The conceptualisation of user-app interactivity in augmented reality-mediated learning : implications for literacy education

Augmented reality (AR) is transforming users’ multisensory experiences and heightening the level of engagement with multimodal learning. Scholarly attention is urgently needed to conceptualise and examine user–app interactivity in educational contexts. Drawing on the systemic functional–multimodal discourse analysis approach, this article aims to explore key user roles prompted by AR apps and examine educational functions that these user roles fulfil in AR-mediated learning. Based on our analysis of 14 AR apps selected for a 3-day workshop with six Australian primary school teachers, we identified four categories of user roles that facilitated different literacy activity types during AR-mediated learning. To design effective learning experiences, this article argues that teachers need to consider the resonance between students’ AR experiences and their prior engagement with other forms of digital texts when planning for scaffolding strategies

Teaching multimodal literacies with digital technologies and augmented reality : a cluster analysis of Australian teachers' TPACK

Despite the proliferation of augmented reality (AR) apps, Australian primary teachers have yet to use them widely for the teaching of multimodal literacies. Conceptualising teachers’ knowledge of using digital technologies to teach multimodal literacies as a form of technological pedagogical content knowledge or TPACK(ML), this study examined teacher differences through a cluster analysis of survey responses collected from a sample of 142 Australian primary school teachers. Two distinct clusters of teachers were derived. The first cluster with lower TPACK(ML) comprised teachers with lower self-reported confidence in facilitating new cultures of learning that are participatory and technology-driven in nature. In their open-ended survey responses, these teachers shared their unfamiliarity with AR, as well as concerns about their personal technical competency and how AR could be integrated into the curriculum. The second cluster of teachers rated themselves higher in TPACK(ML) and in how they used technology to support language learning pedagogies. They were able to propose different pedagogical strategies to engage students’ multimodal literacies meaningfully with AR in their open-ended survey responses. The implications of the study’s findings were discussed, and recommendations were proposed for designing and sustaining differentiated forms of teacher professional development for teaching multimodal literacies with emergent digital technologies

Teacher identity, teacher agency and teaching competence in COVID-19 turn

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the pressing need for teachers to develop competence in harnessing digital technologies for teaching and learning. This urgency was exacerbated at the start of the pandemic when remote teaching was non-negotiable. At an unprecedented scale, online learning is accelerated and creates changes to teachers’ roles and their identities. To better understand how teachers enact professionalism in their practice, examining teacher agency is crucial. Its role in assisting teachers to transit through uncertain times to minimise educational disruptions not only demands respect from the public, but also necessitates further inquiry into teachers’ professional learning. This paper raises issues related to evolving teacher identities and teacher agency in the COVID-19 turn. It particularly points out the importance of making a distinction between content provision and education as teachers create their online presence in remote teaching. Given that teacher identity and agency are negotiated and constructed through relationships, social interactions and contextual factors, this paper uses the formative and design experiments approach as an example to discuss these two concepts. It offers this approach as a way of strengthening teacher identity and agency whilst developing teacher competence in integrating technology into teaching. The paper concludes with a discussion on future research agenda on teacher identity, teacher agency and teacher competence with the goal of creating positive social futures in the COVID-19 turn

Putting the cart before the horse : interrogating media literacy education in school English lessons

Background: In response to the changing demands of new times, media literacy has been incorporated into the current English Language Syllabus 2010 in Singapore. Although media literacy is mentioned in the syllabus, what this term means needs more clarification. What is clear from the current English Language Syllabus 2010 in Singapore is the notion of media literacy as skills only. When teachers rely on such a narrow perspective of media literacy without understanding how young people participate in the reading, viewing and production of media texts in their literacy practices, they may fall into the danger of putting the cart before the horse. Aims: This paper argues that in order to effectively incorporate media literacy education in school literacy lessons, the learners must first be understood with all their ideological practices. Such a perspective argues for a social view of literacy to illuminate the situated nature of engagement with media texts. This means that how learners participate in media text production, what values they place in such text production and how they negotiate their participation in their media practices inside and outside school are necessary considerations for teachers to better understand their learners' engagement with media texts. Method: The findings presented here are drawn from an ethnographic study of 10 adolescents' literacy practices in Singapore. In this paper, I focus only on a group of 5 students working together on a group school project that required them to recast Shakespeare's Macbeth in contemporary times using a 3D animated learning environment called MediaStage. Results: When engaging in the production of a media text, young peoples' production practices problematicize the purpose of incorporating media literacy education into the school English lessons. Conclusion: This paper argues that a social view of literacy gives teachers more insights on the pedagogical implications of incorporating media literacy education into school English lessons than a narrow view of literacy as skills only

