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: 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 s

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 Production = selection and transformation = consumption (re-use) usability, selection, bricolage, mobility = ‘freedom’ and ‘creation’ blurred boundaries: information/relations/activities; time/space; online/offline learning: how-to access, select, capture, use in real-time global/collective info/events for local/individual aims/activities A new commodity generates new (newly-shaped) needs and purposes

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 Symposium London, 27 March 2009 Elisabetta Adami University of Verona