Computers & Education 43 (2004) 125–135

www.elsevier.com/locate/compedu

�Obsessive compulsive font disorder�: the challengeof supporting pupils writing with the computer

Sasha Matthewman *, Pat Triggs

Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol, 53 Berkeley Square, Bristol BS8 1JA, UK

Abstract

Writing with the computer provokes and enables pupils to engage with aspects of multimodal design

[Multiliteracies: Literacy Learning and the Design of Social Futures, Routledge, London, 2000]. At thesame time the traditional stages of the writing process become much more fluid and integrated [Aust. J.

Language Literacy 17(3) (1994) 183]. These consequences of technology are not recognised within the

curriculum, the assessment system or current models of teaching the writing process in the UK. Using

examples from current classroom research this paper argues that the significance of pupils� uses of the

�available designs� of digital experience [Multiliteracies: Literacy Learning and the Design of Social Futures,

Routledge, London, 2000] is undervalued. Furthermore it suggests that this undervaluing leaves teachers

without well-developed pedagogic models of literacy when computers are involved.

� 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Applications in subject areas; Elementary education; Secondary education; Multimedia; Pedagogical issues

1. Introduction

The arguments advanced in this article are grounded in work done as part of the researchproject InterActive Education: teaching and learning in the information age. The key aim of thisproject is deceptively simple: to investigate the potential of technology to enhance learning. Im-portantly, the project represents a principled and innovative attempt to bring research andpractice closer through real collaboration between teachers, researchers and teacher educators.We are members of the English Subject Design Team and, like the other subject teams within theproject, we have been focussing on the subject specific and classroom specific issues of integrating

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +44-117-928-7065; fax: +44-117-928-7110.

E-mail address: s.matthewman@bris.ac.uk (S. Matthewman).

0360-1315/$ - see front matter � 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2003.12.015

126 S. Matthewman, P. Triggs / Computers & Education 43 (2004) 125–135

technology in teaching and learning. Together, teachers and researchers have developed �designinitiatives�, lesson sequences which incorporate technology in ways that we hope will enhancelearning. We have researched these initiatives in classrooms in a number of ways. This articledraws on data from video of pupils working with technology, and from stimulated recall inter-views with pupils, designed to encourage reflection on learning processes.

Whilst the aim of the InterActive Project is to achieve positive effects through the use of in-formation and communication technologies (ICTs) we are constantly made aware of the con-straints, tensions and barriers to effective ICT use within school settings and within subjectcultures. Early in the English team meetings we began to debate the ways that technology ischanging the nature of the subject English and definitions of literacy. Chris Davies, a teacher at aCity Technology College 1 suggested that his pupils suffered from �Obsessive Compulsive FontDisorder� when writing with computers. The �condition� was instantly recognised by the otherteachers and the phrase became a useful label to describe the tendency of pupils to fiddle endlesslyand pointlessly with fonts, Word Art and other presentational features at the expense of �actuallygetting on with their writing� (Halio, 1990). However analysis of the data on pupils writing withthe computer in the context of the work on multiliteracies and multimodality (Cope & Kalantzis,2000; Kress & Van Leeuwen, 1996; The New London Group, 1996) has suggested alternativeunderstandings of this behaviour. Within this theoretical framing we think that what we sawhappening in classrooms was seldom a �disorder� and was, arguably, frequently more than typicaldisplacement or settling behaviour before writing.

Many commentators (Balestri, 1988; Halio, 1990; Kaplan & Moulthrop, 1990; Lanham, 1989;Snyder, 1994; Tuman, 1992) have pointed out and debated the salient changes to writing thattechnology has brought about.

1 A

gover

techn

Writers have a choice of a variety of fonts and formats which makes each writer a graphic designer as well

as a composer of words. The writer can see what the words will look like in print at any stage of the writing

process, meaning they need to think about the visual aspects of composing something, not necessary or

possible before (Snyder, 1994, p.186).

Kress (2000), for example, has argued that we need to rethink language as a multimodalphenomenon. If we consider this in the context of writing with the computer then the meaningfulinteraction of visual design with verbal expression becomes very apparent. In our analysis weconcentrate on the ways that pupils reveal their understanding of the semiotic potential of theverbal and visual modes they employ and combine to make meaning. This includes their inte-gration of images as well as the typography, graphic design and layout of texts.

