20% project April 18

I really don't have that many questions left about my project. I guess I would like to look into more of MinecraftEdu implementation in classrooms. With the remaining time I have left, I am going to research more about that specifically.

Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality is the fusion of digital information with either live streaming video or the viewer’s real environment, for example Google Glass. 

Here is a picture of my friend trying out Google Glass at a demo.

AR is a way to connect the virtual world with the real world, and this interaction helps us experience abstract concepts and seeks to enhance understanding. Some advantages of AR include apps that can help people get through their daily tasks; an example of this would be a map app that tells you how to get somewhere if you become lost. A disadvantage of AR, relating to teaching, is that the technology could serve as a distraction. My experience with AR would be using the Oculus Rift which is a virtual reality headset for 3D gaming. While designing the Oculus Rift, they came up with the idea of attaching a special camera lens so that you get a real-world view. I really enjoyed playing with it, because it was something I’ve never experienced before. It blurred the lines between what was real and what was virtual; it was a very cool experience.  

Here is a picture of the Oculus Rift that my friend got and let me play with. 

                AR will probably become more prevalent in the near future. My friend in the picture above was part of the Google Glass demo and he told me a lot about it. He said that Google believes everyone will be wearing Google Glass in the next 10 years; it will be normal to be walking down the street and see everyone wearing Google Glass. AR can be a brand new way to access information as well as teach in schools. I can see it being used as a way to possibly apply class material to real life. For example, if you’re learning about different biomes in an environmental systems class, you could use some sort of AR technology to physically look around a desert or rainforest. 

20% Project April 11

Well my project is actually very relevant to what we are learning right now in class. My project is about teaching through the video game, Minecraft, and it focusing on the organization MinecraftEdu. MinecraftEdu is group of people dedicated to getting an education modification of Minecraft into classrooms around the world. We actually watched a video about MinecraftEdu for one of our blog posts a couple weeks ago.  Currently our class is focusing on teaching through blogs, videos, and video games. During class discussions, I am applying everything that my teacher and classmates are saying to my project. I am very passionate about this topic and it is nice to know that others feel the same way. Some classmates in my group are sharing ideas and thoughts with me that I never considered before.

                On Wednesday’s class, we have to come up with an example of a video game that is a good example of a teaching aid. We came up with different games for different subjects like Portal for physics and Lemonade Stand for economy. I tried to think about my project and what subject Minecraft would fall under. I had a hard time thinking of a specific focus and then I realized that Minecraft is more of a way for students to be creative. Don’t get me wrong, there is a ton of knowledge children can learn from Minecraft. However, since it has so much variety and information to learn, I wouldn’t classify it under a specific subject. I would just classify it as a medium for students to express their own ideas while learning different skills applicable to life. 

MOOCs

I have taken an online course before and I did enjoy it for one main reason: I learned at my own pace. It was so nice to study and learn materials whenever I wanted to and be comfortable doing it. Along with MOOCs, there are also other online lectures that I have used to help me learn things for other classes. Online lectures and classes let you pause, rewind, go faster, go slower, etc. Each person can learn at his or her own each comfortable pace with MOOCs. It is also free for people who cannot affordable an education. This is also bad news. There is a possibility that teachers could become unnecessary and people could lose their jobs if MOOCs is cheap/free and/or easily accessible. This is my main worry with it. Research has shown that MOOCs hasn't been that successful when it comes to completion rates and actual learning. I believe that MOOCs can be a helpful thing, but it will be hard to motivate people to learn who don’t really want to. That’s why I think it is better as an aid for a class. 

 This is the website I used all the time when I was in Calculus II for Science and Engineering majors. It's called Khan Academy, and it started out as one making lectures online for all different types of math and science related problems. I think I learned more from this website than I learned in my class. However, I think that if this was an online class, I would have had more difficultly completing it. If I had a question, I could always ask my teacher, but if I was online, I would have no one to help me.



Here is a picture from Khan Academy that shows how the website maps your progress and how many skills you have left to master. This is something that an online course could have to help the students pace themselves and keep up with the work.