Book review : Multimodality and Social Semiosis: Communication, Meaning-Making, and Learning in the work of Gunther Kress

In conclusion, Multimodality and Social Semiotics: Communication, Meaning-Making and Learning in the Work of Gunther Kress, has emphasized the progressive nature of meaning-making practices. It is evident from the body of work described in this book that Kress’ work has incited more research that rests on the notions of agency, design and transformation of semiotic resources. Such research has made significant contributions to understanding the ever-changing communicational landscape, including that in education

Production-on-the-go practice : storyboarding as a retrospective and redundant school literacy activity

Storyboarding is one common strategy used in teaching young people digital media. This paper argues that in adolescents' literacy practices, they engage in production on the go. The metaphor is described in this paper to put forward the argument that storyboarding can be a retrospective and redundant literacy activity in adolescents' school literacy practices when it is not their inherent practice to engage in a two-step process in digital media production, i.e., design intended to precede production. Drawing on the theoretical underpinnings of New Literacy Studies, this study adopts an ethnographic perspective to gain insights into 10 14-year-old Chinese adolescents' literacy practices in Singapore. Data for this paper were collected over a period of eight months from participant observations, with video-and-audio recordings, semi-structured and in-depth text-elicited group and individual interviews, the adolescents' research diaries and artefacts from their literacy practices

Design thinking the future : critical perspectives on design studies, design knowledge, and education

Globalization in modern times has leant increased significance to design thinking in education. However, the adoption of design thinking in education requires deep understanding in order to mitigate a reductionist approach, which tends to overlook the complexity of implementing design knowledge. Educating designerly aims to produce thinkers who can benefit from designers’ extensive experience and who are more attuned to the “realities” of professional practices. Toward this goal, this chapter aims to first interrogate the notion of “design knowledge” alongside other related terms. Our review highlights key perspectives on design knowledge based on three dominant approaches to design studies, namely, design epistemology, design praxiology, and design phenomenology. Rooted in these approaches, our examination of current research foregrounds critical dispositions for education. In particular, we highlight how designers in various professional practices have emphasized the possibility of creating social futures that celebrate positivity, inventiveness, empathy, and pragmatism

The theory of planned behaviours (TPB) and pre-service teachers' technology acceptance : a validation study using structural equation modeling

This study applies the theory of planned behavior (TPB), a theory that is commonly used in commercial settings, to the educational context to explain pre-service teachers' technology acceptance. It is also interested in examining its validity when used for this purpose. It has found evidence that the TPB is a valid model to explain pre-service teachers' acceptance of technology, specifically in terms of their behavioral intention to use technology. Two hundred and ninety-three participants completed a questionnaire measuring their responses to four constructs from the TPB, namely behavioral intention, attitudes towards computer use, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used as the main method for data analysis. The results showed that attitude towards computer use had the largest effect on pre-service teachers' intention to use technology, followed by perceived behavioral control, and subjective norm. The findings presented in this paper purport to contribute to the growing interest in using information sciences models to explain technology acceptance in the educational context

Learning by doing in the digital media age : the contention of learning in adolescents' literacy practices

Technology is now more than what is commonly known as information technology (IT) or information and communication technology (ICT) (Buckingham 2008). The changing characteristics of technology in contemporary times are described as being digital, interactive, hypertextual, virtual, networked and simulated (Lister et al. 2009), otherwise known as digital media. Digital media are electronic media that operate on numerical representations or digital codes (Manovich 2001). As the digital codes make media programmable, digital media allow convergence of various media for producing and distributing multimodal productions and reassembling these texts to accentuate its interactivity and aesthetic power (Everett 2003; Lankshear and Knobel 2007; O'Reily 2005). What is distinctly new about digital media is not just the shift in physical properties from the analogue to the digital form but, more importantly, what changes this shift brings to social practices

Between Worlds: Extending Students' Multimodal Literacy Practices with Augmented Reality

Augmented reality (AR) has become part of our everyday lives through social media filters, e-commerce apps, and gaming platforms like Pokémon Go. It’s a tool that allows users to make choices for purposeful communication. This book bridges the gap between personal digital practices and formal pedagogic practices by introducing a pedagogical framework that will empower primary literacy teachers to add the use of AR apps to their literacy teaching toolkit. There are multiple opportunities for teachers to leverage this technology for literacy teaching and learning – and support the development of multimodal literacies. The book reviews several AR apps, showcasing those opportunities in three case studies that detail how AR has been effectively used in a primary school setting. Drawing on the authors’ pedagogical framework for enhancing multimodal literacies with AR, this book is a guide for teachers as they grow their literacy pedagogy, and offers support in developing skills that are becoming increasingly critical as teachers and students navigate complex communication demands in an ever-changing literacy landscape