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Session Description
Semiotics comprises the study and scientific analysis of meaning-making. Late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century theoreticians proposed three elements comprising this analysis: sign, signifier, and signified. But while these three have retained for more than a century their theoretical denotations as “word”, “sound”, and “meaning” in standard studies of communication, new media pictorial symbol-dependence is provoking a re-interpretation, if not a broadening, of the sign and its two composites. Although research continues to demonstrate the value of retaining the sign-signifier-signified union, increased dependence upon Web 2.0-style twenty-first century tools for quick and simple cross-cultural interaction may be generating both a shift in significance that favors the visual and an expanded messaging process that shares features with the communication processes favored by other creatures in our biosphere. Moreover, in encouraging this new Web 2.0 dependence, educators must at once cultivate the communicative and avoid the ambiguous. To do this, we must first attend to the original, “classical” meanings of the sign-signifier-signified triad, then note what the triad has to do with twenty-first century Web 2.0 messaging, and finally discern how real or perceived shifts in the meanings of sign, signifier, and signified are to be best taken advantage of to effect or enrich learning.
Presenter(s)
Katherine Watson, Coastline Community College, Fountain Valley, USA
Dr. Katherine Watson has been teaching French, English, linguistics, anthropology, English as a Second Language, and zoosemiotics for more than four decades, at first in the traditional classroom, then at a distance and online. In addition, she translates and interprets literary and technical works and has trained interpreters for the soccer World Cup and the summer Olympics. Her papers and literary translations have been presented and published in the Usa and abroad. Dr. Watson began French in Action online with the Annenberg/CPB (Corporation for Public Broadcasting) Project and conceived/developed/taught in the Coast Community College District’s first completely-online course program.A recording of this presentation is available.
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Melissa A. Venable, PhD is an Education Writer for OnlineColleges.net where she authors the Inside Online Learning blog. Her writing stems from a professional background in higher education, which includes experience as an instructional designer, online instructor, career counselor, and academic advisor at a range of public, private, and for-profit institutions. She earned her doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction – Instructional Technology from the University of South Florida. Join Melissa on Twitter (
Amy Hilbelink, PhD is the Executive Director of Program Design – Health Sciences, Human Services, and Public Policy & Administration at Laureate Education in the Product Strategy, Innovation, and Development (PSID) Group. Amy was the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Online Academic Operations at Education Management Corporation (EDMC), one of the largest providers of private post-secondary education in North America. She also held leadership roles in the areas of academic strategies and development as well as curriculum development at Kaplan University. She earned her PhD from the University of South Florida, in Tampa Florida. Her degree is in Curriculum and Instruction, with an emphasis in Instructional Technology in healthcare education. Amy’s background includes work within traditional and for-profit institutions of higher education. Research interests include online academic quality initiatives, change management, regional and programmatic accreditation, project development and management.
Dr. Om Ahuja is currently a tenured full Professor of Mathematics at Kent State University in U.S.A.. Earlier he served as an Associate Professor for about 13 years in six countries including U.S.A.. He Ahuja loves teaching and research in math, math education, and web education. His research interests include several areas in complex analysis, functional analysis, web-based education, and mathematics education. He has co-authored a graduate level textbook “Functional Analysis” by ‘Anshan New Age Science’ (ANS) (United Kingdom), and ‘New Age International (P) Limited, Publisher’. He has published over 110 papers in complex analysis and mathematics education. He has been an international visiting scholar at twenty-two universities in various countries including U.S.A, India, China, Turkey, and Malaysia. He has lectured or presented papers at over 85 national and international conferences and universities in several countries. Dr. Ahuja’s other international recognitions include serving as chief guest twice at two reputed universities in India and chief organizers of two national/international conferences in math and mathematics education.
Dr. Kirsti A. Dyer MD, MS, FT is a physician, health educator, professor, online instructor, lecturer, author, and longtime online student. Dr. Dyer received her medical and master’s degrees from the University of California, Davis. Since having her two daughters, her focus has shifted from clinical practice to education, wellness, and health promotion.
Dr. John Thompson is Associate Professor Emeritus at Buffalo State College, Buffalo, NY, USA. He also operates his own educational consulting business – Global Learning Institute, Inc. Although retired, Dr. Thompson continues to teach 100% online courses for several institutions of higher education. He has taught some 150 online courses since 2000. He enjoys the flexibility of teaching online from his home office at all hours of the day and night. Dr. Thompson has chaired conferences, done presentation and paper reviews for numerous conferences and publications, made presentations at numerous local to international conferences, and has authored many publications in his field. Prior to working in higher education, his career experience included working in urban, suburban, and rural schools as an elementary and secondary classroom teacher (general education and special education), curriculum coordinator, principal, and school superintendent. He also functioned as director of training for two state governments and director of a university-based computer training organization.
Dr. Trevor Belcher is an Assistant Professor in Ashford’s College of Health, Human Services, and Science, where he teaches undergraduate psychology courses such as Introduction to Psychology, Research Methods, and the Capstone course. He holds his PhD and MS in Psychology from Capella University and a BS with a double major in Ministry and Theology from Mid-America Christian University. Over most of the past two decades, his educational and practical experience has allowed him the opportunity to serve in various capacities such as pastoral ministry (ten years), counseling, teaching, and administration. “For the past eight years, I have had the privilege of working and teaching at the University level. I have enjoyed and learned from every class. I love working with students and helping to make a difference in someone’s life.” Dr. Belcher was born in Warren, MI, reared in Kentucky. And currently lives in Virginia. He has been married for over two decades and has one son. In his spare time, he enjoys movies, spending time with his family, and trying to learn guitar.
For more than 15 years, I have consistently performing successful teaching on various secondary and higher education institutions in the United States and Indonesia. As a result of my commitment to teaching, I have been awarded scholarships from several prestigious institutions, including the Ford Foundation, the East West Center, the Dennis Zvynakis Foundation, and the University of Hawai‘i Foundation. Recently, I defended my dissertation and will be graduating from the Educational Technology Program in the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa this May. My research interests are in multimodal learning environments, technology and language instruction, creative teaching in social sciences, and online-distance learning.
Head, Computing Education Department, Director of Graduate Teacher Training Program, Faculty of Education at Kibutzim College of Education, Israel.