ABSTRACT

Many researchers agree that awareness of agency and how it is enacted through different participants holds a key role in developing digital literacy. Recognition of the ways in which digital tools can appropriate and shape humans’ semiotic work and even act out roles in communication is part of critical digital literacy. In digital environments, humans interact with the content (not just consume it) through interfaces that may include touchscreen, voice commands, eye movement and hand gesture, often accompanied by non-human agents (e.g. bots). The need to make transparent the hidden design intentions of these non-human liaisons is becoming more and more essential, particularly for formal educational scenarios where digital tools are commonly used.

This study explores how different roles of human and non-human agents in an online environment can be made salient and how teachers can promote learner awareness of hidden agents at the layer of digital interfaces. Drawing on the notion of “exchange structure” from conversational analysis and functional linguistics, audio recordings and re-constructed screenshots are analyzed. Results highlight the actions and intentionality of human and non-human agents that form multimodal turn-taking sequences. Suggestions for developing critical digital literacy pedagogies (CDLP), including making hidden agents more salient, are proposed.

摘要

许多研究人员一致认为，对代理的意识以及如何通过不同的参与者实施代理对发展数字素养起着关键作用。关键数字素养的一部分是，认识到数字工具可以适应和塑造人类符号学工作甚至在交流中发挥作用的方式。在数字环境中，人类通过可能包括触摸屏，语音命令，眼球运动和手势的界面与内容进行交互（而不仅仅是消费），并且通常伴随着非人类的代理（例如机器人）。使这些非人类联络员的隐藏设计意图透明化的需求变得越来越重要，尤其是对于通常使用数字工具的正规教育场景而言。

这项研究探讨了如何使在线环境中人类和非人类代理人的不同角色显着，以及教师如何在数字界面层提高学习者对隐藏代理人的认识。利用对话分析和功能语言学中的“交换结构”概念，分析了录音和重构的屏幕截图。结果突出了形成多模式转向序列的人类和非人类行为者的行动和意图。提出了发展关键的数字素养教育法（CDLP）的建议，包括使隐藏的探员更加突出。