Thursday, March 26, 2015

Class 10 : Monocular Depth Cues

For this particular post i found some monocular depth cues using the game Mine Craft.  A monocular depth cue is something that you are seeing in front of you appear 3D even though a computer screen is a flat 2D screen.  One example would be standing behind something that obscures your view in Mine Craft.  You are not actually behind anything because it is only on a flat screen.  Although in real life if you were standing behind a tree it would certainly block your vision. 









Final Project Step 1: Immersive Libraries and Museums

This is an overview of the article i read on Immersive Education-Libraries and Museums Technology Working Group(LAM.TWG).  To get to this page i found the link in the lecture notes.  http://jied.org
In the overview they summarize how they are coming up with ways to use virtual worlds and other kinds of Immersive Technology to create a virtual Museum/Library.  I think that this article was interesting because it talked about the importance of keeping up to date with technology in the world today.  When students learn it is critical that you need to keep up to date so that they get to learn and access new knowledge everyday.




One of the main goals is to be able to design Libraries and Museums that can be accessed virtually.  This style of learning is fairly new and can be fun for students.  One reason why it can be good is because you do not have to hole yourself up in a book in the library, but you can gain knowledge right in your home or where you desire to learn all in your computer in a virtual world.  It is cool knowing you don's have to make a huge hassle out of where you are most comfortable in learning.



This diagram shows that students from all over can virtually access the same information they might need for more in depth learning.  There are the educators, the students, and then the fake participants who are those who come up with all the information that is put together.  The members of the group are trying to design a museum and a library that have two sides; a client side and a server side.  This would be highly beneficial because the two sides could be added to at any time, by anyone with access to the server side.  This would be really good for them because people could be adding to and editing the museum without having to shut down the link on the clients side.

Many people who like to have peace and quiet while they work and learn could benefit from this virtual Museum/Library.  Even though libraries are supposed to be quiet, flipping of pages and typing could be distracting to many students, but this gives them a new twist to being able to concentrate and learn on their own terms.  The idea that someone could virtually access the same and new information is new and useful to students.   

Virtually viewing museums could be a really cool idea and could pretty much work for everyone.  At some point during this course we talked about field trips and how some schools do not have the money to go on field trips that are required for students to learn.  I think that this program of virtually accessing Museums could help many schools so that they can virtually access all museums and students also get to learn as well.  Reading through this whole article i think that these ideas are pretty awesome and could benefit many schools and students! 







Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Class 9 : Exploring Second Life

To start Second Life i first had to pick my avatar, so i chose this one!



Then the first place i went to was a beach place type.  When i explored a little bit i followed the arrows that pretty much showed you where to go but when you got to one of the bridges it was split in half so you couldn't get across to the other side.  I tried jumping to get there but i couldn't so i eventually just switched worlds.





The second world i went into was 2015 Easter Town.  This town was decorated all over with easter eggs and bunnies and it was just a cute little town.

The third world i went into was Winter Wonderland! There was snow on the ground, twinkling lights everywhere, and when i explored more i tripped upon some presents underneath a canopy.  It looked like christmas. 



The fourth world i teleported into was called Realm of Asher.   In this world it pretty much was lakes and moss.  There were birds flying if you looked into the distance.  Also when you stood up top of the cliff it was pretty cool looking down. 



The last and final world i explored in was called Last Island.  Here i explored around and it was pretty bare there was no one really around, and there were burning card pretty much everywhere.  So it said on the description of this world that it was a Lost Island, but too me and if you looked around it looked exactly like a spaceship.






Thursday, March 19, 2015

Class 9 : Big Boom

So in this one we had to blow up the bigger rocket.  I put the TNT and the wedge next to it but for some reason my rocket wouldn't blow up because it kept freezing so i couldn't end up blowing up the bigger rocket.   




Class 9 : Bigger Rocket

This is the picture of my bigger rocket! I built around so it would be a rectangular shape and then built up from there.  It has a door and you can walk into it.  






Class 9 : Blowing up MineCraft Rocket


Here is my rocket getting blown up.  We put the TNT in front of it, the bar next to it and then right clicked to blow up the rocket. 




Class 9 : My MineCraft Rocket


In this part we had to build our own rocket in MineCraft.  I had mine be pink.  To make this rocket you first had to press command E, select your block colors, then press E again.  To start building the rocket you just had to keep right clicking and that would stack all of the blocks. 





Class 9 : Customizing my Avatar

So i went onto Mesh Moon and changed my avatars to each different character they had.













This is the robot avatar and i changed each of them because they are different colors.






Class 8, My Virtual Pet in Scratch

Last i had to make a monkey scratch!



First i had to get rid of the default cat and then pick the monkey!  Next i added a background for him which was an outdoor space with a rock and added blocks for him to walk around and say Ooo and Ahh!  Next i added bananas for him to eat, and a trampoline so he could play.  



Check out my scratch! The link is down below! 



Class 8, My Birthday Card in Scratch

Next i had to make a birthday card using scratch!


First, i added a script to make the cat say "happy birthday!" when the green flag is clicked.  Next it was a background, a cake and some birthday music (the Sound) to make it festive.  Lastly i added a dancing lady and made it so she changes and has different dance moves when you click on her, so it looks like she is dancing to the birthday music i added before. 






Here is the link to my birthday card! Check it out at: