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

modes need to be considered in relation to the multimodal ensemble that they are
always only ever one part of.

The multimodal character of the information environment of new technologies is not
an automatic consequence of the facilities of the medium, hence the different take up
and design of modes in different applications. The facilities of the medium of new
technologies make it easy (easier than say the medium of the page) to draw on a
range of modes, such as movement, sound-effect and speech. How these modes are
taken up and configured on screen is, however, a matter of the design of knowledge:
that is, what it is that is to be conveyed, to whom and by whom, for what purpose and
in which context. In other words, the design of multimodal texts in the domain of new
technologies is motivated and interested and as a result the multimodal potentials of
computer texts are not always taken up. For instance, ‘screen’ can look ostensibly
like a ‘page’, that is, it can be full of writing and little else. This can be understood as
a rhetorical decision to reject the potentials of image, movement, and so on, to display
‘tradition’ in the space of the ‘new’.

De-centring Language

As the computer applications analysed in this thesis and new technologies more
generally testify, the presence of the modes of speech and writing (or linguistic
modes) on the screen is often minimal. When writing is displayed on screen it is
along-side other modes and these other modes, often images, tend to dominate the
screen space. A range of modes are in play and, increasingly, the environment of
new technology relies on 'non-linguistic' processes of communication and decision-
making as people deconstruct visual symbols and click to progress. The visual links,
shared visual objects and audio files made available by the facilities of new
technologies can be designed to critique or mediate the written elements of a text on
screen or to draw attention to potential layers of meaning and alternative readings in a
written text. The multimodal facilities of the screen serve to de-centre speech and
writing and to distribute the functional load of a message across a range of modes. In

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