Abstract
Augmented reality (AR) apps, like Adobeâs Aero, enable users to turn Photoshop layers into interactive AR experiences and are considered promising for higher education. But what we see or do not see are mediated via histories, cultural values, ideologies, social practices and technologies. Simultaneously, the ways we receive knowledge, communicate and learn are more than ever being communicated via visual technologies. Yet, theories of visuality within educational research represent a longstanding gap within scholarship and theorising of visual technologies, including AR, is lacking. This study re-orientates conceptions of AR visual literacy through âthinking withâ semiotics, which is the study of signs, images, sounds or any phenomena communicating meaning (Peirce, 1908). Semiotics is synthesised with dialogism, defined as the exchange of texts, perspectives and voices (Bakhtin, 1986). The semiotic-dialogic framework is applied to a series of AR exhibits at Adobeâs (2020) Festival of the Impossible. The analysis re-orientates commercialised conceptions of AR pedagogy to reveal that, while AR experiences can be developed without coding knowledge, they still require visual literacies.Keywords: Augmented reality; visual technologies; visual literacies; semiotics; dialogism; collaborative learning; thinking withPart of the Special Issue Visual literacies and visual technologies for teaching, learning and inclusion <https://doi.org/10.21428/8c225f6e.bf2afe2e>
Highlights
It is claimed that augmented reality (AR) supports collaborative learning and overcomes the barriers of outdated teaching methods (Martín-Gutiérrez et al, 2017)
The results showed a diverse range of manuscripts published in the journal databases including research articles, reviews, technical notes, features, and news
The literature review and case study of the Festival of the Impossible illustrates how semiotic-dialogism facilitates a series of questions within dialogue (Bakhtin, 1986) as well as perpetual inquiry as a process of ongoing meaning making via sign semiosis (Peirce, 1878)
Summary
It is claimed that augmented reality (AR) supports collaborative learning and overcomes the barriers of outdated teaching methods (Martín-Gutiérrez et al, 2017). Ways in which AR provides learners with a mixture of communication tools, and the visual literacies involved, require clearer articulations of the impacts upon learning This brief review indicates that scholarship of new epistemologies and ontologies occurring visually via AR represent a significant lacuna despite the positive assumptions of AR technologies as a solution for enhancing learning. I draw on Peirce’s (1908) theory of semiosis, which is the notion of how signs, or representamen (elements, words, images, etc.); objects (the meanings to which signs refer); and interpretants (processes of interpreting and creating further chains of meaning) occur simultaneously This triadic theory of meaning is developed as a semiotic-dialogic perspective. It provides a promising framework for understanding visual thinking and learning, beyond ‘reading’ to include affective, interpretative, social and conceptual dimensions of AR visual literacies.
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