Consider the activity models and answer the questions provided. First reflect on these questions on your own briefly, before discussing and comparing your thoughts with your group. Appoint one member of your group to discuss your findings with the class, and the rest of the group should help that member prepare their response. Answer each question individually from the activity, and compare with your group to prepare for our whole-class discussion. After class, think about the questions in the reflective prompt and respond to those individually in your notebook. Report out on areas of disagreement or items for which you and your group identified alternative approaches. Write down and report out questions you encountered along the way for group discussion.
Model 1: As We May Think
Questions
Vannevar Bush published As We May Think in 1945. What was the temporal context of this article? What was the state of technology?
What are some fields whose body of knowledge is so great that one person cannot possibly hold all of it?
What are some ways in which we organize our expanding collective knowledge?
Model 2: The Mother of All Demos
Questions
The Mother of All Demos represented a shift from mainframe computing to personal computing directly at the terminal. What were some technologies demonstrated at the Mother of All Demos?
Was the Mother of All Demos really about technologies? What was the central thesis of the presentation?
Model 3: Human Behavior
Questions
What are some ways in which you feel compelled to use, or to continue to use, your smartphone or portable device?
Model 4: Affordances and Signifiers
Questions
What are examples of visual signifiers in the physical world?
What are some intuitive or universal signifiers in technology?
Are some affordances made clear without signifiers? What and how? For example, how might a Norman Door be remedied without requiring signed instructions?
Consider a walk/don't walk sign at a crosswalk. What non-visual signifiers would better indicate instructions to visually impaired persons?
What are some examples of affordances that exist for some people but not for others? How can these be improved?
In the original Super Mario Bros., how does World 1-1 serve as a tutorial for new players without requiring textual instructions?
Submission
I encourage you to submit your answers to the questions (and ask your own questions!) using the Class Activity Questions discussion board. You may also respond to questions or comments made by others, or ask follow-up questions there. Answer any reflective prompt questions in the Reflective Journal section of your OneNote Classroom personal section. You can find the link to the class notebook on the syllabus.
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