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

cooled. Despite the construction of the state of matter via the resources of writing,
directionality, and movement on the screen the students cannot read this as a solid
and I want to argue that this is due to the resources of image, colour and texture.

The Positioning and Agency of Students

In the previous sections of this chapter I have discussed how the multimodal
resources of the CD-ROM as they are displayed on the screen shape the curriculum
entities within the lesson, that is the realisation of the ‘ideational’ ‘meta-function’
(outlined in chapters Two and Three). In this section of the chapter I explore how the
resources that are displayed on the computer screen serve to create particular relations
between the students and the world of science presented and framed by the CD-ROM,
in other words the ‘interpersonal’ ‘meta-function’ (outlined in chapters Two and
Three).

The semiotic resources of distance, contact and attitude are used to realise complex
and subtle relations between the elements represented on screen and the students.
Through the semiotic resource of distance (e.g. ‘close’ versus ‘distant’) the display on
the screen is made to seem close to the students. The students are visually positioned
near to the equipment (about one or two feet away) similar to the distance that they
would be if they were conducting an investigation in the classroom. Attitude, the
horizontal or vertical visual angle used to represent an element in an image, is a
visual semiotic resource that encodes the position of the viewer. In the case of the
images on the CD-ROM a frontal horizontal angle is used and visually this creates a
maximum involvement - the student is directly confronted with what is in the picture.
Through the use of vertical angle the CD-ROM positions the students as looking very
slightly down on the elements in the picture, indicating the potential power of the
students in relation to the investigation.

The visual representations of ‘states of matter’ on the screen visually position the
student as the observer and actor in the investigation. However, in real terms the

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