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

underneath it is condensation from going through the water, and its
making it bubble and coming out the top.

Teacher:     Okay. Right good you’ve described for me certainly what Tve got

here. I’ve got my water boiling here, my steam’s coming up and
hitting my lid at the top

Points water in pan/ raises finger from water to lid / holds finger under Ud
S3:          Is it also condensation as when something outside is cold and

something inside is hot and the coldness and the hotness make.

Teacher:     Okay. If we look at my diagram where’s the hottest part of my

diagram?

Kate: Points at Bunsen burner

Students:     The bottom

Teacher:     Well done. Look at where my liquid is dropping down from up on the

lid, is that going to be cooler, the same temperature or hotter than my
Bunsen burner?

Points to area of the screen with liquid/points at the Bunsen burner

Students:     Cooler

Teacher:      Cooler. Why is it cooler?

Students:     ‘Cos its further away from the heat

Teacher:     Yeah. Well done.

The teacher continues to construct the experiment as something that he has set up
through his choice of language (“my water”, “my lid”, and so on). The construction
of the problem space, the question of how and why the water gets from the saucepan
to the lid is depicted visually on the screen. Working with the screen the teacher and
student draw attention to the water ‘dropping down’. The teacher clarifies the
phenomenon to be explained, against the backdrop of the continuous display of the
water dripping from the saucepan lid on the screen. The teacher creates the need for
an explanation: the question shifts from ‘what is happening?’ and to the question

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