Class 12: Google Drive Folders - Alex Lau

The first picture shows exactly what I have in my Google Drive Folder for IMMERSION 2015 Outreach. I edited the names out not because they were dirty, but because they were just outright stupid names. The second picture shows that I hit the share button and got a link. I changed that Anyone with the link can SEE IT, to EDIT IT. I then shared it with the Google Group.

Class 12: What is Google Drive? - Alex Lau

Google Drive is an online program owned by Google that has many different tools and services that

can be used anywhere in the world, as long as you have a computer and an internet connection.

There are numerous things you could do with Google Drive.

The main feature about Google Drive is the ability to store and share files in the cloud. For free, the

amount of data one can store in the cloud is up to fifteen gigabytes, or GB. If one wants to increase

the amount of data able to be stored in the cloud, there is an increasing monthly fee for however

much space one would want. For 100 GB, it is $1.99 per month. For one terabyte, or TB, it is $9.99.

For ten TB, it is $99.99 per month. For 20 TB, it is $199.99 per month. And for 20 TB, it is $299.99

per month. Google Drive also has the capacity to easily share files with one another and is able to

view almost every kind of file there is.

Google Drive also has an "office suite" of sorts, with programs like Google Docs, Google Sheets,

and Google Slides. These programs act like their Microsoft counterparts, but on a much easier-to-

access scale. With these programs, there is no need to download external programs to write, edit an

save text. All of these Google office suite programs have the ability for real time collaboration with

other users. This means that a group of people can work on a single document together, on separate

computers, at the same time.


Google Drive is an incredibly easy to use program that is just as easily accessible. The capabilities of

these technologies have beaten their paid counterparts, as according to reviews. The ability to use

these programs have made it easier for school and universities alike to let students collaborate

together and work together as one unit, furthering the progress of education.

Final Project: My First Old Boston Building - Alex Lau

I built the Bunch of Grapes Tavern:

I got into the world and approximated where the real tavern was and began work. I set up the left side wall in first, making the windows as I went along. I went to the front, made the little patio and continued working until I finished the whole building.

Final Project - My 4 Hours with World Painter - Alex Lau

I calculated the amount of meters the map should be and I made the area of boston to the best of my ability.

Class 10, Instagram as a collaboration tool - Alex Lau

Instagram -Instagram began October of 2010 and quickly escalated to one million users by December of the same year. Currently they have over 100 million active users. The simplicity of instagram is what really is the main draw to instagram. Users are able to post pictures and video of up to 15 seconds with ease and quickness. Many celebrities and online personalities use Instagram as a venue to communicate with fans worldwide. Celebrities can use this wide reach with Instagram as a tool for starting movements and bringing light to important issues. The hashtag was a popular way of highlighting thoughts and opinions on many different subjects, but also as a way to categorize their posts with their hashtags. This divides up Instagram into the hundreds of thousands of communities that inhabit the internet, allowing the communities to express their passions with others with like-minded interests.

The aspect of collaboration can be found in the comment sections of the instagram photos. Tags are used to introduce or call “friends” in instagram to directly mention and thus share the photo. Since instagram is focused on sharing private photos to public, there is not much the users can do to collaborate, other than sending direct messages, commenting on photos, liking photos, and mentioning someone in the comment section.

Often, although not actually promoted, Instagram comments and photos are used excessively for advertising purposes, and these endeavors sometimes have a collaborative element as well.

As a chef, we use instagram all the time. The ability to quickly post a picture of what we are producing is a massive draw.  Chef collaborations occur all the time now just through instagram. I personally have made some great friends just through the app. Seeing what people are doing with their cuisine throughout the world helps inspire just as a cookbook does. On the opposite side though, I cannot stand watching people take photos at the table of their food. I’m not trying to see my blood sweat and tears go cold as you find the perfect sepia tone or filter. Companies use Instagram to promote a new product. Many times as I scroll through my feed I will see a company or even a well-known instagrammer showcasing a product.

Final Project: Historic Boston Reference Materials - Alex Lau

American Revolution - 1763 - 1783 http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/revolution/home.html

Boston Tea Party - December 16, 1773 http://www.boston-tea-party.org/timeline.html

Boston Map - http://www.bostonhistory.org/sub/mappingrevolutionaryboston/

Scale - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Boston%2C_1775bsmall1.png

GIS - http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=251103be9ece4ea3ac1b8f651fb28951

Manmade/Natural structures - http://www.bostonhistory.org/sub/mappingrevolutionaryboston/

Class 10, Facebook events as an "opt-in" for of collaboration

In these pictures, it shows that I have joined the event and shared it to my groups. Sadly, it's come to light that I have been kicked out of my two other groups without knowing.

Class 10, Snapchat as a collaboration tool - Alex Lau

Snapchat - A fun new way for people to interact with one another, one second at a time. The snaps are only available for an allotted amount of time. Photos and Videos are able to be sent. Snaps can be sent individually or sent to your story where all of your friends are able to see it. Coachella has a snapchat account and they have been using it all week as a collaboration tool to showcase their events.

