Education Commons^™

Thinking With Semiotic-Dialogism: Re-Orientating Augmented Reality And Visual Literacy, Zoe Hurley

All Works

Augmented reality (AR) apps, like Adobe’s Aero, enable users to turn Photoshop layers into interactive AR experiences and are considered promising for higher education. But what we see or do not see are mediated via histories, cultural values, ideologies, social practices and technologies. Simultaneously, the ways we receive knowledge, communicate and learn are more than ever being communicated via visual technologies. Yet, theories of visuality within educational research represent a longstanding gap within scholarship and theorising of visual technologies, including AR, is lacking. This study re-orientates conceptions of AR visual literacy through ‘thinking with’ semiotics, which is the study of …

Communication And Collaboration: Two Sides Of The Same Coin, Amy Lightfoot

Teacher India

As the COVID-19 crisis continues, our ability to communicate and collaborate with others has been tested. Both of these are fundamental skills necessary for our survival – whether in relation to tackling a global pandemic, or just navigating through our day-to-day lives, says Amy Lightfoot.

Designing Microblogging-Based Class Activities, Tian Luo, Fei Gao

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Microblogging tools such as Twitter have been frequently adopted in educational settings to facilitate learning. This study examined how a microblogging tool, Twiducate, was incorporated into a graduate-level class of ten students. During the 1.5 hour lesson, students participated in a series of Twiducate-supported collaborative and reflective activities. The analysis of in-class discussion transcripts, text-based posts on Twiducate and a pre- and post-test survey results revealed that students were highly engaged in classroom collaborative learning and there is a high level of interaction. Students reported the challenges of using microblogging tools, such as the possibility of creating distraction and disorder …

Enhancing Classroom Learning Experience By Providing Structures To Microblogging-Based Activities, Tian Luo, Fei Gao

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Microblogging tools such as Twitter have been frequently adopted in educational settings to facilitate learning in recent years. Although the original purpose of microblogging tools is to connect with others in a wide network and instantly share what is happening to them with the rest of the world, educators have vigorously attempted to repurpose the utilization of the tool and integrate it into various educational settings to promote student learning.

The purpose of this study is to examine student learning experience under a set of structured microblogging-based activities and to identify the affordances and constraints of the technology. Students participated …

Reconsidering Instructional Design With Web 2.0 Technologies, Fei Gao, Kun Li, Tian Luo, Jamie Smith

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Emerging technologies such as Web 2.0 afford interconnections, content creation and remixing, which provide rich opportunities to for more personally meaningful, collaborative, and socially relevant learning (Greenhow, Robelia, & Hudges, 2009). Web 2.0 and other emerging technologies offer new possibilities of designing collaborative activities that engage learners in meaningful learning (Chai & Tan, 2009; Cress & Kimmerle, 2008).

Despite the enthusiasm of integrating Web 2.0 technologies into learning environment design, researchers found that few instructors know the pedagogies that could lead to productive innovation (Collis & Moonen, 2008). This symposium consists of one theoretical paper and three case studies that …