D J Cole UWI WEBSITE

Discussion 1 

Topic 1

by Deanna Cole - Sunday, 1 September 2019, 2:19 PM

Number of replies: 1

In researching affordances i was frankly overwhelmed by how complex the various sources i found explained "affordances". For example Amal AL- Ibrahim advised that "Educational affordances can be defined as the relationships between the properties of an educational intervention and the characteristics of the learner that enable certain kinds of learning to take place. This study defines an affordance of education ICT as an action that the learner can/ cannot perform based on the properties of the ICT environment and his/her prior knowledge, needs and the situation in which learning takes place".

 

I though to myself... so what does that really mean. Does it mean an affordance is the synergy of what a student and or a educator can create by actively using s technological tool as they seek to work with the tool on a particular educational interest. For example, if a child is learning math times tables and uses a calculator to check his mental answers the child can learn faster and become more confident by checking his or her work using a calculator? I think that in effect affordances are based on the combination of the tech tool and the person using the tool to action a topic.

 

Affordances in effect can create faster understandings of knowledge, confident in the student and a enhanced go forward position for the learner.

 

Convergence is seen in today smart phones which can facilitate voice communications, access to the internet, applications and much more.

 

A new form if communications are smart tvs which have "alexa" type interactive capabilites. In addition the smart tv's can allow access to the internet, educational applications and various tools like on line calculators, online educational channels that teach like discovery for kids and much more.

 

 

References:

 

Amal-Ibrahim, THE PEDAGOGICAL AFFORDANCES OF SOCIAL NETWORK TECHNOLOGY AMAL AL-IBRAHIM*. 2017. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b86a/0e5fee230489e1c582c4a4bf3e4754f736f9.pdf