Mixing colours: An ICT tool based on a semiotic framework for mathematical meaning-makng about ratio and fractions

This paper reports on the research and development of an ICT tool to facilitate the learning of ratio and fractions by adult prisoners. The design of the ICT tool was informed by a semiotic framework for mathematical meaning-making. The ICT tool thus employed multiple semiotic resources including topological, typological, and social-actional resources. The results showed that individual semiotic resource could only represent part of the mathematical concept, while at the same time it might signify something else to create a misconception. When multiple semiotic resources were utilised the mathematical ideas could be better learnt.

Mixing colours : an ICT tool based on a semiotic framework for mathematical meaning-making about ratio and fractions

This paper reports on the research and development of an ICT tool to facilitate the learning of ratio and fractions by adult prisoners. The design of the ICT tool was informed by a semiotic framework for mathematical meaning-making. The ICT tool thus employed multiple semiotic resources including topological, typological, and social-actional resources. The results showed that individual semiotic resource could only represent part of the mathematical concept, while at the same time it might signify something else to create a misconception. When multiple semiotic resources were utilised the mathematical ideas could be better learnt.

Improving reflective writing in higher education : A social semiotic perspective

Reflective skills are widely regarded as a means of improving students’ lifelong learning and professional practice in higher education (Rogers 2001). While the value of reflective practice is widely accepted in educational circles, a critical issue is that reflective writing is complex, and has high rhetorical demands, making it difficult to master unless it is taught in an explicit and systematic way. This paper argues that a functional-semantic approach to language (Eggins 2004), based on Halliday’s (1978) systemic functional linguistics can be used to develop a shared language to explicitly teach and assess reflective writing in higher education courses. The paper outlines key theories and scales of reflection, and then uses systemic functional linguistics to develop a social semiotic model for reflective writing. Examples of reflective writing are analysed to show how such a model can be used explicitly to improve the reflective writing skills of higher education students.

"Unruly women and semiotic spaces": Jay Verney's a mortality tale

Written at a time of significant changes for women and for women writers in Queensland, Australia, Jay Verney's A Mortality Tale (1994), privileges women's experiences of place and seeks to redeem the feminine from its entrapment in masculine stories/discourses of self and place. This chapter draws on Julia Kristeva's conceptualisation of the semiotic as a way of reading Verney's witty and reflective re-articulation of phallocentric orderings of spatiality and gender.

From Iron Horse to Rauta-airot - a Semiotic View on the Domestication of Metaphors in Literary Translation

The thesis concentrates on two questions: the translation of metaphors in literary texts, and the use of semiotic models and tools in translation studies. The aim of the thesis is to present a semiotic, text based model designed to ease the translation of metaphors and to analyze translated metaphors. In the translation of metaphors I will concentrate on the central problem of metaphor translations: in addition to its denotation and connotation, a single metaphor may contain numerous culture or genre specific meanings. How can a translator ensure the translation of all meanings relevant to the text as a whole? I will approach the question from two directions. Umberto Eco's holistic text analysis model provides an opportunity to concentrate on the problematic nature of metaphor translation from the level of a text as a specific entity, while George Lakoff's and Mark Johnson's metaphor research makes it possible to approach the question from the level of individual metaphors. On the semiotic side, the model utilizes Eero Tarasti's existential semiotics supported by Algirdas Greimas' actant model and Yuri Lotman's theory of cultural semiotics. In the model introduced in the thesis, individual texts are deconstructed through Eco's model into elements. The textual roles and features of these elements are distilled further through Tarasti's model into their coexistent meaning levels. The priorization and analysis of these meaning levels provide an opportunity to consider the contents and significance of specific metaphors in relation to the needs of the text as a whole. As example texts, I will use Motörhead's hard rock classic Iron Horse/Born to Lose and its translation into Rauta-airot by Viikate. I will use the introduced model to analyze the metaphors in the source and target texts, and to consider the transfer of culture specific elements between the languages and cultural borders. In addition, I will use the analysis process to examine the validity of the model introduced in the thesis.

The role of technology in the study of semiotic representations in mathematics

En este trabajo resumimos algunas reflexiones sobre el papel que pueden desarrollar la tecnología en el estudio de sistemas semióticos de representación, y que constituyen el núcleo para la comprensión de los procesos de construcción del conocimiento matemático de los estudiantes. La cita corresponde con el resumen de una página publicado.

The phenomenological, epistemological, and semiotic components of generalization

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Ubiquitous monitoring and behavioural change: a semiotic perspective

We are soon approaching the pervasive-era ofcomputing, where computers are embedded intoobjects and the environment in order to provide newservices to users. Significant levels of data arerequired in order for these services to function asintended, and it is this collection of data which werefer to as ubiquitous monitoring. Existing monitoringtechniques have often been known to cause undesirableeffects, and it is anticipated that ubiquitousmonitoring, with its increased coverage, will lead toincreases in their occurrence and impact. To date, theeffects of ubiquitous monitoring on human behaviourhave not been sufficiently investigated, furtherincreasing the risk of undesirable effects. We propose apreliminary model consisting of a series of factorsbelieved to influence human behavior and augmentedby the Theory of Planned Behaviour. This model mayallow us to understand, predict, and therefore preventany undesirable effects caused by ubiquitousmonitoring.

Semiotic modelling for complex enterprise systems

An enterprise is viewed as a complex system which can be engineered to accomplish organisational objectives. Systems analysis and modelling will enable to the planning and development of the enterprise and IT systems. Many IT systems design methods focus on functional and non-functional requirements of the IT systems. Most methods are normally capable of one but leave out other aspects. Analysing and modelling of both business and IT systems may often have to call on techniques from various suites of methods which may be placed on different philosophic and methodological underpinnings. Coherence and consistency between the analyses are hard to ensure. This paper introduces the Problem Articulation Method (PAM) which facilitates the design of an enterprise system infrastructure on which an IT system is built. Outcomes of this analysis represent requirements which can be further used for planning and designing a technical system. As a case study, a finance system, Agresso, for e-procurement has been used in this paper to illustrate the applicability of PAM in modelling complex systems.