Gee's Chapter 5: Lara Croft's Experience

The first thing that I recalled when I read this chapter is the movie Tomb Raider. Angelina Jolie is one of my favorite actors in the film industry. I love her adventures in Cambodia and Africa. She is so cool! As a game, I like the idea of learning at the same with Lara Croft. For a beginner like me, I am guided on what to do especially with the keys but at the same time given the chance to think and decide for my own self as a player. I hope to play this game sometime in the future.

In this chapter it says, "Learners cannot do much with lots of overt information that a teacher has explicitly told them outside the context of immersion in actual practice. At the same time , learners cannot learn without some overt information; they cannot discover everything for themselves," (page 120). I totally agree with this statement. When I was in grade school, my Science teacher introduced to us the parts of microscope. However, we only saw the picture and just memorize its parts. We have not touched nor used it. We do not have any tangible experience at all. What is the use of just memorizing it? On the other hand, I eventually understand why because of the school's limited budget. However, learning does not only occur through rote memorization. It needs something to see, touch, smell, taste, and hear in order to fully grasp the whole experience.

The principle that is reflected in my RCT 3 game is Explicit Information On-Demand and Just-in-Time Principle. As a player, I am given explicit information on the goals of the game like achieving 700 guests. Also, I am informed that people are already hungry. With these scenarios, I need to make some advertisements and promotion to a national newspaper and add more burger, chicken, ice cream, and drinks stalls in order to satisfy my guests. I like this game because I am guided on what to do on what is on-demand and the things needed at a given time. As a novice, I am not lost at all.

Discovery Principle

Playing a video game - Everything is a discovery! Before I should make my own judgments about video games, I should play it first! This is what I realized in this course. First, it started with just pressing the buttons while exploring my amusement park. Eventually, I added some rides. Then, the challenging tasks came in - fixing broken facilities, taking care of the garbage, etc. It allows me to experiment what if I increase the prices of the rides and foods, add rides (then it is beyond my budget :-)), and more! In this game, I was not afraid to commit mistakes.

Transfer Learning

In the non-digital experience, I would like to consider my experience as a student leader when I was in college. I was the Vice-President of the College of Education Student Council. At the beginning of the school year, we were given seminar-workshops to prepare us with our respective tasks. Yes, there were simulations on what we are going to do with the given scenarios. These simulations helped me in making decisions when I started in the office. Indeed, our resource speakers were successful in sharing their knowledge and expertise to us. Thus, experiencing it myself somehow tested my decision-making skills. The principle of Transfer of Learning is crucial in molding future teachers, doctors, nurses, and the like for the strength of one's country. One should not only keep it to himself or herself but pass it on to the next generation.