configured between modes may realise a tension between the aspects of meaning in a
text - a tension that is itself meaningful. As the analysis in this thesis has shown a
theme (such as ‘friendship’) may be realised simultaneously (although always
differently) through a range of modes to make a theme potentially more salient than if
it were realised in only one mode. The take up of modes and specific modal resources
serves to shape the representation of what is included or excluded in the ‘world’ of
English, Mathematics or Science, as well as the relation of the student user to that
world of knowledge, and its coherence.
As I have shown, the structure of a text and the use of hyperlinks realise connections
and dis-connections between screens (texts) and this contributes to the construction
of meaning relations between elements. In these ways the structures and links of a
text can produce a semiotic sense of containment where the path through screens is a
tightly defined space, and the screen is itself boundaried. Alternatively a semiotic
sense of ‘openness’ can be produced through the design of links and screen structures
in which the reading path remains more open. The multimodal character of new
technologies, and the multiple entry points it offers to a text, nonetheless always
opens up the potential for the ‘reader’ to divert from the ‘intended’ reading path(s). In
the applications described and analysed in this thesis the structures that contain and
boundary a text, in a sense ‘force’ the user to make a decision, while a more open
structure signals the expectation on the ‘reader’ to explore the resources and
potentials for action.
Modes have been shaped through their social usage over time to realise specific
functions in the context of technology-mediated learning in school English,
Mathematics and Science. As a consequence of this, as I have shown, the modes carry
different functional loads in the realisation of knowledge on screen. More
specifically, in the applications analysed in this thesis I have shown that writing is a
mode most often used for the representation of specialised subject knowledge,
mathematical, scientific or literary knowledge. In contrast, movement can be
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