Meaning-making in technology-enhanced learning activities : a composite perspective of technologies and their properties and users' representations

Technology use in school settings tends to look at various technologies solely as a mediator for production and work, rather than to relate them to the patterns of thinking and learning. Some technologies and representations are more overrepresented than others that signals a more monotonous use (Schnaider et al., 2020). However, recent research indicates that meaning-making in connection with technology use is characterized by a higher level of variety and multiplicity across technologies, their properties, and the users (Djonov & van Leeuwen, 2018; Schnaider, Gu & Rantatalo, 2020; Vigild Poulsen, 2018; Vigild Poulsen & Kvåle, 2018). There is a need to explore and gain insights into how multimodal technology use can be understood and supported from a more comprehensive perspective. From a multimodal layer approach (Schnaider et al., 2020), this study aims to examine technologies’ use (hardware and software in combination) in students’ sign-making activities in Swedish schools. The research questions are: What functions and semiotic properties of the technologies are prompted and drawn upon in use, and how are transitions made between technologies, properties, and users? What representations are made by individuals in connection to the prompted sign-systems? The multimodal layer framework was used as a vehicle for data gathering and analysis from its five components: technologies, technologies’ functional properties, technologies’ semiotic properties, modes of representation, and activities. Empirical data consisted of 8 hours of classroom video recordings and observations on students’ use of technologies in their learning activities, and 6 hours of interviews with the students have been observed. All data were transcribed into texts, for instance, by using word-processing software and the video annotation software Transana, for subsequent quantitative content analysis (Bell, 2011). The layers were used as the first coding categories in processing the transcriptions and as variables in the analysis. The second step of coding was based on keywords (the values – subcategories to the layers) by using software nCoder. Finally, program Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA) was used to visualize the connections between the layers (Eagan, Brohinsky, Wang & Shaffer, 2020; Shaffer, 2017). The ENA result indicates that some functional properties were more frequently used at specific mediating levels when using certain combinations of technologies and had stronger connections to modes of representation and activities than others. Moreover, some functional properties tended to remain at the same mediating level between technologies, while others were entirely altered or even eliminated. The investigations also showed that some categories of technologies and properties were more frequently drawn upon, reflected in the users’ modes of representations. In some activities and combinations of technologies, the transitions in the various functions to the semiotic properties were more complicated and had little influence on individuals’ meaning-making, shown in weak ENA connections. These findings have implications for technology design and implementation by clarifying how technologies benefit particular sign-making activities.lic