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

when a ‘state’ is heated or cooled; the focus is on the process of transformation
between one state of matter and another.

The compositional arrangement of the modes on screen realises the two areas of
‘frame’ and ‘screen within a screen’, each of which shapes the entities of states of
matter and particles in specific ways. The frame functions to ‘name’ the
transformations of states of matter (e.g. liquid to solid) linguistically and to visually
establish the entity ‘particles’ as Criterial to ‘states of matter’. Further the modal
realisation of the ‘frame’, the use of image, colour, writing, and visual composition
serves to literally frame what is to be attended to within the domain of science. The
modal realisation of the ‘screen within a screen’ attends to the ‘empirical world’,
specific everyday instances of the entity ‘states of matter’. At the same time the
‘screen within a screen’ is a space which makes available the scientific view of the
world (when the ‘view particles’ viewing option is selected). The ‘screen within a
screen’ serves to mediate and provide the ‘evidence’ that ‘fills-up’ the linguistic
concepts of the frame. The visual presence of scientific equipment on the screen
serves to both represent the investigation as ‘real’ through its association with the
traditions of the science classroom and to position the students as having the potential
to actively engage with the display. The availability of these two different ‘accounts’
of the phenomenon ‘states of matter’, the everyday and the scientific, provides a
productive tension in which each account ‘explains the other’, this tension and
explanation is realised visually and through the modal resources of movement.

In contrast to the foregrounding of image and movement on the screen, the modal
resources of writing are backgrounded on the screen. Writing appears only in the
‘frame’ area of Multimedia Science School and not in the ‘screen within a screen’.
The role of writing is limited to the naming (labelling) of the entities ‘states of
matter’ and the transformation between states (e.g. solid to liquid), that is, on screen

274

<<   272   273   274   275   276   277   278   >>

More intriguing information