Developing a Framework for Conceptualizing Affordances of Technology in Education

The term affordance has been defined and interpreted diversely in different domains over decades. However, little attention has been paid to the definition of affordances in the domain of education. With the increasing application of various technologies in education, the conceptualization of educational affordances of technology is essential to fully explore the educational potential of technology and better understand how learning could be supported with the affordances of technology. This paper compares the existing literature concerning affordance theories and defines affordances in the domain of education. A framework for conceptualizing educational affordances of technology has been articulated based on the literature to interpret the notion from three aspects: technology, user, and environment. The framework would not only help practitioners to understand the certain capability of technology to provide an effective mediating tool for educational activities but also assist researchers to study the educational affordances of technology from new dimensions

Normative Affordances Through and By Technology: Technological Mediation and Human Enhancement

Human activity is fundamentally embedded in and constituted by technology. In this regard, technology influences not only how people experience the world, but also which possibilities for action offered by the environment (affordances) can be perceived and ultimately acted upon. As having socio-cultural and normative aspects, affordances are deeply relational to the technological human form of life. Postphenomenology describes several human-technology relations and their perception and action mediating effects. Therefore, it provides a suitable framework to examine how technology mediates the perception of affordances and leads to different behavioral outcomes. Technology can reveal hitherto hidden affordances but can also result in the manipulation and concealment of action possibilities. Both aspects can be deliberately controlled by using a particular technology and/or interfering with the technological hermeneutic process. Technological mal-functions, limitations, purposeful corruption, or human error can disrupt the hermeneutic qualities of technology and may lead to false conclusions about affordances and respective maladaptive behavioral outcomes. Technology can also be applied to humans to form “better” versions of them. One consequence of these so-called Human Enhancement technologies is the emergence of different affordances for the enhanced individual and the possible establishment of new affordances inside a form of life. Manipulating the perception and emergence of affordances through technological mediation or Human Enhancement can have severe political and ethical consequences. It is necessary to engage in an open debate about the perception and action mediating power of technology and the human reliance on them in our current and future form of life

Participation Solicitation Design for Learner Engagement with Epistemic Objects and Situated, Collective Learning in Online Discussion Boards

This paper describes research examining how we may design effective affordances for contextually- and socially-situated learning in professional domain courses mediated via digital technology platforms. Online learning affordances do not simply offer technology-related mechanisms for student interaction, but also provide mechanisms that allow situated professional practice and contextual domain knowledge to be incorporated into a digitized version of experiential learning. We distinguish between online learning affordances as technology mechanisms that guide normative actions and affordances as participation solicitations that provide learners with targeted affordances for active engagement in socially-situated learning. Our analysis focuses on the domain-specific pattern sensitization that results from the joint creation of, and collective interactions with epistemic discussion objects and that leads to increased self-efficacy in active, experiential learning. The contribution is to demonstrate how solicitation-affordances complement technology affordances to support student engagement in interactive online learning, through examples of behavior and a framework for affordance configuration

Theorizing Affordance Actualization in Digital Innovation from a Socio-Technical Perspective: The case of the video game industry

Digital technology provides opportunities for new product development and innovation through affordances. However, in digital innovation, human actors are constrained by the design of technology and its interaction with different aspects of the socio-technical context. In this article, we investigate the relationship between digital technology and developers in a video game development company and its role in supporting and hindering digital innovation. We build on theory of affordances and constraints in answering the research question: How does the actualization of affordances in video game development influence the innovation process and outcome? Based on empirical analysis, we identify four affordances: Tool development, prototyping, user testing, and patching. We theorize affordance actualization and distinguish between innovation outcome and process innovation affordances. Furthermore, we theorize the dependencies between human actors, the organization, and technology in the affordance actualization process and mechanism

