4.2 Discussion
4.2.2 Technological Affordances
Proposed by Gibson (1979), the term “affordance” refers to opportunities for actions made available by the properties of objects. The idea of affordances puts stress on the flexible relationships between objects and their users in a given context. In other words, the affordances of a particular object or technological device might vary depending on its users or the situational or cultural contexts. In line with this understanding, the designed features or functions of a certain learning technology might not be perceived and used by its users; accordingly, affordances need to be examined considering what learning technology enables learners to do and how learners capitalize on it. With the purpose of understanding the use of mobile devices in a collaborative learning setting, this section discusses the understood features afforded by Tablet PC by giving examples in our data.
Portability of mobile devices
The mobility and portability of tablet PC encourages more sharing and thus creates a more open, congenial, and positive learning environment. From class observation, it is found that the participants frequently share what they have found useful, interesting, or difficult to understand by directly showing the screen of their iPads to group members. For example, in the second task of cycle 2, the participants in group F search for information individually, and then they exchange their iPads and read what other people have found before proceeding to whole-group discussion. Also, we observe that some participants ask for the instructor’s help by directly walking to the instructor with their iPads when encountering problems or questions that they are unable to solve even after group discussion. In the semi-structured interviews, the participants express an
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overall positive attitude towards the use of mobile devices and consider iPads faster and more efficient than desktop personal computers (Interview 1, Group B).
In addition, the finding that the portability of mobile devices encourages out-of-class learning is confirmed (Burston, 2014a, 2014b; Kukulska-Hulme & Shield, 2008).
In our study, the participants are found to extend their learning to out-of-classroom contexts by using iPad to read assigned readings at home (Journal, Alex, Ken, and Tony).
Our result echoes previous finding that mobile devices enable learners to learn anytime and anywhere due to its portability.
Connectivity of mobile devices
In addition to face-to-face communication and sharing around tablet PCs, communication and sharing through tablet PCs by the use of various online platforms are also observed. Sharing and pooling relevant resources distributed across group members is one of the essences in collaborative learning tasks. In our face-to-face classroom settings equipped with tablet PCs, it is found that various platforms are used by the students to share information, multimedia resources like videos, and their work in progress. These platforms include email, Evernote, discussion forum of our WebQuest website, and social networking sites.
Among these platforms, chatrooms on social networking sites are found to be the most frequently used ones due to familiarity and easy access. What’s more, students choose different platforms in order to suit their diverse needs. For example, when they share group products or report group progress with the whole class or the instructor, they tend to use emails, Evernote, or class discussion forums. However, when participants want to share something within their own groups or have resources relevant to the joint tasks, they choose to either physically share their iPads or share the website
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links on Facebook chatrooms. The use of social networking sites for sharing and exchanging information in academic contexts has gained popularity and they could serve as virtual spaces for learners to share, organize, and keep track of shared resources (Greenhow & Robelia, 2009).
The internet as a knowledge bank
Our findings demonstrate how the participants develop and construct knowledge through searching for, collecting, and selecting the most relevant and useful information from the Internet. Because of the provision of the Internet, the participants are able to explore different topics and issues through recursive exchange of ideas. From the excerpts, it is discovered that the abundant online resources facilitate collaborative learning by highlighting focus and thus prompting conceptual changes. In group discussions, instances of learners directing team members’ attention to a certain piece of information displayed on iPads are frequently found. Also, words like “look at this”
and “it says” signal a transition from individual to collaborative endeavor and a sharing of knowledge among the group members.
In discussing how technologies can support collaborative learning, Jeong and Hmelo-Silver (2016) propose seven affordances that can be provided by technologies to deal with challenges or difficulties learners might face in computer-supported collaborative learning contexts. The seven affordances include establishing a joint task, communication, sharing resources, engaging in productive processes, engaging in co-construction, monitoring and regulation, and building communities. As they have noted, the seven affordances are not all necessarily relevant in any given CSCL case. In this study where students capitalized on iPads in face-to-face collaborative learning environments, several, but not all the affordances in Jeong and Hmelo-Silver’s
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framework can be found. For example, the use of chatrooms on social networking sites is found to help build communities since they create a virtual space for learners to engage in the tasks and to participate in the community both in and out of the class.
Additionally, the portability of mobile devices enables flexible sharing of resources and helps engage learners in productive interaction even in face-to-face collaboration where communication is not considered a problem most of the time. The present study has identified these affordances taken up by the participants, and more research is needed to ensure that learners would take advantage of the opportunities afforded by the given technologies.
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