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

7. New Technology and Learning

Introduction

Throughout this thesis I have set out to demonstrate that mode and learning are
fundamentally connected. The analytical focus of the previous chapters is on the
semiotic resources and affordances of modes. In this chapter however the focus is
adjusted to foreground learning. I begin by considering how the thesis contributes to a
better understanding of the relationship between the multimodal resources of new
technologies and curriculum knowledge and learning. I open up this discussion more
generally by returning to the six analytical themes of the thesis, outlined in Chapter
One and woven throughout its chapters. My intention is not to say something final, to
‘tie up’ these thematic threads, rather it is to develop these themes as conceptual tools
that may be useful for understanding technology-mediated learning.

The Multimodal Reshaping of Curriculum Knowledge and Practices

The multimodal analysis of the three instances of technology-mediated learning
presented in this thesis demonstrates how the representation of curricular knowledge
is capable of being modally reshaped by new technologies. I have shown that the
multimodal character of new technologies can offer new potentials for students’
engagement with the curriculum, potentials that reshape the process of learning, what
it involves and what it demands of students. Through focusing on the semiotic modes
offered by new technologies I have shown that curriculum knowledge and learning is
always shaped by mode and technology in rhetorical ways. I have demonstrated that
knowledge and learning are a complex outcome of the relationship between the sign
maker, the social context the sign is made in, and the sign maker’s perception of the
audience. In other words, I have shown that knowledge is shaped by the interests and
purposes of the designer of an application, the social organisation of the application’s
context of use, such as its curriculum purpose, together with the rules and roles that
surround and impact on its use, and the interests and purposes that students bring to

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