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the learning of technology PDF

243 Pages·2014·2.59 MB·English
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THE LEARNING OF TECHNOLOGY: APPLYING MULTIMODAL ANALYSIS AND DELTA THEORY TO STUDY THE ONLINE DISCUSSION FORUM OF AN E-READER TABLET A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN EDUCATION MAY 2014 By Hery Yanto The Dissertation Committee: Curtis Ho, Chairperson Ellen Hoffman Peter Leong Dongping Zheng Luz Quiroga Keywords: Multimodal Analysis, Delta Theory, E-Reader ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation would not have come about if it had not been for the enthusiastic support of many people. I would first like to express my heartfelt gratitude to many institutions that have been sponsored my doctoral study as well as people behind them. Including in these institutions are: (1) the International Fellowship Program, (2) the East West Center, (3) the University of Hawaiʽi (UH) Foundation, (4) the College of Education, UH Mānoa, (5) the Department of Educational Technology, UH Mānoa, and (6) the Center for Language and Technology, UH Mānoa. Many thanks also have to be given to the dissertation committee members and faculty members at UH Mānoa who have significantly shaped my thinking on research as well as influenced my professional development as an educator and an instructional designer. I could write many pages about how they each helped me to become an active member in the community of scholars within the field of Educational Technology. In my long association with them, they have generously given their times and energy like the way parents raise their children. I am also feel very fortunate to have such good friends as Chamamas Intarakratok and Binh Minh Thanh Vo who have voluntarily taken part in validating the code book for this study. I would like to thank many other friends who I cannot mention one by one, both in Hawaiʽi and in Indonesia, for their support, sincerity, and friendship. Further, I would like to dedicate this success to my mother for her unconditional love and care. ii ABSTRACT This mixed method research applied multimodal analysis, sociogram analysis, content analysis, discourse analysis, statistics descriptive, and hypothesis testing to study the process of learning Kindle Fire’s usability through the online discussion forum. The key aspects discussed in this study are the semiotic resources of Kindle Forum, the meaning- making process, the affordances and usability of Kindle Fire, the affordances and usability of the forum, and the methodological implications for this study. Two settings of this study were (a) the webpage as an environment for users to experience elements of reading paths and (b) the discussion forum, as a place to post experiences using Kindle Fire. Simple random and purposive sampling were implemented to select, as samples, 437 postings from 247 participants. Data were primarily collected using observations, and MAXQDA 11 was the main software used to analyze the data. Findings and analysis affirmed that: (1) the Kindle Fire Discussion Forum has multisemiotic resources that enable users to quickly perform acts of transferring meaning of the discussion content; (2) there were two categories of action potential of the forum: (a) actions made to the page and feedback from the page, and (b) interactions between users in the discussion itself; and, (3) discussions in the forum could not reveal the affordances but can be used to explain the conventions and constraints of the Kindle Fire. However, the methodology applied in this study would benefit from further testing in a similar, forthcoming study. As a starting point for this study, though, it began with a discussion on technology mediated assistance and peer support in learning new technology. ii i TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................ ii ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iii LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... ix LIST OF EXCERPTS ........................................................................................................ xi CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 1 Overview ......................................................................................................................... 3 Statement of the Problem ................................................................................................ 9 Purpose .......................................................................................................................... 10 Research Questions ....................................................................................................... 12 Significance of this Study ............................................................................................. 12 Conceptual Framework ................................................................................................. 14 CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................... 20 The Online Discussion Forum and Online Community ............................................... 21 Social Roles of Users ................................................................................................ 23 Attributes of a Forum ................................................................................................ 26 Interaction ................................................................................................................. 28 Online Community.................................................................................................... 29 Studies of Online Forum ........................................................................................... 31 E-Reader Usability ........................................................................................................ 35 Multimodal Analysis and Delta Theory ........................................................................ 42 iv New Media ................................................................................................................ 43 Semiotic Analysis and Social Semiotics ................................................................... 48 Approaches in Multimodal Analysis ........................................................................ 54 Delta Theory ............................................................................................................. 63 CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGY .................................................................................... 67 Research Design............................................................................................................ 67 Mixed Methods ......................................................................................................... 68 Multimodal Transcription of Texts ........................................................................... 70 Sociogram Analysis .................................................................................................. 74 Content Analysis ....................................................................................................... 77 Mediated Discourse Analysis ................................................................................... 79 Descriptive Statistics ................................................................................................. 80 Hypothesis Testing.................................................................................................... 81 Study Settings ............................................................................................................... 82 Unit of Analysis and Participants ................................................................................. 82 Instruments for Data Collection .................................................................................... 84 Data Collection ............................................................................................................. 85 Data Analysis ................................................................................................................ 87 Ethical Considerations .................................................................................................. 89 CHAPTER 4. RESEARCH FINDINGS ........................................................................... 91 Multimodal Transcription ............................................................................................. 91 Hypertext Pathways .................................................................................................. 