Tag: affordances

Affordances

An affordance is a suggested use—something that an object, technology, or environment allows you to do readily or well.

The design and architecture of environments enable certain types of interaction to occur. Round tables with chairs make chatting with someone easier than classroom-style seating. Even though students can twist around and talk to the person behind them, a typical classroom is designed to encourage everyone to face the teacher. . . . Understanding the affordances of a particular technology or space is important because it sheds light on what people can leverage or resist in achieving their goals. For example, the affordances of a thick window allow people to see each other without being able to hear each other. To communicate in spite of the window, they may pantomime, hold up signs with written messages, or break the glass. The window’s affordances don’t predict how people will communicate, but they do shape the situation nonetheless.

danah boyd, “It’s Complicated” (Yale UP, 2013), pp. 10–11.

Digitizing

In Groups

Please scan quickly through the following pieces as examples of writers trying to make thoughtful uses of the affordances of the web.

• Maeghan A, “Musicophilia“
• Michelle I, “The Magnifying Glass“
• Abby F, “A Christmas Dinner“
• Abby L, “Some Thoughts on the Freedom to Learn“

Use these texts to generate a list of at least five ways (more if you can) in which the affordances of the page and screen differ. (An easy example: Turn vs. scroll. You turn the pages of a book, but scroll through an online text.) Be ready to offer examples of the affordances you identify from the four Medium essays.

To Do

1. Wed, 11/20, or Thurs, 11/21: Conferences. Bring a copy of your final project that you have annotated to show the changes and additions you plan to make to it when you post it to Medium com. (If you have a draft on Medium that you’d like to talk about, too, that’s fine, but I’d also like to look at a print copy that clearly shows the changes you plan.)
2. Mon, 12/02, class: Post the digitized version of your final project to Medium.com. I will give this version a letter grade. We’ll project them on screen, and I’ll you to talk briefly about what you changed in your piece (and why) as you shifted modalities.
3. Wed, 12/04, class: Closing thoughts and evaluations.
4. Mon, 12/09, 5:00 pm: Email me the revised version of your final project (optional).