Reflection on Learning: Assignment B
For assignment B, I am going to be reflecting on assignment A’s learning experiences. For assignment A, we had to pick two things that we could learn in 1-2 hours, each through two digital platforms. I chose how to wear a saree and how to solder at home. I chose YouTube and Pinterest to learn how to swear a saree, and YouTube and Makerspace.com to learn how to best solder at home.
The difference between the tasks in my case is that I have soldered on the ITP floor (formal setting) before, hence, I somewhat had some familiarity with the skill of soldering. However, what I tried to achieve through this task is the safest and most efficient way of conducting the ask in a home environment (informal setting). As for learning how to wear a saree, I never had the experience of trying to make myself wear one, but merely observe people wear it around me. Hence, I would like to believe that I had a working memory on how to wear a saree since I knew some of the folds that went into putting on one but was not sure where those folds went in and how.
To learn how to wear a saree, I used a [1]YouTube video and a [2]Pinterest step-by-step image. For some finishing touches, I had my grandmother assist me for the later. With the Pinterest image, I found it comparatively feasible to read one instruction and see the result before I moved on to the next one. Whereas, with the YouTube video, while it was easier to follow a person wearing a saree in three-dimensional through a moving video, I found myself constantly pausing and rewinding to the part that I needed to pay more attention to. To learn how to solder at home, I used the assistance of [3]YouTube and [4]Makerspace.com. I performed both my soldering tasks in real-time while following the instructions and hence I had a similar experience with the YouTube video and the Makerspace’s step-by-step tutorial. With Makerspace it was selective content absorption, while with YouTube I found myself pausing the video often to finish the task as I was watching.
I learnt how to wear a saree before learning how to solder at home. For both the cases, I watched the YouTube videos first before moving onto the second digital platform. With the saree, it felt more of a formalized learning experience as the intention was that of someone consciously assisting to teach. While the Pinterest step-by-step guide did not feel that formalized since I felt like I was teaching myself while simultaneously following the instructions. The order of learning influenced my experience because by the time I began wearing the saree for the second time, I believe I had already inherited mechanical learning from the first try. I was using tacit knowledge without even realizing that I was making use of some of the knowledge or skills previously learnt.
For learning how to solder at home, my experience was slightly different from learning how to swear a saree. I had previously soldered before in a formal setting, that changed my learning experience on how I performed the task at home. This time, I was doing formalized learning in an informal setting. As I did the first try watching YouTube video, I was gathering knowledge from my storage memory and performed the task to skillfully solder the right way. I would consider soldering for the second time using the Makerspace.com as more formalized learning since I was more conscious of learning the individual materials and tools and the process was enhancing the actions that I was already familiar with. Both the processes of saree wearing and soldering felt like learning conscious learning for the first try because it was more of guided learning, while the second try involved a form of task conscious learning since the awareness familiarity of performing the task was higher that it was during the first try.
For me wearing the saree for the first time and soldering at home were a form of formalized learning in an informal setting. The reason they were formalized is because I found myself going following steps and directions closely. However, trying on the saree for the second time, felt a little more of informalized learning since by then I was using tacit knowledge and learning through experience.
If I had a chance to teach a friend how to wear a saree and the best way to solder at home (considering they know nothing about either), I would begin both with either step-by-step images or performing the task in real-time with them to show the task. I believe that both of them are activities that should be learnt in steps that are deconstructed. Especially since the first try is a form of formalized learning, a step-by-step image or learning in real-time with the guide would give the user time to internalize the knowledge while performing the activity in practical simultaneously. On learning for the first time through a step-by-step image, I would then move them towards a video tutorial wherein they would be partaking in more of a task conscious learning. By this time, the learner is not aware of the details they are learning since it is already a form of tacit knowledge, but they are well aware of the task at hand.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ftq9_kEHDmo
[2] https://in.pinterest.com/pin/85990674109802433/
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ht_JmfaCNM
[4] https://www.makerspaces.com/how-to-solder/
