
‘stands for’ ‘a kind of particle’. This representation of ‘Particle’ is problematic as in
the attempt to foreground the transformation of a gas to a liquid the representation
visually separates the gas ‘particles’ from the boiling water. As a result some students
‘read’ the particle rising from the water as ‘steam coming up
through the water’
reading the particle and the bubble texture of the water as visually separate entities.
This separation serves to construct gas and liquid ‘particles’ as different kinds of
‘particles’, rather than as different arrangements of ‘particles’: as such the move from
a specific representation of a ‘liquid’ to a generalised one of ‘states of matter’ and
‘transformation’ is difficult for these students to realise.

Within the CD-ROM it is the visual representation of the transformation from a liquid
to a solid that appeared to be most problematic for some of the students to ‘read’ and
to make sense of. The difficulty these students found in ‘reading’ this image is, I want
to suggest, a consequence of the designers’ of the CD-ROM’s use of the modal
resources of colour, texture and shape, clashing with the students’ principles for

232



More intriguing information

1. The name is absent
2. Developing vocational practice in the jewelry sector through the incubation of a new ‘project-object’
3. Innovation and business performance - a provisional multi-regional analysis
4. A Dynamic Model of Conflict and Cooperation
5. MATHEMATICS AS AN EXACT AND PRECISE LANGUAGE OF NATURE
6. The name is absent
7. How do investors' expectations drive asset prices?
8. The name is absent
9. The name is absent
10. A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON UNDERINVESTMENT IN AGRICULTURAL R&D
11. The name is absent
12. The name is absent
13. The name is absent
14. Meat Slaughter and Processing Plants’ Traceability Levels Evidence From Iowa
15. The name is absent
16. CAPACITAÇÃO GERENCIAL DE AGRICULTORES FAMILIARES: UMA PROPOSTA METODOLÓGICA DE EXTENSÃO RURAL
17. Ein pragmatisierter Kalkul des naturlichen Schlieβens nebst Metatheorie
18. Policy Formulation, Implementation and Feedback in EU Merger Control
19. Transport system as an element of sustainable economic growth in the tourist region
20. A Rational Analysis of Alternating Search and Reflection Strategies in Problem Solving