2. Classroom contexts and methodology

We draw on four case studies:

City Technology College is an independent institution funded by a combination of business sponsorship and

nment grants. CTCs, while delivering the full national curriculum, focus on teaching science, mathematics and

ology and have an ethos of high ICT use and curricular innovation.

S. Matthewman, P. Triggs / Computers & Education 43 (2004) 125–135 127

• Year 2 (age range 6–7 year old) pupils spent three 1 h lessons working on leaflets about theirlocal seaside resort to be put into their classroom travel agency,

• Year 5 (age range 9–10 year old) pupils read extracts from Alice in Wonderland then spent six 1 hlessons rewriting the story fromthe rabbit�s perspective, composing together inpairs direct to screen,

• Year 9 (age range 13–14 year old) pupils produced a magazine for parents during 12 of theirweekly 1 h lessons of ICT and literacy,

• Year 11 (age range 15–16 year old) pupils made a revision website on their exam text Of Miceand Men over the course of six double lessons of 80 min.In each class we collected video data on six target pupils over the whole sequence of lessons. These

pupils were selected to represent the range of attainment in the class and the focus was on capturingthe process of their work with the computer. Pupils were interviewed before, during and after thedesign initiative with the aim of gathering their views on processes and outcomes. Baseline data,examples of work in progress and final work outcomes were collected in each design initiative.

3. Choice of font as a way into text, task and collaboration

In theYear 5 class working onAlice, the teacher�s six lesson design followed a traditionalmodel ofthe writing process with work on presentation assigned to the final lesson. In the first lesson onlythree pairs in the whole class started to write using the default font on their computer. Two of thethree pairs in our sample spent over two thirds of the time allocated for writing discussing the storyand selecting a font. As a consequence they produced comparatively little writing – much less, ac-cording to their teacher than theywould have produced in a lesson using pencil and paper.Were theyjust taking theopportunity towaste some timeandplay aboutwith the computers?DavidandDanielagreed that they had taken a long time trying out fonts. Theydescribed the one they eventually chose:‘‘It�s a posh one. . .old-fashioned.’’ They chose it ‘‘because Alice in Wonderland was written a longtime ago and that writing looks really old-fashioned.’’ Naomi and Kate produced a similar expla-nation: ‘‘We spent quite a long time picking which font we were going to use.’’ ‘‘I thinkwewanted tomake it look really good.’’ ‘‘It�s quite nice and tall. . . It�s quite sort of. . .I don�t know. . .I think itlooks a bit like when Lewis Carroll was. . . old fashionedly sort of. . . ’’ (Fig. 1).

Even before they started all four children were aware of how they wanted the story to look forthe reader; they wanted to match form with content. Equally we might argue that this carefulchoice of font also helped them as writers to find the ‘‘old-fashioned’’ voice of the narrative.

We also found that negotiating which font to use seems to have been part of the process offinding a way to work collaboratively on the writing. Naomi and Kate for example had to ne-gotiate their personal response to fonts. ‘‘There�s like the one I liked but Naomi hated. And onethat she liked and I hated.’’ ‘‘[This] was just one that we both liked; there wasn�t anything wrongwith it.’’ The strong emotional response to some fonts is an acknowledgement of the semioticcharge of graphics, for writers as well as readers.

Selection of font in this Year 5 class, then, was a complex process – it was about both semioticsignification and the negotiation of practical and social requirements. It served many interests.Most importantly, this was not an aspect of writing that the children were prepared to leave untilthe last lesson. It was an essential first step in their realisation of a narrative task; in this

Fig. 1. Font selection for writing in the style of Alice in Wonderland.

Fig. 2. Heading for a magazine feature designed using Word Art.

128 S. Matthewman, P. Triggs / Computers & Education 43 (2004) 125–135

communicative act the writers were resisting the teacher�s staging of the writing process in whichgraphic design was not a priority. We can see this equally well in all our case studies. One briefexample from the Year 9 class will stand for many. Sean spent a great deal of time with Word Artbefore settling on a heading (Fig. 2). The size and font selection he chose expressively commu-nicates a great deal about the weight, shape and size of the rugby pack he is also encoding lin-guistically. This reflects Sharon Goodman�s accounts of visual punning and typographic variationin an increasing range of texts (Goodman & Graddol, 1996).

4. The incorporation of images as part of the meaning of the text

Across all our case studies there is no shortage of evidence in our data of pupils� sensitivity tothe meanings carried by fonts. What can we say about the integration of visual images with thelinguistic mode in the creation of meaning?

