TECHNOLOGICAL
AFFORDANCES AND
MULTIMEDIA LEARNING
PRINCIPLES
Hoang Thu Trang
English Department
Email: tranghted@hanu.edu.vn
Lecture Learning Outcomes
By the end of this lecture students should be able to:
■ Define the concept of affordances
■ Identify affordances of particular technologies
■ Explain how certain technological affordances may be more or less
suitable for certain tasks or activities
■ Describe core multimedia learning design effects
AFFORDANCES OF LEARNING
TECHNOLOGIES
3
What is meant by the ‘affordances’ of
technologies?
‘Affordance’ definition
For the purposes of this unit, we will define ‘affordances’ to mean:
The action potentials inherent in an object (for instance a
technology) that determine how it can be used.
Types of affordances
● Media affordances – the type of input and output forms, such as text
(‘read’, ‘write’), images (‘view’, ‘draw’), audio (‘listen’, ‘speak’), video
(‘watch’, ‘video-produce’)
● Spatial affordances – the ability to resize elements within an
interface (‘resize’), move and place elements within an interface
(‘move’)
● Temporal affordances – access anytime anywhere (accessibility),
ability to be recorded (‘record’) and played back (‘playback’),
synchronous versus asynchronous (‘synchronicity’)
● Navigation affordances – capacity to browse to other sections of a
resource and move back/forward (‘browse’), capacity to link to other
sections within the resource or other resources (‘link’), ability to
search (‘search’) and sort and sequence (‘data-manipulation’)
(Bower, 2008)
Navigation affordances
Types of affordances (cont)
● Emphasis affordances – capacity to highlight aspects of a
resources (‘highlight’), explicitly direct attention to particular
components (‘focus’)
● Synthesis affordances – capacity to combined multiple tools
together to create a mixed media learning environment
(‘combine’), the extent to which the functions of tools and the
content of resources can be integrated (‘integrate’)
● Access-control affordances – capacity to allow or deny who
can read / edit / upload / download / broadcast / view / administer
(‘permission’), capacity to support one-one / one-many / many-
many contributions and collaborations (‘share’)
(Bower, 2008)
What are the affordances of a web-
conferencing system?
Affordances of a web-conferencing
system
Web-
Affordance type Affordances (abilities)
conferencing
read
view (images)
listen
watch (video)
Media affordances
write
draw
speak
produce video
resize
Spatial affordances
move
anytime-anywhere access
record
Temporal affordances
playback (history)
synchronous interaction
browse (content)
search
Navigation affordances
manipulate data
link
highlight
Emphasis affordances
indicate focus (real-time)
use multiple tools
Synthesis affordances
integrate tool functions
set permissions
Access-control affordances
share content (e.g. files)
Example: Padlet
1. Media Affordances:
Multimedia Integration: Padlet allows users to easily integrate
various types of multimedia content into their digital boards,
including images, videos, audio recordings, documents, and
links.
2. Spatial Affordances:
Flexible Canvas: Padlet provides users with a digital canvas
where they can freely place and arrange content items (such as
text boxes, images, videos, etc.) in any desired layout or spatial
arrangement.
3. Emphasis Affordances:
Customization Tools: Padlet offers various customization tools
and features that enable users to emphasize key content items,
highlight important information, and draw attention to specific
elements on the board.
Classwork
• Analyze three websites or applications you frequently use
and identify the types of affordances present in each.
Website/ Application Affordance Type Example of how it
works
Youtube Media (watch) Students can watch
videos on different
topics.
Temporal (Record & Videos can be
Playback) recorded and replayed
anytime.
Navigation (Browse) Students can browse
related videos.
Why do we need to understand and
analyze the affordances of technology?
• Analyze the affordances and constraints of such
technologies to creatively repurpose them for the
educational context (Mishra & Koehler, 2006).
• Shift our focus from purely understand specific tools to
also being able to analyze the educational utility of new
tools based on their merits (Mishra & Koehler, 2006).
Affordances Classfications
Functional affordances, categorized by type and degree
of interaction
● Static/instructive: affordances that allow fixed
representations and one way transmission of information,
from the source (like a teacher, textbook, or video) to the
learner.
Example: A traditional lecture video, a PDF textbook, or a pre-
recorded presentation. These tools present information that the
learner consumes passively without influencing or altering the
content.
● Collaborative/productive: affordances that allow flexible
representations that can be adjusted and shared.
Example: Online discussion forums, collaborative documents
(like Google Docs), or digital tools that allow for shared editing,
commenting, and co-creation.
Considering the nature of affordances
How can we use affordances to help design
effective learning tasks? (Bower, 2008)
An Affordance Analysis Example
1. Identify educational goals
○ Goal 1: Facilitate students’ understanding of
persuasive writing techniques.
○ Goal 2: Enable students to collaboratively create a
persuasive essay.
An Affordance Analysis Example (cont)
2. Postulate suitable tasks:
• Goal 1: Understanding persuasive writing
techniques:
Students analyze and annotate a sample persuasive text.
• Goal 2: Creating a persuasive essay collaboratively:
In small groups, students brainstorm, outline, and draft a
persuasive essay using an online collaborative tool.
An Affordance Analysis Example (cont)
3. Determine affordance requirements of tasks
1. Understanding persuasive writing techniques:
○ Students need to be able to read and annotate text collaboratively.
○ They should highlight, comment, and link ideas.
