Media experiences: in teaching and learning situations

The paper discusses mediated experiences from the perspective of the visual modality in combination with the multimodal interaction. ICT-studies has a rapid influx of new words and concepts. Digital technology led to a need to describe the convergence of images, text and sound has taken various ways, one of which is the notion of multimodality (Kress & Van Leeuwen 2001). Multimodality means that the interplay between various modalities creates a synergy in knowledge-building. Kress & Leeuwen argue that meaning of signs is negotiated in social practices. This supports the idea that images may be interpreted as legible signs, i.e. their meaning can be translated into written or oral language (Kress and van Leuwen 1996; Kress 2003). However, the embodied sense-based qualities involved in images and visualisations cannot be fully comprehended from a discursive perspective. Images and visualisations draw on their particular iconic systems of meaning perceived through form, lines, contrasts, colours, structures textures, rhythm and composite qualities with embedded interdependent codes and culturally conditioned potential for construction of knowledge and meaning. Mediated experience adds new perspectives to educational practices as still more advanced technology emerge and intertwine the scientific areas in new and cross-disciplinary frameworks.