Revisiting Affordances for Learning in Mobile Technology Based Environments

Abstract

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.