Abstract: Technological innovations in the digital-intelligence era have injected new momentum into educational research, and the integration of digital-intelligent tools with iconological methods is driving a transformation in educational research methodology. Taking three typical iconological methods in educational research namely visual ethnography, image walking, and photo elicitation as examples, this study systematically explores the transformational logic and methodological value of digital-intelligence technology empowering educational research. In the digital-intelligence era, these three methods have undergone systematic transformation through digital-intelligent technologies: visual ethnography utilizes digital collection and semantic analysis to achieve a unity of human-computer collaborative “broad analysis” and “deep analysis”; image walking employs VR immersive technology to reconstruct research scenarios, advancing the method from “recording and observing” to “participating and generating”; photo elicitation relies on online collaborative tools to achieve triangulation of multimodal data, elevating the method to the level of “methodological consciousness”. To realize the transformation of iconological methods in the digital-intelligence era, it is first necessary to clarify the core logic and philosophical orientation of each method, integrating the cultural interpretive value of visual ethnography, the intersubjective interactive value of image walking, and the individual experiential value of photo elicitation into the methodological framework, aligning deeply with educational practices and theoretical updates in the digital-intelligence era. This integration process not only empirically resonates with classic pedagogical knowledge such as “education as relationship” and “education as practice”, but also deepens the understanding of new educational practices in the digital-intelligence era. Ultimately, it reconstructs the interactive logic between methodological transformation and pedagogical knowledge production, providing dual support in both theory and practice for the academic proposition of “technology reshaping educational research”.

Key words: digital-intelligence era, iconological methods, visual ethnography, image walking, photo elicitation