Conclusion
The resources of the screen and the students’ engagement with these in the lesson
result in a reshaping of the curriculum entity ‘states of matter’ and a change in the
cognitive work required of the students.
Shift in Focus from ‘State’ to the ‘Process of Transformation’
A central question in this chapter is ‘ what happens when we shift the focus to the
process of transformation between states rather than the description of specific
states?’. The transformation between the ‘states of matter’ is not, as I mentioned
earlier, traditionally represented visually in the science classroom. Traditionally this
aspect of the theory of ‘states of matter’ has been handled through speech, gesture,
and so on; here, with the facilities of new technology the theory with a different focus
is realised through movement.
The curriculum contents as realised in the traditional classroom are shaped as discreet
entities I and ‘states of matter’. In the move to screen and its potential for movement
this is reshaped to focus on entity as ‘process’, so that the focus is on the
transformation from solid to liquid or from liquid to gas. Nonetheless the ways in
which these processes of transformation are realised on the screen continues to be
shaped by the demands of the curriculum as traditionally shaped via the
representational means then available. In order to adhere to the existing curriculum
the potentials of new technology made available via the CD-ROM are not fully taken
up. The visual representation of transformation between ‘states of matter’ on the
static page is problematic, in the move to screen these problematic aspects remain. In
short, the demands of the curriculum remain shaped by the resources of static
representation even with the availability of the mode of movement. The CD-ROM
shows the tension between the potentials of the old and the new in the reshaping of
knowledge.
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