The metaphoric image of the watering can and the grass caused a number of comments most of them critical of the metaphor. I was pleased that I could apply what I have learnt about affordance to respond to a community post.
Craig Whitiker about the grass picture, my feeling is that grass does not choose to grow or to turn away from the light which nourishes its growth. Human beings, however, have free will and can choose not to grow.
Craig Whitiker about the grass picture, my feeling is that grass does not choose to grow or to turn away from the light which nourishes its growth. Human beings, however, have free will and can choose not to grow.
Picking up on Craig's point - perhaps grass does not consciously choose to grow but living things innately seek affordances in their environment to accomplish this task. It might be argued that a student seeks a course, with knowledgeable teachers in a university stuffed full of help, resources and technology to help him achieve that objective. His interaction with these affordances may, or may not, enable them to achieve this goal very well. But he will also be seeking affordances for growth from other parts of his life - hence my interest in lifewide learning. It's very much an ecological notion of learner in their total environment. The watering can represents only one aspect of the environment to sustain growth we need to consider the air, sunlight, natural precipitation, soil nutrients and biological agents, animals feeding and leaving their traces (including debbie's moles and my rabbits) etc....all might offer affordances that the grass can utilise individually and collectively, and the same is true of learners. We must also see the grass as part of a complex ecosystem which is why I have so many rabbits in my garden. They do a lot of damage and the population is impossible to control. The image reinforces my belief that we must adopt a holistic ecological view of students' learning and development - including their creative development.
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