- Jun 2024
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Ingold describes this process of entering into an exchange withthe section of the world to which the learning action relates ascorrespondence, and he sees it as the decisive moment of attentionand world-disclosing.
Here again, the importance of context and limits into which affinitive attention can expand is emphasized. It seems also to be suggested that the section of the world relating to the learning action can take any form, such as YouTube videos, ChatGPT, professionals on the subject, friends, Hypothes.is and so on.
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However, the role of the digital is limited to access,provisioning, and the form of the learning material, in otherwords, to the operative dimension. When the material is available,only then does the tentacular learning process get moving.
An important counter-argument to this is that the very way we search for learning material is constitutive of the context with which the learner associates the learning material. As digital technologies enable new ways of relating to the learning material and their contexts, they change the character and clarity of affinitive attention. Clicking a hypothes.is annotation is a unique type of operation in which the following definitive and affinitive movements happen in ways not previously possible.
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Here I intend to withdraw my intention as far as possible, withoutgiving it up, and to let it rest in such a way that the matter-inherent reference connections can come into their own with mein an undisturbed way. It is a certain kind of concentration, inwhich I do not concentrate on anything in particular, but keepexternal disturbances, irrelevant thoughts, distractions as far awayfrom me as possible, and try to empty my head to such an extentthat a certain context of experience can come into play within me.
Here, the key component of affinitive attention is explained to be relevancy. This is in direct opposition to the kind of affinitive movement you might find on Wikipedia, where each link to a mentioned keyword can only take you into a different context, as articles aren't meant to explain each other. This is also a strength of Scholia and Hypothes.is.
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affinitive attention isan approach that does not exclude, but rather includes, a“letting-go” of material as well as linguistic references tocontexts of meaning, a “leaning back,” gaining an overview,a “distributive” (as opposed to “fixating”) consideration, thelifting of fixations and restrictions by looking at the “whole,”thereby allowing oneself to be guided by “kinships,” beingcarried on from one reference to the next in the networks of
Affinitive attention is the context oriented learning stance. "Letting go of linguistic references to context" likely refers to the paradox of trying to understand a context by having it explained. Contexts are understood more based on emotions and intuition than definitions, operations and logic. Affinitive attention can be compared to abductive reasoning, letting understanding come from intuitive, contextual connections between concepts. Conclusions arrived at in this way is sometimes referred to as "valid guesses".
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