Within the Year 2 lessons on designing a travel leaflet about a local seaside resort, our videodata provides evidence of a creative struggle for visual meaning. In one sequence we see Alan

S. Matthewman, P. Triggs / Computers & Education 43 (2004) 125–135 129

and Tom who have been asked to finish the text together. Tom becomes interested in con-tributing only when the possibility of adding graphics is mentioned. However, Alan scrolling theclip art, blocks Tom�s suggestions (which include rabbit, spider and dragon) because he has aclear sense of the meaning and communicative function of �his� text. He adds a picture of thesun and a blue background; the two boys turn to each other, smile and nod. However a fewminutes later, Tom pleads again for a dragon image and Alan tells him that �it has nothing todo with the beach�. Tom appears to have no sense of congruency between text and image.Alan�s final selection, rejecting the sun, is of a clip art image of the world. He explained thatthis was ‘‘because Weston is in the world’’. This superficially odd justification becomes mean-ingful in the context of the teacher�s stress on global tourism, raised in the introductory sessionof browsing a range of holiday brochures. Alan here attempts to expand on the meaning of thetext through his choice of image, rather than choosing a merely decorative or illustrative al-ternative. His choice may also reflect his desire for originality within the constraints of clip artand within the class output which unsurprisingly included a number of leaflets with the sameclip art image of the sun. Although he was forced to be pragmatic in his selection because of thetight time constraints and the limitations of clip art he managed to find a satisfying and creativesolution.

Pragmatism in reaction to constraints was not always creative or satisfying in other classroomcontexts. In week 6 of the Alice project the children were keen to use Clip Art to �illustrate� theirstories. Unfortunately the range of images available was not particularly sympathetic to thestories and video data shows that considerable frustration accompanied the searching andscrolling. Great delight and relief greeted the location of any image that was acceptably ap-propriate. The task was accomplished but the visual was never more than a decoration, anembellishment of the linguistic. In this context it is important to recognise that the NationalCurriculum for English (DfEE & QCA, 1999) constructs pupils (within the entitlement coveredby the Reading strand) as consumers of multimodal texts but not (within the elements thatconstitute the curriculum for Writing) as multimodal makers of meaning. Our Year 5 designinitiative was explicitly intended to develop writing skills as identified in the UK LiteracyCurriculum; it did not intend that the stories be conceived as texts where pictures and wordswere interdependent. However there was some evidence of children who were ambitious toproduce something that was not quite the traditional literary text. This was particularly so in thecase of Matthew and Joe (Fig. 3). Their text is the most graphically innovative. ‘‘We didn�t reallyjust want a whole block of solid . . . We just didn�t want it very normal. We wanted it moreinteresting.’’ In talking about their story their ambition, their frustration and their awareness ofconstraints became clear:

We couldn�t get some of the pictures that we would have maybe liked to do. . .We probably wouldn�t havehad this in a block. . .a bit more like a comic. . .but we didn�t really want to do a comic. . .And it�d take a lot

more time. . .and which would mean mistakes, I mean you�d make a lot more mistakes and just we were

getting quite angry with the computer. I think we could have done it better in Powerpoint; getting pictures

of Alice, put this on the Powerpoint and then you can just play around with it. . .We had quite a few ideas

but we couldn�t fit them all in so we had to like limit the story.

Matthew and Joe said they make frequent use of computers at home; they also reportedplaying computer games a lot. Whilst most of the pupils were drawing on the model of thenarrative text, in this case their reading of Alice in Wonderland, Matthew and Joe were inclined

Fig. 3. Pushing the limits of available software on the final page of the story.

130 S. Matthewman, P. Triggs / Computers & Education 43 (2004) 125–135

to draw on their experience of comics and computer games as alternative models of makingmeaning where the visual has greater appeal. They were, in effect, subverting the monomodaltask, to make it less �normal�. Their teacher in the current context of measuring standards ofliteracy was in no position to value the work they did in terms of the interplay of visual andverbal modes; instead, she was worried about their concentration on visual design at the expenseof traditional writing skills. In addition we see from their own commentary that Matthew andJoe experienced a degree of frustration in attempting to realise a multimodal project within asoftware environment which has restricted visual affordances. This clash between software, taskand literate intentions has lead to teacher concern about �obsessive compulsive font disorder� andpupils� creativity being frustrated.

