Digital Age in Semiotics & Communication

Notes for contributors

Editorial Board — 2023-12-30

Digital transformation of education: Semiotic and interdisciplinary perspectives

Kristian Bankov — 2023-12-30

Gamification in business and entrepreneurship education – theory and applications

Eduard Marinov — 2023-12-30

The aim of this study is to systematize the main advantages and difficulties in the use of game elements in entrepreneurship education. It will examine the expected effects of their application on the quality of education and the level of skills acquired. The first part discusses the need to rethink the way in which entrepreneurship education is conducted in relation to new opportunities provided by technology, but also due to the changing needs and ways of training new generations. The next section analyzes the various possibilities for applying “gaming” practices in training and linking them with a systematic framework for the acquisition of knowledge, skills and competencies. The last part presents the methodology used by the authors to create a gaming platform for entrepreneurship education. The final part summarizes some conclusions and makes recommendations for the use of gamification in education in the field of business, entrepreneurship and economics in secondary and higher education.

Opportunities and limitations of digital educational tools in shaping entrepreneurial mindset and competences

Kostadin Kolarov — 2023-12-30

This paper examines the potential of digital learning environments in preparing future entrepreneurs through higher education. Despite historic doubts regarding the systematic teaching of entrepreneurial skills, in recent decades entrepreneurship education has distinctly evolved. Unlike conventional professions, entrepreneurship encompasses a diverse array of specific challenges in business creation and management. This makes it challenging to adopt a uniform educational approach. Hence, a blend of appropriate educational methods is essential. These range from inspiring learners through entrepreneurial narratives to fostering conceptual and practical skills for recognizing opportunities, validating business ideas, gaining knowledge and skills for managing processes and resources, and cultivating personal attributes crucial for entrepreneurial success. The paper critically evaluates the potential of digital learning environments in nurturing entrepreneurial competencies. This is achieved by juxtaposing the outcomes of existing theoretical and empirical studies on the utilization of digital tools in entrepreneurship education. The research aims to address crucial questions: what, how, and by whom should entrepreneurship be taught; the distinct advantages and limitations of various digital tools in fostering specific entrepreneurial competencies; and to what extent digital learning environments can enhance the overall effectiveness of entrepreneurship education, considering the extent of resources committed. The array of digital tools encompasses virtual learning environments, interactive communication channels, multimedia products, engaging learning content, and specialized software for practical activities. The research adopts an exploratory methodology, applying qualitative methods. An online questionnaire was conducted to explore the perspectives of current entrepreneurship students in two Bulgarian universities. The paper concludes that digital learning environments indeed have the potential to significantly enhance the overall effectiveness of entrepreneurship education. However, a discerning approach is essential when selecting the appropriate digital tools tailored to foster distinct entrepreneurial competencies, considering the specific stage of the entrepreneurial learning process. Different digital facilitators demonstrate varying degrees of efficacy in shaping the mindset and competencies of future entrepreneurs in determining entrepreneurial opportunities, cultivating relationships, conceptualizing, organizing, strategizing, and displaying commitment.

Postphenomenology and education: From cyborg students to immersive classrooms

Jared Smith — 2023-12-30

This analysis uses a postphenomenological lens to provide insight into the shift occurring within society at large. It focuses on the educational domain, and arguing for a reevaluation of instructive approaches. Philosophical research into technology and education is seemingly lacking, and so this article seeks to fill the present gaps. This analysis initially delves into the postphenomenological frameworks of technological mediation, intentionality, and dimensions, to clearly differentiate the embodiment and cybernetic relationships as they are understood within various texts. Following this the epistemic and practical dimensions of these relations are explored to then be juxtaposed with the descriptive argument of the overall cultivating cybernetic relationship between human user and technological artefact in contemporary times, using the smartphone as the core example case study. Finally, a normative argument is made considering the previous cybernetic insight, in that if the classroom setting is to evolve and adapt, it too must embed technology within the classroom, lessons, and overall educational engagement. It represents an equalizing technological balance of cybernetic student and immersive classroom where the intentionality of user, technology, and classroom blend together to continue the cultivation of our blossoming relationship with technology.

New technologies, children and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): The gap between communication, infrastructure and the application of an European Regulation!

