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Seminar Series - Much ado about affordances: Implications for researching technological affordances

Date: 14 November 2012 Time: 12.30 - 2.00 p.m.

Venue: B.89 County South

Dr Gale Parchoma

Lecturer in e-Research and Technology Enhanced Learning

Department of Educational Research

Lancaster University

Much ado about affordances: Implications for researching technological affordances

Ontological debates on the nature of affordances muddy the waters for interpreting, comparing, and critiquing research on technological affordances. The widespread use of affordances has naturalised the term, often masking the import of its evolving social science definitions. Diversity in applications of affordances across disciplines has led to calls to abandon the term altogether. Following an abridged survey of ontological debates about their general and more specific technological nature, I examine a selection of thematically linked and often-cited papers on technological affordances. I compare those with evolving social science theories of affordances and with various conceptualizations of technical affordances. Implications are discussed of ontological debates around subject-object and directions of agency for research on technological affordances for collaborative learning and co-creation of new knowledge.

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Who can attend: Anyone