Understanding meaning-making through technology use

A multimodal layer perspective

Abstract

Previous research has highlighted that technology implementation in schools may lead to increased complexity, as digital hardware and software offer a variety of possibilities for sign-making activities. Moreover, recent studies argue that since classroom practices are facilitated increasingly by screen-based activities, digital technology opens a multitude of ways to represent meaning, as an abundance of sign systems becomes available for communication through various digital visual user interfaces (DVUIs) (Jewitt, 2017). In addition, research indicates that technology implementation has a strong impact on school practice (Säljö, 2013) and that knowledge on how to take advantage of technology in learning settings from a more comprehensive perspective is needed (Bezemer & Kress, 2016). To gain a more comprehensive picture of technology use in educational environments, the main goal of the thesis is to explore the use of hardware and software by teachers and students in sign-making activities from a multimodal layer perspective. The main aim of this paper is, in particular, to discuss how multimodal methodology can be used to explain detailed aspects of technology use in networked learning (NL) settings. Concerning the various means used in school and their affordances in semiotic mediation (Norman, 2007; Wartofsky, 1979), all are considered in relation to the users and results of use. From a technology perspective, the multimodal layers, therefore, include things-to-things, things[1]to-human/human-to-things and human-to-human connections (Bonderup Dohn, Cranmer, Sime, de Laat and Ryberg, 2018; Goodyear, Carvalho & Bonderup Dohn, 2014) and focus on technologies, communication resources (i.e. sign systems), representations and activities. The technologies and their functions are therefore regarded as important. In addition, the multimodal layers relate to the semiotic properties of technology, how they inhere and prompt sign systems in different ways as interpreted by the actors and are reshaped into modes of representation in different activities. The conclusion is that multimodal methodology, particularly the multimodal layer approach, seems to be beneficial to unpack the relationships and connections between the means used and the actors in NL environments via its coherent approach. A greater understanding of the detailed aspects of technology use in teaching and learning may also be obtained if the existing multimodal layers are accounted for and connected. Insights can guide stakeholders on how to integrate technology in future practices and inform technology choices in relation to specific activities.