TITLE:
Taking Digital Media to School: A Sociosemiotic Perspective on Educational Portals
AUTHORS:
Maria Agustina Sabich
KEYWORDS:
Educational Portals, Sociosemiotic, Pedagogical Discourses, Digital Media
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.3 No.4,
April
29,
2016
ABSTRACT: In this article we propose to analyse some of the discursive strategies implemented in Educ.ar, the national educational portal of Argentina. The
methodology used contemplates Eliseo Veron’s theory of social discourses, which focuses on the social processes of
meaning making, as well as the second trichotomy propounded by Charles Sanders
Peirce and some of the conceptual contributions from the fields of Educational
Technology and Communication-Education. Our general hypothesis is based on the
idea that, initially at least, the use of educational portals may be inefficient because of the lack of
structure, organization, and quality in the resources available from the
digital platform Educ.ar. In this
sense, on the one hand, we might even say that educational portals are not
being used to their full potential, since analogue devices such as textbooks still
have greater legitimacy as educational tools, while on the other hand, the
digital media are still seen as if they only could be related to fun or
entertainment. Therefore, in this paper we will describe the formal aspects in
the design of Educ.ar in order to
shed some light on its characteristics and to enable its better appropriation
by the whole educational community. In the end, we will try to suggest some
considerations to improve the formal structure of this educational portal.