Re: [xmca] adult affordances

[Larry Purss <lpscholar2@gmail.com>]

Martin

Reading your post, I was thinking about Harre's explaining  Wittgenstein's
notion of rule following and language games.
Harre gives the example, When I say *6 times 6* persons participating in
our *way of life* will respond [immediately? automatically? intentionally?
with self-control?]  with the answer *36*
If cell phones as a form of technology are now part of a *way of life* for
many students [part of our grammar] who is in control?

Larry
On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 6:31 PM, Martin Packer <packer@duq.edu> wrote:

> An odd conjunction of issues of content and management  in my
> undergraduate developmental psychology course has me puzzled, and so I'm
> appealing for xmca help!  A few weeks ago I was expounding on the notion
> that the toddler lives in a world not of permanent objects but of
> affordances - irresistible offers to action, made by the things and people
> and places that surround him or her. Gibson, filtered through Vygotsky.
>
> At the same time, I was waging an unceasing war against the use of cell
> phones in the classroom. (Today I actually got to the point of confiscating
> them when I saw them, and telling the students they could buy them back
> from me later in the city center. With humor, I hope!)
>
> Finally, it struck me. These young adults, too, are victims of
> irresistible offers to action, made by their little iPhones or Nokias or
> whatever.
>
> So what is it about a cell phone that completely overwhelms any and every
> facet of self control? Why is it that I can forbid cell use at the start of
> each class, yet in seconds they start to appear? What is it that transforms
> a young adult into no more than a toddler?
>
> Martin
>
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