“Beyond the notion of a tool, however, rests the concept of affordances – what does this media enable us to do/achieve that is not possible without it?” gsiemens In order to capitalize on the affordances of particular tools we have to know what they can do and what is being done with them. More importantly though is having a clear connection to a learning outcome. It’s devilishly easy to be attracted to podcasting, say… lectures. But what are the affordances? How do they connect with improved learning? One example, taken from Richard Reed, (listen to an interview podcast with him), is to free up face to face classtime for engaging activities or for more specialized help. Lectures are pre-recorded and students are responsible for listening to them. So this implementation of podcasts affords personalized, convenient access to instuctional materials, effective use of face to face class time, self-directed learning…there’s more for certain. Take a podcast again, this time a recorded lecture that students attend and can also download for review. While some of the affordances are similar to the previous example, (listen when you can) others are not. These podcasts don’t free up class time for more engaging activities. Perhaps however the lectures are so dense that the revision the podcast affords enables students to better digest the content. Affordances, technology and student learning seem to be intimately woven.
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3 Comments
Aaron Smith wrote @ May 3rd, 2006 at 12:00 pm
Great post Suzanne. I think another way to put this is, “using technology for the sake of using techonolgy.” Professors, teachers, and administrators are often so hyped up about using technology in the classroom that they fail to take into account whether or not it is actually helping their students. ( I just found your blog. I really like it)
szanne wrote @ May 3rd, 2006 at 12:42 pm
HI Aaron,
Thanks for stopping by. I see you’re in K-12 
. I wonder what the similiarities and differences of our respective cultures are? In higher ed we seem to be building a cultural expectation that students come to us “knowing” a lot about using technology. Indeed some of them, many of them spend far more time on the internet than with TV. But it’s more than that. For example, some of our faculty now assign student projects that require fairly advanced uses of PowerPoint, such as for creating digital poems. There’s a slew of skills and knowledge that underpin such an assignment, not the least some basic graphic design skills we file under a “visual literacy” rubric. A caveat however in that our undergraduate rhetoric and writing curriculum is full. Where do we then teach visual literacy? Is it important? We have a little more breathing room than you, not working with state stardards; it’s still a challenge though. As you said, we’re still alittle too star struck with the technology itself.
Aaron Smith wrote @ May 4th, 2006 at 12:51 pm
Good point szanne! K12 education is so standards driven that most educators have become blind to anything else. I had never thought about this before. It is increaslying important for students to be technologically literate as they move to the next level. Powerpoint is a good example. Presentation software has become increasingly complicated over the years but is almost becoming a required skill in college in many working environments. Many of these skills and concepts are taught in electives that not every student takes. There needs to be state standards for technology that apply to every student. I know Texas does not have them.
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