93 Information Clusters of the Kindle Fire Discussion Forum ................................... 102 v Sociogram Analysis .................................................................................................... 107 Types of Participants in the Discussion .................................................................. 109 Alignment of Initial Questions and Additional Questions ...................................... 115 Postings’ Rating System and Hidden Postings ....................................................... 121 The Trends of Postings before and after Christmas ................................................ 123 Examples of Meaningful Discourse ........................................................................ 125 Themes of the Discussions.......................................................................................... 128 Interactivity ............................................................................................................. 128 Features ................................................................................................................... 136 Technical Details .................................................................................................... 143 Support .................................................................................................................... 150 Conversation Turn-Taking .......................................................................................... 159 Signaling Postings ....................................................................................................... 164 CHAPTER 5. DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS ........................................................... 166 Semiotic Resources of the Kindle Fire Discussion Forum ......................................... 167 The Meaning-Making Process and Delta Theory ....................................................... 173 Affordances and Usability .......................................................................................... 178 Methodological Implications ...................................................................................... 184 CHAPTER 6. CONCLUSION........................................................................................ 187 Findings....................................................................................................................... 187 Multisemiotic Resources ......................................................................................... 187 Action Potentials ..................................................................................................... 188 Affordances ............................................................................................................. 188 v i Unanticipated Results ............................................................................................. 189 My Insights ................................................................................................................. 191 Interdisciplinary Approach ..................................................................................... 192 Applying Mixed Methods ....................................................................................... 193 Existing Data ........................................................................................................... 194 Applying Multimodal Analysis and Delta Theory.................................................. 194 Contributions............................................................................................................... 195 Significance of Findings for Amazon ..................................................................... 195 Significance of Findings for Researchers ............................................................... 196 Significance of Findings for My Personal Learning Process.................................. 197 Limitations .................................................................................................................. 198 Future Research .......................................................................................................... 199 Summary ..................................................................................................................... 200 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 201 APPENDIX 1. CODE BOOK......................................................................................... 221 APPENDIX 2. SOCIOGRAM ........................................................................................ 225 APPENDIX 3. EXAMPLES OF SOCIOGRAM TRANSCRIPTION ........................... 227 APPENDIX 4. MAXQDA AND THE CODING SYSTEM .......................................... 230 vi i LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Examples of New Media ..................................................................................... 44 Table 2. Partial Transcription of a Webpage ................................................................... 73 Table 3. Popular Themes of Learning Technology Discussed in the Kindle Fire Discussion Forum ................................................................................................... 112 Table 4. Results of Z-test for Testing the Postings’ Proportion of Kindle Forum Pro and Non-Pro Participants .............................................................................................. 115 Table 5. Relation of Topics, Initial Questions, and Additional Questions in the Kindle Fire Discussion ....................................................................................................... 117 Table 6. Z-test for the Proportion of Ratings Received by Kindle Fire Pro Participants and Non-Pro Participants ....................................................................................... 122 vi ii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. An Annotated Webpage ..................................................................................... 71 Figure 2. The Use of Signs and Symbols in a Discussion Forum ..................................... 75 Figure 3. A Sociogram and Transcription ........................................................................ 76 Figure 4. Structure of the System under Analysis and its Boundaries .............................. 94 Figure 5. Hypertext Pathways and Action Potentials of the Pages .................................. 96 Figure 6. Transcription of the Amazon Homepage ........................................................... 97 Figure 7. Transcription of the Kindle Fire Infomercial Page ........................................... 98 Figure 8. Transcription of Kindle Fire Discussion ......................................................... 101 Figure 9. Transcription of Cluster 1: The Upper Section of the Kindle Fire Discussion Forum ...................................................................................................................... 103 Figure 10. Transcription of Cluster 2: The Margin Section of the Kindle Fire Discussion Forum ...................................................................................................................... 105 Figure 11. Transcription of Cluster 3: The Lower Section of the Kindle Fire Discussion Forum ...................................................................................................................... 106 Figure 12. A Sociogram Transcription ........................................................................... 109 Figure 13. Total Number of Participants in Each Topic ................................................ 110 Figure 14. Total Number of Kindle Forum PRO Participation in Each Topic............... 111 Figure 15. Number of Times Postings Were Made and Number of Participants ........... 113 Figure 16. Number of Times Postings Were Made by Kindle Forum Pro Participants . 114 Figure 17. Frequency of Interactivity Types Applied to Code Postings ......................... 130 Figure 18. Features of Kindle Fire Mentioned in the Forum ......................................... 137 ix Figure 19. Frequencies of Codes Applied to Kindle Fire Technical Details .................. 144 Figure 20. Types of Supports Discussed in the Kindle Discussion Forum ..................... 151 Figure 21. Summary of Findings ..................................................................................... 189 Figure 22. Contributions of Findings.............................................................................. 198 Figure 23. Unanticipated Results and Future Studies .................................................... 200 x

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