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

because of the heat. Yes I’ve done something I had raised the tempture.’. These
comments can be read as ‘signs’ of the student’s writing themselves ‘into’ or ‘out of’
the investigation and the extent to which they see what happens on the screen as a
result of their action or the action of the system.

Student Roles

Through their use of the CD-ROM the students take on different roles in relation to
the production of knowledge. The three students who work ‘together’ take on
different roles one, Lucy, takes the role of the ‘expert’ and the others takes on the role
of an observer and questioner. For instance in the role of the ‘expert’ Lucy reads
aloud and rephrases the questions of the teacher, and the comments of the other
students - for example, when the student comments that the water will ‘get hot’ she
corrects this to ‘it boils’. She also checks the other students have understood what
she has said. The other student consistently calls on this student for explanation and
guidance, for instance, she says T mean I’ve done...but I don’t understand how I got
there’, and tells her what she is writing on the worksheet.

The CD-ROM on the Interactive Whiteboard

In the second part of the lesson the teacher brings the students together as a class to
discuss ‘what they have found out’ using the CD-ROM on an interactive white board.
This part of the lesson involves the students volunteering to present the
transformations of state of matter displayed on the CD-ROM to the class. The first
four students whom the teacher selects present the ‘states of matter’ in the ‘Hide
Particles’ viewing option and the second four students present the ‘states of matter’ in
the ‘View Particles’ option. The teacher’s separation of the ‘Hide Particles’ and the
‘View Particles’ options in this way first enables a ‘problem space’ to be defined and
then a theoretical answer to this problem to be established.

In this section I describe the two presentations of the transformation from a gas to a
liquid. I have selected this particular instance as it is typical of the multimodal

246

<<   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   >>

More intriguing information