I really enjoyed reading Gee because I think he really believes in my teaching philosophy. I believe that students learn by doing. Which is part of the reason I so enjoy teaching journalism classes. Gee explains on pages 108 and 109 that he believes video games offer a intuitive or tacit knowledge. Players learn by playing the game.

Gee says, “…video games honor not just the explicit and verbal knowledge players have about how to play but also the intuitive or tacit knowledge—built into their movement, bodies, and unconscious ways of thinking—they have built up through repeated practice with a family or genre of games.” (108) My students gain similar knowledge by writing and researching articles. They learn how to write by actually writing and they learn how to interact with sources and design pages by actually doing these things. I begin my year teaching them the basics but we only spend perhaps two weeks learning in a traditional sense. I then throw them into their role as editor and reporter. They must learn by doing. I of course help them along the way but they must experience what it is like and gain knowledge. My students learn how to interact with adults and they learn which teacher will let students out of class. They learn how to take pictures through trial and error. They have to experience and gain intuitive knowledge about some things that I just can’t teach them in a traditional sense.

I really feel students gain the best knowledge by actually doing to learn. When they do a task related to learning the information that they learn will be retained. I think this intuitive knowledge is really what will benefit them in the real world. How to interact with people and how to write are so important to my students’ futures. I think Gee is right that this knowledge is often lacking in schools when it should be taught in all courses.