about and make sense of the world. From this perspective, computer ‘intelligence’ is
seen as radically extending and altering what people think of as human imagination,
intelligence, problem solving skills, and the capacity to see our own thoughts in
action and replay them for our reflection. The potential of computers to reify or to
‘make concrete one's own thinking, and to do so in a manner that has never before
been possible.' (Sewell, 1990: 21) places new technologies in the role of 'liberator'
giving the learner more independence and reducing mental drudgery. This research
acknowledges the multimodal potential of new technologies, but does not ask how its
multimodal character might contribute to learning.
Many claims and predictions have been made about the power of new technologies to
change learning - and the world. However some computer applications provide little
that is new for learning and teaching. The replication of formalist approaches to the
arts in paint box applications, for instance, continues to focus on line, tone, and
colour and in doing so replicates traditional teaching in a new medium (Sinker,
2000). The traditions of 'drill and skill' rote learning are embedded in the design of
much current educational software (e.g. success maker), which breaks the desired
learning goals into small steps and relies on reward, repetition, and contingent
incrementation of difficulty levels to impart skills (Littleton and Light, 1999). While
the conditions for learning can be improved by new technology in the classroom, it is
clear from the literature that this potential is not always realised. Indeed, Davis and
colleagues (1997) comment on the potential for teachers to use new technology to
‘create a new set of mundane tasks’ that fail to make use of the opportunities for
learning offered by new technologies.
The question of how the multimodal character of new technologies can be used
effectively in learning remains unanswered. One reason for this, I want to suggest, is
the tension created by the multimodal character of new technologies and the desire to
maintain language at the centre of the school curriculum. This brings into focus the
question of literacy and what it means.
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