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

It contributes to the field of technology-mediated learning in three ways. First, the
thesis moves beyond talk in order to account for the complex relationships between
representational and Communicational modes in the construction of meaning and
learning. Second, the thesis focuses on literacy as a multimodal concept and asks
what it means to be literate in across the school curriculum in a digital era. Third, it
contributes to a better understanding of how the multimodal character of new
technologies re-mediates school knowledge and practices.

The thesis contributes to the development of multimodality in two ways. First the
thesis moves beyond the text to analyse people’s situated practices with texts, and the
relationship between text and practice. Second, the thesis expands multimodal theory
beyond the page into the domain of the screen. Third, the thesis offers a coherent
approach for looking at a range of modes and the interaction between them on screen.

For the reasons outlined in this chapter I approach technology-mediated learning from
a theoretical perspective that moves beyond talk - a multimodal social semiotic
perspective. This theoretical approach is described in the following chapter, Chapter
Two. The application of multimodal theory to technology-mediated learning is the
focus of Chapter Three.

‘ On average children spend three times as long on computers in the home as they do in school
(Harrison, et. al, 2001). During this time they are engaged in more challenging and innovative uses of
new technologies than in the school (Somekh et al., 2001a).

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