image, writing and movement, and so on, as they appear on the computer screen is
increasingly recognised as central to learning (Lankshear et. al, 2002).
Writing on the computer screen (and other screens including the mobile phone
screens, game boys and so on) appears to be regaining its visual character, its image-
quality (Lanham, 2001: Elkins, 2000). Indeed it has been stated that:
We are entering a historical epoch in which the image will take over
from the written word.
(Gombrich, 1996: 41).
While this prediction may be as ‘off the mark’ as predictions that computers heralded
the demise of the book, visual communication does appear to be increasingly
foregrounded in educational texts - whatever the technology. The increased use of
visual and other modes of communication is epitomised by (but not restricted to) new
technologies.
Theories of the relationship between word and image include the potential for images
to extend the meaning of words (i.e. ‘relay’), or to be independent of them (Barthes,
1977). The dominant theory of the relationship between word and image had been
one of ‘anchorage’ - in which words anchor the meaning of an image (Barthes,
1977). The complexity of the relationship between image and word in the
multimodal environment together with the increase in visual communication that is
entirely free of words suggests that in many cases a view of image as reliant on word
is no longer relevant (van Leeuwen, 2000).
The multimodal character of new technology and the consequential ‘de-centring’ of
the modes of speech and writing, suggests that research which focuses on these
modes alone will fail to examine much of what goes on in technology-mediated
learning (both on and around the screen).
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