5. The use of available designs within a visual culture

Our analysis of what pupils were doing with the computer has been informed by the concept of�available designs.� (Cope & Kalantzis, 2000; The New London Group, 1996). This refers to thefull range of semiotic resources we have at our disposal and the examples of literate practices inmany modes that we draw on as models for composition. These are not static models and patternsbut resources that we inherit and reinvent as active designers of meaning.

The process of shaping emergent meaning involves re-presentation and re-contextualisation. This is never

simply a repetition of Available Designs. Every moment of meaning involves the transformation of the

available resources of meaning. (The New London Group, 1996, p. 22)

In the examples already cited we can see pupils actively seeking to reinvent their literacy taskswithin the context of their own multimodal literacy experience. This experience is situated within arichly visual world. We know from a number of recent surveys, including our own in the Inter-Active project that large numbers of children are experimenting with visual images in drawing andphotography as well as spending many hours playing a variety of computer games and browsingthe Internet (Facer, 2002; Somekh et al., 2001, 2003). Increasingly the visual is an inextricable part

S. Matthewman, P. Triggs / Computers & Education 43 (2004) 125–135 131

of the literate experience (Goodman & Graddol, 1996; Goodwyn, 2000; Kress & Van Leeuwen,1996, 2000; Unsworth, 2001).

Our data indicates that pupils can be both resourceful and creative in their appropriation andtransformation of available designs. This can be a rapid and opportunistic process. In the Year 11class working onOfMice and Men, Mark learned how to make web pages using Word 2000. In hisown time he drew on available web site designs to create his own site about his favourite band. TheCTC has an ethos of valuing technological innovation andMark showed his web site to the teacherduring a lesson. Video data shows the class teacher absorbed and impressed by the pupil�s detailedexplanation and elaborate design.Mark was appropriating skills and knowledge to his own interest(Kress, 2000). The teacher expressed to the English Team the frustration of not being able torecognise this kind of communicative achievement and visual design in formal assessment. Themain intention of the Of Mice and Men work was to develop pupils� understanding of the novel.

So was there also evidence that the process of visual design could enhance pupils� under-standing of the text? One group working on the character Slim in Of Mice and Men chose to spendthe entire first double lesson in mapping out their structure and setting their fonts and colourscheme, using and redesigning a template that they discovered available in Word 2000. The videoevidence records no explicit talk about the novel at all but the pupils are completely focussed andhighly collaborative in negotiating the technical issues and their design. Was this a distracting andirrelevant concern with the visual mode at the expense of their understanding of the verbal rep-resentation of the character Slim?

Our argument would be that the attention that this group paid to structuring their web pageswas paramount in allowing their efficient collaboration and shared understanding in terms ofcollecting, organising and categorising a wealth of information. They drew on the available de-signs of the novel, class notes, their revision guides and a range of web sites, redesigning and re-envisioning their initial structure in the process. Their final presentation shows them confidentlypresenting a website in which the expansive content has been very carefully managed. They allreported a deepening of their understanding about the character of Slim and the author Steinbeckwhich is reflected in subsequent test-based assessment. Alec talked in interview about how he nowunderstood more about Slim as a figure of authority in the novel.

It was fairly obvious from reading the book but it became more and more visible from actually doing the

website.

Alec�s use of the word �visible� to describe his deepening understanding of Slim is very telling.The Year 11 pupils were engaged in making their understanding visible and explicit both tothemselves and to their audience.

Our goal was to make a quality website that other people who went on the Internet could access. . .so we

ourselves could go back to it so that we had the most useful tips for ourselves and for other people.

The creative and liberating impact of design in writing is also powerfully illustrated by anexample drawn from the Year 9 class. Arthur had lots of ideas he wanted to incorporate in hispiece on litter for the magazine. The first draft he produced was not of the �article� but of the�page�. (Fig. 4) His concern is for the visual design to the extent of insetting a paragraph anddownloading a picture from the Internet; but this is helping him organise content. He has drawnon a range of available designs from newspapers, magazines and advertising jingles. The linguistic

Fig. 4. First draft of a magazine feature on litter: the visual mode prioritised over the verbal.

132 S. Matthewman, P. Triggs / Computers & Education 43 (2004) 125–135

content of the communication needs work but his teacher, now re-thinking this apparent ‘‘dis-order’’, was content to make that the focus of the next lesson.