Victoria-Delia Bunceanu — 2023-12-30

One of the central concepts of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the “data subject”. This notion in relation to the establishment of rights and obligations for controllers and processors becomes a common denominator in the implementation of this Regulation at the level of all Member States of the European Union. The Regulation (EU) 2016/679 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (GDPR) was adopted, in order to protect the privacy of data subject, whether a parent, an young person or a child. However, starting with the title we can identify two different actions: to assure the protection of personal data and the free movement of this data within and outside the Union borders. In this context we must take the following into account: the reality of conceptual gaps in interpretation of this document; old or non-existent infrastructure; legislative bottlenecks and the risks involved in the protection of children’s data. Are parents, young people or children properly informed about their rights and the risks to which they are exposed in an era of digitalization? Can online school ensure the protection of children? Does the current infrastructure allow the optimal implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation? My research, in this context, has the aim of identifying gaps between information, infrastructure and the application of the GDPR, using the content analysis method and the questionnaire as a qualitative method of research. The expected results of this research are awareness by state institutions about the risks to which children are exposed in an era of digitalization and the awareness of the controllers about the obligation to ensure the protection of children’s data in the processing process.

Building a fashion influencer image on Instagram

Dilyana Molerova — 2023-12-30

This article examines the shift from analogue to digital transmission of information; the metaphor of virtual community, and the everyday life of social networks. It also studies the construction of virtual identity taking place under the influence of the influencer system on the Internet. Viewing fashion as a process of constant production and reproduction of the social, of imitation as a means of social adaptation, the text examines the transformation of fashion into a primarily digital representation through influencer marketing. The analogue and digital evolution of codes is distinct, and the need of media and digital literacy are a growing challenge for modern society. This work will provide a clearer delineation of the fluid nature of identity and social belonging as well-articulated behaviors.

Attempting a gendered cultural semiotic analysis through the transmedial study of the myth of Carmen

Iokasti-Christina Foundouka — 2023-12-30

The story of Carmen is perhaps one of the most translated, adapted, culturalized, indigenized and re-produced stories in the western world’s canon. Carmen herself has become a myth, an icon, a strong sign of female independence, eroticism and threat. Although suggested to be read as an Orientalistic story of a femme fatale, later readings and reproductions have turned the story of Carmen into a discourse regarding gender, class, race and systems of power. “Whether the adaptation portrays Carmen as victim or victimizer, in short, depends on the politics of the particular contexts of creation and reception” (Hutcheon 2006: 154). This study, however, does not aim to contribute to this vast discourse on femininity, sexuality and violence1, all issues raised by Carmen’s story, but rather track the adaptations and trace the cultural ideologies manifested through female representation. Women in culture, in this case Carmen, act as a counter mirror, reflecting the culture’s Other. Quoting Pollock (2003: 210) “woman is the sign, not of woman, but of that Other in whose mirror masculinity must define itself ”. In this case study of Carmen’s adaptations, cultural semiotic theory will be used as a methodological and analytical tool in the attempt to understand how the sign “woman” is used almost metonymically as the embodiment of counter-culture.

Evaluating the impact of interactive cinema in audiovisual literacy and education: An eye-tracking study

Giorgos Dimitriadis — 2023-12-30

The present paper explores the use of interactive cinema in education from the perspective of young students’ responsiveness. With the use of an eye-tracker, gaze data was collected from students aged between 10-13 years who watched a short film extract, enhanced with a number of interactive elements or “hotspots” that appeared during playback. During the experiment, the eye-tracker collected data on the behavioral patterns of student participants with regard to their willingness to access the interactive elements on screen, the time they devoted to reading them, possible optimal positions of those elements, etc., also studied in relation to demographic information concerning age group, area of living, and gender of the participants. The aim of the experiment was to assess students’ responses in the context of exploring the prospects for using interactive cinema in education in order to teach elements of audiovisual literacy as well as any other cross-curricular content.

Language education, digital citizenship, and Juri Lotman’s semiosphere

Despina Alexandra Constantinidou — 2023-12-30

The present paper explores the use of language teaching for educating students into becoming digitally-literate citizens, as well as conscious, active members of the digital universe. The material discussed derives from the eLang project, a flagship project of the European Centre for Modern Languages. The guidelines, and real-world and reflexive tasks put together by the eLang team of experts, along with the theoretical framework employed are examined with respect to the notion of semiosphere by Juri M. Lotman, and the way this endorses digital transformation in language education. Seen, thus, as partaking in the digital semiosphere, and at the same time in the multiplicity of the semiotic systems ingrained in it, the current language student and future citizen assumes different roles, interacts with distinct as well as overlapping communities, is asked to make sense of multimodal resources, so as to eventually acquire far more than the skills of a digital user. The eLang material addresses, in this way, the demand for training language students in the multifarious literacies that digital literacy has come to encompass. The language student overrides, thus, classroom topography and the boundaries of conventional language education, and traces those of the globalised digital semiosphere, within which it cannot but soar.