Explicating Affordances: A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Affordances in Communication Research

Evans, Sandra K.; Pearce, Katy E.; Vitak, Jessica; Treem, Jeffrey W.

doi:10.1111/jcc4.12180

Cited by 701 publications

(723 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…The affordance of interactivity was the third most frequently identified affordances (13.4%), which refers to the extent to which social media enable users to engage in interaction with other users (Evans et al, ). It seems that the possibility to interact and communicate with other users to supplement the formal classroom teaching was an important reason why students used social media voluntarily for formal learning.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond mandatory use: Probing the affordances of social media for formal learning in the voluntary context

Zhou

Lee

2018

Proc. Assoc. Info. Sci. Tech.

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The integration of social media in formal education has received consistent interest in the recent decade. While most studies have focused on the mandatory use of social media as pedagogical tools, less explored is the context in which students voluntarily choose and use social media to supplement their formal learning. In this study, we employ an affordance approach to exploring the resources in social media that students perceive and use voluntarily for formal learning. Drawing on a qualitative study using focus groups of university students, we identified ten categories of social media affordances for learning in the voluntary context: association, editability, immediacy, interactivity, manageability, modality, persistence, scalability, searchability, and visibility. The affordances mentioned most frequently by students were visibility, persistence, and interactivity. These identified affordances encompass the major resources offered by social media for learning in the voluntary context, and provide insights into understanding, evaluating, and guiding social media adoption in formal education as well as lifelong learning. This paper concludes by presenting limitations and implications for research and practice.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond mandatory use: Probing the affordances of social media for formal learning in the voluntary context

Zhou

Lee

2018

Proc. Assoc. Info. Sci. Tech.

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“…A focus on media affordances offers a theoretical grounding in the relationships between users and technology, and therefore a middle path between deterministic and constructivist stances. Yet the conceptualization of affordances is inconsistent (Evans, Pearce, Vitak, & Treem, in press), and operationalization of affordances is rare, making it difficult to compare studies and understand results.…”

Section: Problem Statement Review and Research Questionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Debates include whether affordances exist independently of the actor's perceptions (or capability for becoming aware of the affordance) and effectivities (dispositions for actualizing the affordance); whether the core relation is between actor properties and environment properties, or between actor properties and situation aspects; and whether affordances are properties of the object/environment, a latent capability emerging in a particular context, or specific to the actor/species. This ambiguity has, however, also allowed for the evolution of the concept in a range of disciplines (Evans et al, in press; Treem et al, ).…”

Section: Problem Statement Review and Research Questionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organizational Media Affordances: Operationalization and Associations with Media Use

et al. 2017

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“…Both technology and affordance theory per se made possible the interpretation of their strengths and limitations, the synergy between users and themselves and social impact imposed by users and the environment. Starting from these lenses of “materiality of technologies, the attributes of users and the contexts of technology use” (Evans, Pearce, Vitak, & Treem, , p. 36) would render possible theorizing and implementing technology affordance.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mobile technology affordance and its social implications: A case of “Rain Classroom”

Li¹,

Song²

2017

Brit J Educational Tech

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This paper proposed the affordance approach of material, affective and social dimensions so as to explore the learners’ engagement and disposition to share of using mobile learning technology. The participants in this study were graduate‐level engineering students (N = 387) from a research university in People's Republic of China. “Rain Classroom” in this case referred to the newly developed built‐in mobile application in China facilitating the didactic practice both synchronously and asynchronously in class. Two surveys were issued to both groups before and after the 14‐week long experiment. All the data were input into SPSS 16.0 and examined in descriptive statistics and independent samples t‐test. The results showed that the group exposed to Rain Classroom had a positive attitude towards the mobile technology tool. Also, the same test group obtained statistically higher scores than the control group in both learning engagement and their willingness to continue and share the learning experience. The study implies that what the mobile learning technology affords has produced positive impact on teachers, students and institutions in terms of curriculum design, learning activities and policy making towards improving academic quality. Future work could focus on comparing learning effects with different time duration and learning intensity. It might also extend to participants from different educational background.

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Explicating Affordances: A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Affordances in Communication Research

Cited by 701 publications

References 48 publications

Beyond mandatory use: Probing the affordances of social media for formal learning in the voluntary context

Beyond mandatory use: Probing the affordances of social media for formal learning in the voluntary context

Organizational Media Affordances: Operationalization and Associations with Media Use

Mobile technology affordance and its social implications: A case of “Rain Classroom”

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