A study of the ways science students transformed their teacher's description of cells suggests that learning is multimodal, arising from the interaction of visual, verbal, and linguistic communication. It demonstrates that learning is a process of selection, adaptation, and transformation of information across communication systems. (Author/SK)

Frequently writing is now no longer the central mode of representation in learning materials--textbooks, Web-based resources, teacher-produced materials. Still (as well as moving) images are increasingly prominent as carriers of meaning. Uses and forms of writing have undergone profound changes over the last decades, which calls for a social,…