These examples suggest that visual design is a key aspect of the process of composition –perhaps particularly in collaborative contexts and with new forms of texts which are, by theirnature, composite and re-constructive (Bolter, 1998).

6. Conclusion

6.1. The writing process and a pedagogy for multiliteracies

This paper is written in a period of unprecedented investment in ICT in UK schools alongsidethe requirement that ICT be more fully integrated into teaching in all subjects (Somekh et al.,2001, 2003). 2 Equally it is written with a background of over 30 years of theorising about literacyin the digital age (Balestri, 1988; Cope & Kalantzis, 2000; Landow, 1994 Lanham, 1989; Kress,1995, 1996; The New London Group, 1996; Reinking et al., 1998; Snyder, 1994; Tuman, 1992).The tensions and conflicts for teachers and learners in this situation are evident in our analysis.The current UK literacy curriculum is highly developed in terms of teaching about linguisticstructure at word, sentence and text level but shows scant regard for language as a multimodalphenomenon or for the importance of visual design. Technology offers pupils a range of semioticresources and makes possible the realisation of a greater range of available designs. However, therequirements of the prescribed curriculum and assessment mean that teachers feel constrained toteach as if making meaning was purely linguistic and monomodal. In consequence, when teachingthe writing process teachers are often still working with the traditional staged print based model

2 For more information on the expansion of ICT in schools in the UK see www.becta.org.uk and www.ngfl.gov.uk

S. Matthewman, P. Triggs / Computers & Education 43 (2004) 125–135 133

where the visual is treated solely as an aspect of final presentation rather than as an integral partof composition. On the other hand, pupils working with technology show immediate respon-siveness to the visual and an organic approach to the construction of text (Fig 5). Pupils areattempting to work multimodally using the affordances of the software. Pupils need support innegotiating the stages of composition and but the starting point for this might be found in theappropriate selection of available designs.

However, the issues do not only lie within the teaching sequence. Pupils at computers, workingwith a more organic model of the writing process, encounter issues related to the software af-fordances. The affordances of the available software, as we have seen, can enable high levels ofcreativity; equally the outcome can be a pragmatic solution and/or frustration and disaffection(Fig 6). What is needed is more explicit pedagogic attention to the interaction between modes,affordances and tasks. The ability of pupils to realise their design intentions and achieve a sat-isfying outcome depends on an interaction between the task, their creative aspirations and theaffordances of the available resources.

Teachers within the English subject design team find themselves at different positions of re-sistance and compliance with the dominant construction of what literacy means. That position ispowerfully affected by the culture and context in which they work. We are adding our voice to the

National Curriculum and Literacy strategy model for teaching the writing process

Plan, draft, edit, revise, proofread and present (DfEE 2001 p.24)

STAGED

Pupils’ model when using technology to make texts

Concern for the visual design of the text from the start

Integration of language, typography, graphics and structural design features throughout to make meaning

ORGANIC

Fig. 5. Two models of the writing process.

Software affordances

Design intention

Disorder – interruption/ non completion

Successful design

Creativity

Outcome achieved

Frustration

Pragmatism

Satisfaction

Fig. 6. A model of observed interactions between software and design in editing.

134 S. Matthewman, P. Triggs / Computers & Education 43 (2004) 125–135

call for a re-evaluation of the teaching of literacy within an increasingly multimodal and multi-literate culture. At present the clash between a static curriculum and the new technologies oftenconstructs a preoccupation with visual design as �disorder�. Pupils� multimodal design skills mayor may not be valued by the individual teacher but they certainly cannot be formally assessed; thisresults in a frequent dislocation of schooled literacy from the socio-cultural literacy experiencesand practices of both pupils and teachers.

Acknowledgements

We want to acknowledge the contribution to this paper of all the members of the EnglishSubject Design Initiative team, in particular those teachers whose work with us is included in thispaper. They are Chris Davies, John Cabot City Technology College; Adrian Blight, John CabotCity Technology College Bristol; Pam Kelly, Colston�s Primary School, Bristol; Ian Thompson,Filton High School, South Gloucestershire; Maria Thompson, St. Michael�s CEVA Primary,South Gloucestershire. We feel privileged to be able to work with them and with their pupils.InterActive Education: teaching and learning in the information age is funded by the Economicand Social Research Council as part of the UK Teaching and Learning Research Programme. Formore information see www.interactiveeducation.ac.uk

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