The article, Technology Will Not Replace Teachers by Jeff and Katie Dunn on Huffpost, supports the idea that teachers aren't going anywhere. They say, "Will MOOCs or a similar online learning concept start to take over? Will we have robots for teachers?" The role of teacher plays is irreplaceable; teachers motivate and inspire students as role models, facilitators, leaders, guides, and mentors. "A computer can five information, but a teacher can lend a hand, or an ear, and discern what's necessary for a student to succeed, and to want to succeed."

Creativity and Innovation Project Reflection

Our project was about a program called Evernote which could replace notebooks and binders. While making the infomercial, I really wanted to concentrate on all the advantages Evernote had over notebooks. It was important to convey to the listeners that this product could make their lives easier in many different ways. So my group and I came up with funny scenarios that could portray just have much Evernote could better the lives of students. This forced us to be collaborative, but also, we had to be creative and innovative with our ideas and resources in order to find a direction to go in. This project also made me want to get the program for myself. I realized, through all the silly scenarios that we made up, that Evernote could really actually be the future of notebooks and binders, and all students may only just carry their laptop. I can already see it happening now and, with where technology is heading, I don't see it going away but only increasing.​

I learned quite a lot from watching the other infomercials. There are so many different tools out there like Edmodo and A Novel Idea that people can use to do other tasks in an easier and more efficient way. It was also cool to see all the different approaches people took when trying to advertise the tools. While talking about different technologies in an infomercial, we all had to use video cameras, editing programs, screen capturing and more. This shows just how much we must be technologically literate.  

Partner Blog #5

I really enjoyed reading these articles because this is something that I personally am extremely interested in. James Paul Gee says that digital media, video games in particular, work just like books. He focused on the game, World of Worldcraft, which is the most widely played multiplayer game in the world. He talks about how social gaming forces you to solve problems by working together and integrating different skill sets. Each player must also understand the big picture of the game. He also talks about Portal, which is one of my favorite games of all time. The world of Portal follows all the laws of physics to solve complex puzzles forcing the player to think outside of the box.

Here is my gaming library on Steam, a gaming platform for computers. Here you can see many different games, all with different concepts, puzzles, and information to learn.

He then moves on to talk about how playing a game is only part of the understanding. After people play the game, they go online to discuss, modify, and research more about the game. Along with Portal, I’m doing my 20% on Minecraft which explores this same dynamic. People go online and explore the different deeper learning that can be obtained from playing the games. Gee says just this, “Far from there being no articulation and language of the knowledge being developed in the game, there’s a whole community devoted to doing just that.”

Kurt Squire proposes that gamers often ask after playing a game, “Well, why are things the way they are?” by relating the game world to what is going on in the real world. So what they are trying to do with educational games is design and build games around current issues, and then get kids motivated  to get the skills to go out and solve these problems as a direct result of playing games. He also talks about game culture and social organization around them just like James Paul Gee. I have personally experienced this when I play Minecraft and communicate through the subreddit with other players where I can share my work and see all of theirs.

In the classroom video, the teacher talks about how every child is a gamer. The teacher focuses specifically on MinecraftEdu, which is what my project is on. Being someone who really understands this game, I feel like I teach very well through games like Minecraft. This video really got me excited for my project and hopefully working with students in the future through this type of medium.

Here is a barn that I built on my Minecraft server. This took many hors of collecting materials and creative thinking: 

20% Project March 21

I have gotten the chance to talk to a couple people who I believe would really benefit from learning information from my project. The first person who I’ve spoken to is my old chorus teacher’s wife who is a communication teacher for children. I’ve gotten the opportunity to shadow her when she works with children. She didn’t use too much technology is her daily work with children (just computers sometimes) so maybe if I told her about my project, she’d be interested. After shadowing her, I realized just how much MinecraftEdu could really benefit young students. Kids are really easily distracted and I feel like a game like Minecraft, which is extremely addictive from what I know from personal experience, would catch their attention and hold it while teaching them tons of information. My experience shadowing her helped me get a chance to interact with kids while trying to teach them something; which I realized is a lot harder than it sounds. She helped me learn how to keep their attention and I think that I could help her with my knowledge on MinecraftEdu. The second person I talked to is a speech language pathologist. She works with children on a day to day basis and tells me that they use all sorts of games and mediums of technology to teach their kids. I think that many modern day SLPs would suggest something like games or ipad apps or something that to teach the kids and also keep them entertained.