ABSTRACT
Introduction In postindustrial urbanized ‘developed’ nations and beyond, many people inhabit an increasingly visually mediated world. They are increasingly bombarded by a multiplicity of images, and engaged in a range of visual practices in their day-to-day lives via online social networking, use of camera and videophones, and video-sharing sites such as YouTube™. Partly as a result, the presentation of the self is increasingly mediated via visual means, as we document and construct ourselves both textually and visually on sites such as Facebook™ and Flickr™, via a visual avatar in immersive worlds such as Second Life™, or in online games such as World of Warcraft™. This chapter will investigate the implications of this social turn towards a mixture of modes of communication – or multimodality – for research, looking at the features and roles of visual methodologies in the particular context of higher education (HE). It will argue that these new contexts can be better explored by utilizing the potential of the visual in research processes. Additionally, it will look at how visual methodologies might be used more broadly, often in combination with other methodologies such as material and textual, to offer new ways of understanding the experiences of participants in educational contexts.
