Reflecting on Digital Document

After working out some of the basic details of my digital document I have really begun to get a handle on this project. I must admit when first given this assignment I was skeptical in thinking if I could handle to what seemed like a momentous task; However, after finding out how to work with Windows Movie Maker and how to upload pictures, audio, and video I am much less hesitant. I have now to begun to actually enjoy this movie making process. Writing the narrative portion of my digital document have proven to be a bit time consuming, but after I complete a thought I record it and piece all the digital "fun" stuff together to coincide with my audio message. So far I have a great start on my narrative and have the beginning of my media section synced together. However, I must admit I still have a great deal of work to do before I would consider it a masterpiece. Hopefully, Professor Kittle will remember that flexibility is key and take into consideration our efforts and push back his final due date. Overall, I feel this project has been very informative and is a great way to apply Gee's learning concepts into a fun multimedia or as he would say "multimodal" learning opportunity. I hope my finished product comes out as planned. So far, so good!

Cultural Models, Learning, and Action

After reading chapter six in Gee I have learned a lot about his ideas about video games and cultural models. I find it very interesting when Gee discusses how "video games are just as easy to design to allow you to play a sinner as a saint" (141). The idea that when you play video games you are taking on different roles and have to live life through out the game in these various cultural models. Some games allow you to choose if you want to be on the "dark side" or the "good side" and you get to experience the game from two perspectives. I think this point Gee makes is a good one. Children should get a chance to experience school from various perspectives and when doings so they get a chance to appreciate the opposite side of things and understand different viewpoints better. Getting to experience different cultural models is important because you then get a chance to find out about what others consider to be "typical" and realize that "different cultural models are associated with different groups in the larger society, though some are also shared widely by many". After Gee's discussion about cultural models in video games, I find his statements about cultural models in school to also be of interest. I think that it is interesting to learn his idea that children "adopt different models of content of learning in school" and that some may be right or wrong and teachers need to be aware of this and students need to think about why they have these different views. This is what Gee says good video games do, they "have a way of making players consciously aware of some of their previously assumed cultural models about learning itself" (162). That struck me to very interesting because I think that is so important for children to think about when they come into a classroom already assuming things that may deter or attract them from wanting to learn, maybe they need to rethink their cultural models for some of their learning cultural models and give new ones a chance in order to give learning a fair chance.

Situated Meaning and Learning

After reading chapter four in Gee I have really started to think a bit deeper about the concept of situated meaning and learning. I must admit it is difficult to understand some of the concepts and ideas Gee discusses in his book, but after you read over them a few times and figure out the important terminology it makes the chapters much easier to comprehend. This chapter was especially interesting to me because I believe in what Gee states. I find it interesting when Gee claims that learning should be when "people actually know what they are doing in a domain and can do more than mindlessly repeat words and other symbols that they cannot situate inside any real practice" (pg. 84). For me this sentence really explained what he means by situated learning, that students often learn words and symbols out of context and therefore have know idea what they mean in a real situation, nor how to use them in such situations. I really like Gee's statement about students learning; Gee writes, "students would have only general and/or verbal meanings, not embodied ones that they can customize to and for different situations of actual practice" (pg 86). I think this point made by Gee is very important and valid. Today students may learn a lot of "general" knowledge, but can not apply it to various situations, therefore making the knowledge almost useless. I find his connections between video games and learning to also be interesting because I can see what he is trying to get across. Video games encourage situated learning, and our school classrooms usually do not. Making our classroom curriculum incorporate situated learning would greatly enhance student learning and desire and motivation towards education. Another part of this chapter which I found very intriguing is when Gee discusses how he often gives lectures about video games to teachers and he gives them the manual and asks them how much they understand and the teachers are irritated because "they have no experience in which to situate the words and phrases of the texts" (pg. 102). Gee then states this is how students often feel in a classroom setting, which I completely agree with. Overall, I think this chapter on situated learning makes a lot of sense when it comes to trying to understand why students are so disconnected with their learning and why the actual concepts seem so confusing. Taking some pointers from Gee's video games analysis may actually do some good for us future teachers, because I definitely feel students have a tough time with learning information that is taken so far out of context that when placed in a situation that uses the information a student has no idea how to use their knowledge. I relate Gee's "situated learning" to the idea of hands on learning, which I have learned about in past psychology classes. Becoming engaged in your learning makes is more appealing and meaningful, therefore you gain much more out of the experience rather than just memorization skills for a test or something. Understanding this new concept of situated learning is truly a useful notion.