Digital Project

I'm not yet finished with my digital learning project. However, I've made progress in understanding the movie maker program and have signed up to the website that Kittle discussed in class to find music. So far that site is not working for me.

I had a hard time determining what topic to use for this assignment. I wanted it to be interesting and engaging so I ruled out learning how to budget and learning how to scrapbook. Plus I was dreading the comparision to an old woman on the latter idea. Finally I just decided to choose the topic I started out with, which was mixing drinks.

I've found this project to be quite frustrating at times. I've questioned its worth as well. However, overall I'm finding that it is interesting and that it is helping to improve my computer skills. I still need to overcome my shyness and my unwillingness to want to speak on film however. Tomorrow I will be playing around gabcast and working on what I'm going to say while the pictures and videos are running. This project has however helped me find a wealth of sources online for future projects. These sources include gabcast (since I don't have a microphone) and the music site (if I can get it to work properly).

Situated Learning

I agree with Gee that situated learning is an essential practice for anyone that wants to remember what they've learned or apply what they've learned to their own lives. I think for the most part, people tend to apply everything going on in their lives back to something that has already occurred to them or something they've already learned. The traditional method of learning where students are just required to spew out facts they've memorized on to tests is outdated and with the practice of inquiry becoming popular, it is already starting to disappear. However, with tests like the CBEST and SATs still being required, this method of cramming will most likely always exist.

I see how video games like Deus Ex help kids apply material back to their own lives. However, this information they're taking in and applying back to their lives is basically useless information. Gee talks about cheat codes and fighting techniques in this chapter quite a bit and how learning this information is a form of situated learning. I agree that it is but I still think this information is useless other than for entertainment purposes. Basically video games are a good example of how situated learning works but that doesn't mean there aren't better methods out there to teach kids how to learn this way.