Technological+affordances+and+Choices

=Technological Affordances=

The technological choices for the intervention were carefully selected basing on the requirement elicitation stage. After the requirements were gathered the best technology for each objective to be met was chosen with regard to the context the technology was going to be used for. This means that there was need for a close look at the tecnologies available to both the students and the educators and their use experience with the technology was considered as well.

There was need for some guidance in effective use of the technologies available as some were not used for the purpose expected in the intervention. For example students had only used Facebook as a social network site therefore to introduce a discussion group on Facebook meant that students needed to be guided and informed of the advantages that facebook has when used for learning. The following is a list of technologies selected for the Online Learning Intervention and their respective affordances:

In a nutshell, a screencast has multimedia ability which make it possible for explaining an apect that may be confusing when only one type of media is used thereby delivering clear, complete instruction.
 * ===Camstudio for creating the Screencast ===
 * Read-ability(text). In designing the screencast text on the screen in form of word document or powerpoint presentation can be captured so that a student can be able to read the text whilst the screnncast is playing.
 * View-ability(images). Images can be captured in the same way that a slide-show can be captured to hep in making the screencast apealing to a student.
 * Listen-ability(audio) The audio component can work together with the text or images on screen.
 * Watch-ability(screencast). A student can be able to watch a demonstration of how a program is coded and can be able to try it out thereby learning by example. Learning by watching helps a student to be able to watch the host move through steps of a program and take note of where everything is in the program.
 * Accessibility(anytime, anywhere). When the screencast is uploaded online a student can download it and play it from their laptop or smartphone when it best suites them.
 * Playback-ability. A student can play a screencast many times until they understand a concept.
 * Pause-ability/Rewind-ability. The student has the power to move at their own pace.
 * Capacity to highlight important aspects and explicitly direct attention whilst the screencast is being developed for the student to get guidence on the important parts of a concept.


 * ===Discussion Group on Facebook/LMS ===
 * Write-ability. Encourages students to exchange their experiences and become a community thereby making learning more active.
 * Accessibility. Students are able to access all discussions that were done when they were offline when its more comfortable for them.
 * Share-ability. Ideas can be shared in a group discussion.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 130%;">Reinforces previous learning.


 * ===<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 130%;">Emails ===
 * <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 130%;">Promotes one-to-one consultation. Students who are shy to participate in class or in a forum can also get assistance from the educator.

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