Good learning designs reflect technologies chosen after mindful consideration of the cognitive and societal consequences as well as a clear and appropriate connection with content and learning activities.
When I read the article on Affordance Analysis, I was so confused and I didn’t understand why. After the discussion in class, I understood that I was confused because the concept of affordance analysis is the process that we logically use as educators everyday when we pick and plan for our students. Affordance Analysis is simply the process of when the feature of a tool and the goal are a good fit. I do this everyday, all day long as an educator, without really thinking about it. It comes natural to teachers. So, having a fancy name, Affordance Analysis, and a 15 page article that basically explains analyzing using pros and cons was confusing to me.
Affordance Analysis is much more formal than I realized. Using the graphic organizer will make my thinking more concrete to prove my decisions on technology for my classrooms and school.
I do agree that it should come natural to teachers. It's an important part of the lesson design process because if you don't choose a tool that fits your end goal, the whole purpose of your lesson may not be as effective. The challenging part in my opinion is making sure you choose the most effective option, even though there may be multiple tools that may be possibilities.
ReplyDeleteI am in the same boat as you. I definitely have a better understanding of affordance analysis after the class discussion. I learned I need to be more methodical on my choices. I didn’t realize it was something I need to consider deeply.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, we do do it naturally, but sometimes I feel like I get mixed up in the new fancy gadget ploy. When we used the Osmos in class, I could imagine my students working independently with them during Language Arts centers. I wanted my own set until Dr. Norton mentioned that this tool is the same as things I already have in room. We certainly need to be very critical when thinking about the technology as a whole.
ReplyDeleteI think the graphic organizer will definitely help us to make our affordance analysis process more concrete. I believe that eventually, after some practice, it will come to us naturally and we will be able to pick the right tools for our goals without letting the "coolness" distract us.
ReplyDeleteI would agree that affordance analysis is definitely something that we always do, and in many cases it is easy. It is possible, however to be fooled by tools that seem good because they are flashy. This can definitely be an issue for me and my colleagues.
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