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

their engagement with an application. In the following sections I discuss the aim of
the thesis in relation to my analyses of how the modal affordances of new
technologies re-mediate the learning of school English, Mathematics, and Science.

The Reshaping of Curriculum Entities in School English

In the move from page to screen the CD-ROM of the novel Of Mice and Men
reshaped the entities ‘character’ and ‘novel’. In the move from page to screen the
mode of image dominates the representation of the novel as an entity. The visual
character of writing was foregrounded and used as a resource for indicating the
relationships between the characters. This serves to equalise all of the characters and
to connect the characters George and Curly’s Wife romantically. This multimodal
reshaping of character provided a multimodal filter through which the novel can be
re-read by the students and re-orientates the narrative, ‘overlaying’ the racism and
sexism of the novel and transforming the motivating force of the novel. This
multimodal reshaping of character highlights the novel’s theme of loneliness, and
offers the students other analytical devices (such as metaphor) for its analysis, as well
as providing them with different modal entry points into the novel as a text.

The original entity of ‘novel’ is repositioned in the ‘Novel as CD-ROM’ from a
fictional entity to one that exists in the tension between fact and fiction. The
hyperlinks between the places mentioned in the novel and a map and historical facts,
together with the guide’s comments on the socio-historical context of the novel and
Stienbeck’s intentions offer the ‘reader’ of the ‘Novel as CD-ROM’ alternative
perspectives and resources for engaging with the narrative. In this way the practices
of reading a novel for literary study and examination are embedded in and
transformed through the multimodal resources and structure of the CD-ROM. The
narrative of the ‘Novel as CD-ROM’ is re-presented, restructured, repositioned and
transformed to account for the perceived concerns of a contemporary audience.
Through the multimodal reshaping of the novel the CD-ROM highlighted characters
newly and emphasises specific moments above others foregrounded in the original

264

<<   262   263   264   265   266   267   268   >>

More intriguing information