extremely negative, it portrayed young men as predatory, sexually irresponsible and
dangerous. In short, the visual and written discourses in the leaflets stood in stark
contrast to one another and attended to the realisation of two distinct discourses of
masculinity. The discourse of masculinity that could be ‘legitimately’ (socially and
professionally) expressed and was realised in written mode, while the discourse that
could not be legitimately expressed was realised visually.
Multimodal Engagement with New Technology
Within the literature on technology-mediated learning there is work that shows how
computers organise classroom talk into distinctive patterns of interaction. For
example, Mercer et al. (1999) identify three kinds of talk in the context of
collaborative computer work - disputational, cumulative and exploratory, and suggest
that each offers different ways of thinking and different potentials for learning. The
role of computers in the construction of shared meaning has also been investigated
(Wegerif and Scrimshaw, 1997). In particular the role of computers on the joint
construction of understanding and the negotiation of meaning in collaborative
problem solving has been examined (Looi and Ang, 2000). Research on collaborative
learning highlights the potential of computers to mediate (new forms) of social
interaction between students, and between students and teacher in the classroom and
to create new learning environments (e.g. Healy, Pozzi, and Hoyles, 1995; Littleton
and Light, 1999; Crook, 1990; Hoyles et al., in press). However, this research focuses
almost exclusively on talk.
The introduction of new technology to learning has the potential to reshape student
and teacher roles and their relationships to knowledge (Russell, 2002; Morgan, et. al.,
2002). More specifically it is widely suggested that new technologies can increase the
control of the learner and decrease the authority of the teacher. An interest in
collaboration and social relations in the classroom has led to much research on the
organisation and use of computers, much of which highlights the increased cognitive
resources and skills available when students work in pairs and triads (Crook, 1999;
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