the learning of technology

243 Pages·2014·2.59 MB·English

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.
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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

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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

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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
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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
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