Revisiting Affordances for Learning in Mobile Technology Based Environments

The term “affordance” has been used in Information Communications Technology (ICT) based environment to explore the opportunities the educational technologies provide for students. Gibson (1979/1986) defines affordances as the possibilities that the environment offers for the perceiver. The perceiver and the environment make an inseparable pair. In the case of learning, affordances are those relationships that provide a “match” between something in the environment and the learner (Van Lier, 2004) as a whole. The learning environment is a complex system consists of different components and layers. By becoming integrated components of the environment, different learning entities, whether social or individual, constitute affordances for each other. Through interactions, these affordances are integrated, and transform into effectivities (Visser, 2001). Besides, according to Gibson, affordances are invariant. However, they can be increased when the intensity of stimulation changes. They can also form higher order affordances when primary affordances are always found in particular combinations. Finally, Gibson (1979/1986) argues that affordances are not neutral. A focus on affordances for learning in mobile technology-based environment helps us identify how the environment as an integrated whole provides support for students’ learning, what and how components of the environment interact to provide various affordances.published_or_final_versionCentre of Information Technology in Education, University of Hong Kong and Education and Manpower Bureau, the Government of the Hong Kong SA

Bodies, technologies and action possibilities: when is an affordance?

Borrowed from ecological psychology, the concept of affordances is often said to offer the social study of technology a means of re-framing the question of what is, and what is not, ‘social’ about technological artefacts. The concept, many argue, enables us to chart a safe course between the perils of technological determinism and social constructivism. This article questions the sociological adequacy of the concept as conventionally deployed. Drawing on ethnographic work on the ways technological artefacts engage, and are engaged by, disabled bodies, we propose that the ‘affordances’ of technological objects are not reducible to their material constitution but are inextricably bound up with specific, historically situated modes of engagement and ways of life

Technology Affordances and IT Identity

The study attempts to understand the impact of technology affordances on identifying the self with technology (IT identity). Furthermore, it seeks to understand the role of experiences in mediating the relationship between technology affordances and IT identity. To answer our research questions, we will conduct a cross-sectional survey

How do Organizations react to Unintended Affordances? An Ethnography in Healthcare

When organizations implement information technology (IT) artifacts, they focus on intended functionalities. Misalignment between processes and organizational or individual goals can lead to unintended work practices. Users may actualize affordances that the artifact designer did not intend. As such, there is a potential tension between the goals users must achieve, the technology\u27s features and the organization\u27s policies. Organizations must respond to unintended affordances in regulated industries such as healthcare to ensure compliance. Understanding how organizations react to unintended affordances provides insights into individual and organizational behavior concerning the adoption and assimilation of IT artifacts. Organizations need guidance on responding to unintended affordances in specific situations. Therefore, this real-world ethnographical study seeks to identify organizational reactions to unintended affordances

Technology Affordances: The Case of Wikipedia

The affordance perspective to technology research aims to offer a definition of technology that bridges between previous positivist and constructivist perspectives. To study technology from an affordance angle, it needs to be defined and extracted. This study aims to develop a better understanding of technology by conceptualizing and dimensionalizing technology affordances. To demonstrate the practical value of our conceptualization, we empirically identify and define six affordances of Wikipedia as a case

An Affordances Apparatus for Enterprise Social Media

The current paper addresses one of the core yet complex issues in the study of technology in organizations: the relationship between the social and the material. Many scholars in the field of Information Systems have used the notion of affordance as a lens to investigate and theorize this relationship. However, knowledge contributions in this area are often abstract and impractical, or at least compel further conceptual development. This paper uses a relational view of affordances to study organizational social media affordances based on empirical data collected about the use of the Wiki technology at two large multinational organizations—CCC and IBM. It theorizes four key mechanisms—referring to other affordances (referential), collectively enacting significant affordances (communal), situation-dependent exploitation of affordances (situatedness), and exploiting other opportunities for action (multiplicity), that embody the interaction between the social and the material. These mechanisms make up what is labelled in this paper as ‘the affordances apparatus’. The apparatus provides a conceptual structure for the interaction between social and material features that shows operational dynamics and processes underpinning the perception, enactment and exploitation of affordances. This apparatus is the main contribution of the paper in that it gives researchers a conceptual tool for investigating affordances as relational constructs between the social and the material. It also helps in understanding how people navigate the use of technology features relative to their intentions and goals