Reflecting on digital document

Well, it's going. My narrative went really well, and I think that was the easiest part of this assignment for me. That was the writing part, and if you tell me to write a paper, I'll do it. Concerning this assignment, however, you tell me to create an actualy "digital documentary," and I'll kind of complain. Honestly, I feel like the whole "movie making" aspect of this assignment is not fun and worth my time. Like I said before, I'll easily write you a paper; that's what I can do. Learning how to make a movie for an "Advanced Composition for Future Teachers" class, however, is what seriously frustrates me.
But enough with the venting and on with my reflecting and the actual process of my assignment. Like I said before, my narrative is great. I really like it, and I think I got across my whole "what I'm learning" concept, which kind of goes deeper than the actual, physical activity of yoga, so that's exciting for me. It's a good piece, in my opinion. My sister helped me with my yoga footage and pictures. The filming of it went well, and now we're putting it all on my computer tonight, so hopefully I can actually put the whole thing together and pray that it looks somewhat like my vision. Even if the "visual" aspect of my assignment does not turn out all that great or how I invisioned it to be, I am still proud of my narrative, and I believe I learned so much about myself and applying Gee's concepts just through that.

Learning and action

In Chapter 5 of Gee's text, he states in the second sentence that "On one hand, humans are quite poor at learning from lots of overt information given to them outside the sorts of contexts in which this information can be used" (p. 113). I completely agree. We are given information, since early education, that we cannot apply in their specific contexts because we do not learn them that particular way. Learning, comprehending, and adding information to one's long-term memory require aquiring this new information through a way in which one will remember, such as in its intentional, meaningful context. In order to learn, one must exerpience.
This reminds me to our digital documentary assignment. After hearing and reading about numerous "learning experiences" of my peers, I have concluded that, for the most part, each individual is learning their particular something through actual contact and experience. No matter how many times a person is verbally told how to do a particular task or in what ways to complete a challenge, a first-hand experience is necessary in order for comprehension and actual learning to take place. Learning requires action, or experience.

Situated learning

Although we haven't discussed Gee's topic of "situated meaning and learning" is class yet, I did want to share my perspective of the issue, or what I took from Chapter 4 of Gee's text. Gee states that the Situated Meaning Principle is the "meanings of signs (words, actions, objects, artifacts, symbols, texts, etc.) are situated in embodied experience. Meanings are not general or decontextulized. Whatever generality meanings come to have is discovered bottom up via embodied experiences" (p. 108). This large and detailed explanation basically told me that the meaning of something, such as a symbol or a piece of text, is explained through one's previous experience. Meanings of things are important, and they are not just general and mean nothing. Meanings represent understanding. I agree with what Gee has said about situated learning, that is if I am comprehending it correctly.