○ They should share their annotations for peer feedback.
2. Creating a persuasive essay collaboratively:
○ Students need to be able to brainstorm ideas on a shared platform.
○ They need tools to draft, edit, and organize text.
○ The tool should allow synchronous contributions and feedback.
c) Which available tools have these affordances?
An Affordance Analysis Example (cont)
4. E-learning task design:
1. Understanding persuasive writing techniques:
• Tool: Google Docs.
• Task Design: Upload the persuasive text to Google Docs. Students highlight
examples of rhetorical devices, add comments explaining their purpose, and
link their comments to relevant resources (e.g., a video on rhetorical
appeals).
2. Creating a persuasive essay collaboratively:
• Tool: Padlet or Microsoft Word Online.
• Task Design: Groups use Padlet to brainstorm ideas and outline the essay
structure. They draft the essay collaboratively in Word Online, where they
can see each other's edits in real-time, leave comments, and make
revisions.
Classwork: Design a 15-minute task
Follow the 5-Step Model
• Step 1: Identify a learning goal (What do students need to
learn?).
• Step 2: Choose a suitable task (What will students do?).
• Step 3: Determine what digital tools are needed
(affordance requirements).
• Step 4: Check what tools you already have (available
affordances).
• Step 5: Create a final e-learning task by combining steps
3 and 4.
MULTIMEDIA LEARNING
EFFECTS
24
Multimedia & its associated effects
● Mayer (2005) defines ‘multimedia’ as “presenting both
words (such as spoken text or printed text) and pictures
(such as illustrations, photos, animation or video)”
together.
● There has been extensive research into the effect of
combining different types of modalities together, with
results (for instance) including:
1. Multimedia effect
2. Modality effect
3. Redundancy effect
4. Split-attention effect
5. Signaling effect
6. Personalization effect
Multimedia Effect
Which is better for student learning?
A. Learning from words alone
B. Learning from words and pictures
Modality Effect
Which is better for student learning?
A. Spoken narration & animation B. On-screen text & animation
As the air in this updraft cools, water vapor
condenses into water droplets and forms a cloud.
“As the air in this updraft cools, water vapor
condenses into water droplets and forms a cloud.”
Modality Effect
Working Memory Explanation of Modality Effect
● When visual information is being explained, better to
present words as audio narration than onscreen text
Redundancy Effect
Which is better for student learning?
A. Animation & narration B. Animation, narration, & text
As the air in this updraft cools, water vapor
condenses into water droplets and forms a cloud.
“As the air in this updraft cools, water vapor “As the air in this updraft cools, water vapor
condenses into water droplets and forms a cloud.” condenses into water droplets and forms a cloud.”
Split Attention (Contiguity) Effect
Which is better for student learning?
A. When corresponding words & pictures are
presented far from each other on the page
or screen
B. When corresponding words & pictures are
presented near each other on the page or
screen
Split attention effect (continued)
● Note that this effect (which is also called the contiguity
effect) applies temporally as well as spatially
● Temporal split attention effect: People learn better when
corresponding words and pictures are presented
simultaneously rather than successively
● Spatial split attention effect: People learn better when
corresponding words and pictures are presented near
rather than far from each other on the page or screen
Signaling effect
Which is better for
learning?
This is then combined
with carbon dioxide
A. When the learner’s absorbed through leaves
as well as water absorbed
through leaves and roots.
attention is not
directed to relevant The sun’s light energy is
captured by chlorophyll
parts of the material in leaves
B. When the learner’s The resulting chemical
attention is directed to reaction produces sugar
for the plant to grow and
relevant parts of the as a byproduct the
oxygen that we need to
material breathe.
Personalization Effect
Which is better for student learning?
A. Formal style of instruction
B. Conversational style of instruction
“Photosynthesis is a requirement for human existence. It produces
the oxygen that people need to breathe and the sugars that the
plants eaten by humans need in order to grow.”
“You need photosynthesis to stay alive! It gives you the oxygen you
need in order to breathe and the plants you eat the sugars they need
in order to grow.”
Summary of Multimedia Effects
1. Multimedia: Present both words & pictures
2. Modality: Use spoken narration rather than written text
along with pictures
3. Redundancy: Do not include repetitive or irrelevant
information along with pictures and narration
4. Split attention: Present related pieces of information in
close proximity with each other (spatially and temporally)
5. Signaling: Direct attention to relevant parts of the
material
6. Personalization: Use a conversational rather than more
formal style of instruction
Critiquing multimedia learning research
● Most principles have been tested in a laboratory
environment not taking real-life factors into account (e.g.
meta-cognitive skills)
● Some effects have been tested with subject area novices
only and for short periods of time
● Limitations of applying the principle need to be clearly
understood (e.g. only apply when individuals working at
close to maximum cognitive load)
● Despite the above limitations, multimedia learning effects do
provide an evidence based set of principles to guide
technology based learning design
USING ICT TO TEACH SPEAKING
SKILLS
37
Main speaking skills that L2 speakers
need
Weekly Presentation
Microsoft Coach – Pronunciation and
Speaking
Classwork
• Try Microsoft Coach by reading a short passage aloud
and reviewing the feedback provided (e.g., pronunciation
accuracy, pacing, stress).
• Reflection: Discuss how this tool can help learners
improve pronunciation and fluency.
Example: Padlet
Speakpipe
