Semiotic technologies: a case study of discipline-based practices and pedagogy. Issue 4 (8th August 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Simpson, Zach; Archer, Arlene
• Is Part Of: Social semiotics. Volume 29:Issue 4(2019)
• Page Start: 524
• Page End: 542
• Publication Date: 2019-08-08
• Subjects: Multimodality -- social semiotics -- technology -- higher education -- engineering education -- discipline-based pedagogy; Semiotics -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Functionalism (Linguistics) -- Periodicals; Critical theory -- Periodicals; 302.2
• DOI: 10.1080/10350330.2018.1487263
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1035-0330

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This paper examines semiotic technologies, both in terms of the resources they harness and the practices developed around their use. It draws on data collected as part of an ethnographic investigation into the meaning-making practices deployed within civil engineering study. The data is used as a case study for examining semiotic technologies as socially situated resources for disciplinary practices. Using a multimodal social semiotic approach, we argue that technologies are not self-evident, and that their use constitutes specific social practices that require development in the classroom. In order to deploy technologies in pedagogically effective ways, we need to understand the semiotic resources they draw on (including embodied resources). Awareness that technologies are not neutral or value-free, but are socially situated and ideologically laden, may enable meta-level understanding of the discipline, thus creating the possibility for improved pedagogical practices.