Describe three things, and offer one piece of advice, about the learning you did in Assignment A:
1. What were your two tasks and what felt different about approaching each of them? How did they differ as learning challenges?
My two tasks were: 1- Learn how to dehydrate marshmallows and fruit without a dehydrator and 2- Learn how to embroider a bathing suit/spandex.
They were different in that dehydrating was a more passive process and required trial and error attempts followed by several hours of waiting and then adjusting and trying again; on the other hand embroidering was a more active task to learn, required more focus and had several precise methods on how to achieve it.
2. For each task, what was different about the first and second ways you tried to learn it?
For both tasks I chose a video and a written form of learning. I think that the video worked best for the first task (dehydrating) because it explained in general that you could use an oven or air fryer at a certain temperature for at least 3hrs and then showed you how to place the food and how much space to leave and such. Having the visual helped and I didn't need to constantly pause the video since remembering the instructions was easy. This is the task where I experimented the most: adjusting temperature, baking times, using skewers or just lying flat, using cornstarch or Pam. Because the instructions were somewhat general, there was a lot of space to interpret and experiment but because it was a very passive process the results weren't necessarily as satisfying.
The written + image way of learning worked best for the second task (embroidering) it guided you step by step through the process and showed you how it was meant to look after each step. This was better because there was no need to pause and go back, you stayed on that step until it was completed to your satisfaction and then you moved on. This method afforded less space to experiment (I also was scared of ruining my bathing suit) but because it was a more active process the results were a lot more satisfying to see.
3. For each task, what was it like to approach it as "learning-conscious learning", and what difference did it make that you tried to learn it two ways?
I think being conscious that I was learning something in the first task made me pay more attention to what I was doing and be more creative with my experiments. Since the purpose was learning and not getting perfectly cooked meals out of it, I felt more at ease making mistakes and adjusting as I went.
For my second task I don't think this really made a difference since no matter what you do the act of embroidering requires the active intent of learning and therefore makes you aware that you are learning. I don't think anyone just learns how to embroider whereas one could be told hot to dehydrate and then just learn how to do it or even stumble upon the discovery by over-baking something.
4. Assume a friend wants to learn ONE of your two tasks. (You pick which one.) What advice would you give them, to help them be more successful, in light of your experience?
If someone wanted to learn how to dehydrate marshmallows and fruit I would advise them to follow the instructions in the video but use strictly an air fryer (it afforded better results since my oven was too hot and just melted or charred stuff). I would tell them to let the fruit bake for longer since they tend to have more moisture so it takes longer. I would also tell them to make sure to slice things in small pieces or bits because it makes the process faster. Pam is less messy than cornstarch and works well as a non-sticking agent. And to be prepared with a container that can be well sealed (I just started the process not thinking of where I was going to put them so I ended up putting them in ziplock bags).
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