When I finished reading the journal article Affordance
Allowances, I was so confused! I searched more examples and explanations
on the Internet. I even found another journal article called, Educational Affordances of a Ubiquitous
Learning Environment in a Natural Science Course. I thought if I read
it, I could glean some clarifying information. Needless to say, I did not! I
watched The Day the Universe Changed thinking
that by the end it should clear everything up. Wrong! I ended up writing my
affordance allowance with not really understanding what result I was trying to
achieve. I especially looked forward to class to help me get a better understanding.
During class, I found that writing the affordance analyses for
the Osmo and Ozbot really helped me understand that even though a technology
might look cool and engaging, it doesn’t make it the right technology to use to
reach a learning goal. The Matching Learning Goals and Tools – Considering Affordances
activity also really helped me to understand that there are so many right and
wrong affordances to meet learning goals as well as multiple ones that may help
for different reasons. It’s all a matter of choosing the right tool for the
job.
The fifth design principle, The Means Principle, helped me realize that
there are so many educational affordances that are available, but it’s not a
good idea to start with the affordance in mind. In a previous post, I mentioned
that my math team had done lesson planning by creating the assessment first
then working backwards to plan the lessons. It now makes perfect sense as to
why this type of planning doesn’t work. When teaching directly to the test, it
is so restrictive to what students can learn and discover on their own. The
same applies to choosing the technology before the learning goal. Taking into
consideration what we want our students to learn as well as connecting the
content and learning activities to the affordance will lead to choosing the
most appropriate technology to meet the planned learning goals.
Exactly! The learning goal should be your target, not integrating technology or getting students to pass a previously created assessment. Personally, I think assessments should be as organic in their creation as our teaching. We change our lessons based on our students' needs and abilities, and such a perspective should also apply when writing assessments and choosing technologies to use.
ReplyDeleteI felt the same way! I even tired to look up the meaning of Affordance and examples of it. I was so excited for the class to get a better understanding of it. When we consider the learning goal that we want to achieve we can then successfully pick out the technology that compliments our intended goals.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear I wasn't the only one confused at first haha.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about looking at the ozbots and thinking about usefulness. I loved those little things but I couldn't see a use for them in my classroom... which is why I recommended them for the STEM lab for programming!
I'm glad to hear I wasn't the only one confused at first haha.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about looking at the ozbots and thinking about usefulness. I loved those little things but I couldn't see a use for them in my classroom... which is why I recommended them for the STEM lab for programming!