A self-reflexive semiotic analysis of mobile devices

3rd WLE m-learning Symposium

London, 27 March 2009

Elisabetta Adami

University of Verona

Aim of the study

What are the semiotic ‘affordances’ (Kress and van Leeuwen, 1996/2006) of mobile devices?

What skills are fostered and hindered by their use?

What are the implications on how we make meaning of ourselves and the world? (i.e., how we learn)

Experimenting with Nokia N95

1-month usage No instruction manual No directions

From subjective narrative To ‘objective’ results

Observations:– Specific researcher– Specific model– Specific context

Semiotic Analysis:– General affordances

Hardware/Software design

Primacy: Visual output Navigational over textual input Menu-based semiotics

Content generation / text creation:

Representation-as-selection (inter)activity = navigation/selection among options

Functionalities: Imaging

Immediacy, real-time, quantity

Representing (everyday) reality by capturing and selecting it becomes a ‘naturalized’ activity– every fact achieves further significance

– the environment is lived so as to capture/represent it

– life-world is turned into an artefact to be (re)used

Functionalities: Web browsing

Mobility: interpersonal connectivity + information access

– Less strategic planning vs. More tactical thought– Intolerance to fixation

Environment is provided with online info: – Blurring of online/offline worlds – Life Experiencing: informed activity (no need of risk-

taking)– Learning = grabbing reliable info about your environment

Functionalities: e-mail

adds up to mobile Web browsing: – merging sites and times of

information/relations/activities – merging online/offline environments

adds up to ‘representation-as-selection’:– selected artefacts rather than texts created in writing– a new textual genre: mobile emails

Functionalities: GPS positioning

Displacement of the self ‘Live’ contextualization of the self in the

discursive representation of geography Geographical record of your life Movement -> representation/artefact

Functionalities: Lifeblog

a multimodal chronological representation of the whole activity with the device

a multimodal diary automatically recorded and assembled while using the device

life turns into a visual artefact, which is (re)usable

Multi-functionalities

Immediacy and real-time Adaptation and flexibility (from other devices) the more the functionalities, the more

complex their use at an advanced level, the more likely their use in their default settings (‘templates’)

Personalization is index of expertise

Limitations of the experience

No appropriation, just exploration No personalization No use of interpersonal connectivity for

sharing artefacts – this affords chains of semiosis in terms of

multiple/collective transformation of representational resources (e.g., Web 2.0)

Fostered Skills

Representation as selection + recontextualization

Adaptation and flexibility

‘how-to’ (processes) over ‘what’ (contents)

(local/operational) tactics over (global) strategies

Real-time multitasking synergy over fine-grained focus

Learning

how-to access, select, capture, use in real-time

global/collective info/events

for local/individual aims/activities

Implications for schools

Foreground skills:– Selection + Recontextualization– How-to– Real-time tactical and multi-tasking thinking

Navigational aids (to be provided) Background skills:

– Strategic/global planning– Text-creation from scratch– Architecture building (rather than navigation among options)– Focus on contents, on accuracy and reflection– Life = risk-taking, exploration, ephemeral experiencing

Thank you!

A self-reflexive semiotic analysis of mobile devices

3rd WLE m-learning SymposiumLondon, 27 March 2009Elisabetta Adami University of Verona