It was a good way to share the places my friends and I travelled to through photographs at any moment  and give information on the tourist places, so that others may view the places they visited and considering visiting the sites. Also, many bloggers/artists use instagram to share their work with other artists/bloggers and collaborate.

Snapchat has a great financial tool as well called Snap Cash. It’s a great way to give a friend that is in need of cash. Snapchat partnered with a company called Square Cash. It is a safe and reliable transferring app. The money is transferred in a text message form. To send money all one has to do is go into the text section of snapchat and type in a dollar sign followed by any number Also recently Snapchat did a software update that allowed for live video streaming. It allows for a quick video conference that allows the users to see each other without having to download apps such as video conference specific apps such as Skype or Viber.

Minecraft Photos, Kinda - Alex Lau

Kinda hard to see but my screenshot program does not let me take a picture and pause out of game at the same time, sorry.

Class 8, 2b: Google+ - Alex Lau

I have joined multiple groups and followed Prof. Walsh. Even though my message is the same across all announcement messages, the message still comes across and is sent.

Class 8, 2a: Facebook Groups - Alex Lau

Getting the word out to my groups and yes, Patrick Star is my profile picture.

CLASS 7 - PINGING MY FAVORITE WEBSITES - Alex Lau

Twitch wouldn't work for some reason. Both Youtube and Facebook both worked fine.

Google Hangout Pictures

Here's Dan:

As a group, we got past the awkward stage of getting to know each other very quickly. We soon started conversing about casual conversations like what games we play and what we do. Very soon after, we started drawing on each other, giving each other outfits and such. Here's the results of our little session.







Here's Shane!:














Here I am:

Here's Ryan!:

Google Hangouts

I was actually having trouble accessing the Google Hangouts for the first couple of minutes. Ryan and Shane were actually the ones telling me how to get to Hangouts, which is through my Google+ profile. It was very frustrating trying to get this to work

Immersive Illness? - Alex Lau

"A challenge that concerns me the most is lurking on the horizon, one we don't yet understand the full scope of. As Immersive Education and other forms of personal virtual reality become more realistic and compelling we're going to see "immersive illness" become more common and more difficult to deal with. Although this is an issue today we're somewhat protected by the limitations of today's personal computers and game consoles (they just aren't powerful enough...yet), but in another decade or more it'll be a different story altogether. Nobody knows exactly what impact insanely realistic, media-rich virtual reality will have on society. We're already dealing with early forms of immersive illness, such as addiction, alienation, mental schisms, and more, but today it's not a problem that affects a large percentage of users. We don't see massive problems today for a number of reasons, including rather low-quality virtual environments and limitations on how much time we spend in these environments. But what happens when the visual and audio quality becomes indistinguishable from reality, the technology becomes truly mainstream, and a substantial portion of education takes place in such environments and not in a real classroom? With massive power comes massive problems. Last week I was asked how big this problem will be, and I responded that nobody knows for sure but I'd estimate that the at-risk population can be calculate by adding the percentage of people with addiction problems to the percentage of society that suffer some form of mental illness. That's a big chunk of society. Is it all gloom and doom? Certainly not, but it's a grand challenge we're not even remotely prepared for today. As with other disruptions society will eventually adapt, but I think we're in for a very rough ride." ~ Professor Aaron Walsh from the itnerview "Virtual reality and higher education: Another perspective" at http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2007/05/teaching_in_vr_.html


 I personally think Immersive Illness is a problem already. People have made some of the worst mistakes because of their addiction to the internet. Careless teenage daughters use their parents credit card because they are obsessed with online shopping. Gaming teens have dropped out of school and had to start from the ground up because they were addicted to World of Warcraft. A couple years ago, South Korea announced an army bootcamp for teens addicted to Starcraft to go to because the addiction was simply too pronounced. A couple in China have even sold their children just to transfer that money into in-game currency, fueling their addiction while they were living in squalor. People have even died from staying in a gaming cafe for so many hours, over 36 for this one guy until he just fell over and died on the spot. Yes, these are very singular, way too peculiar incidents. But it is only going to get worse as time and technology goes on. In the article, Professor Walsh said that "we're not even remotely prepared for today." Well, to be honest, I really have to agree.

     And to add on, take a look inside a Starbucks, or the T, or just hang out with some friends. Now go ahead and count how many people are literally stuck in their phones, their necks curved at their phones at an exact 60 degree angle. I hang out with my friends and family quite often, weekly even. And I always see my little cousins just sucked into their phones or their Nintendo DS, along with my friend, who are sitting next to each other, but not even talking! They are literally texting each other as they are sitting next to each other. It was not a joke, they decided that they were "too lazy" to talk so they texted instead. Barely anyone wants to talk anymore, and face to face contact is looking to be a thing of the past.

CLASS 5 ASSIGNMENT 1: REVISING MY IMMERSIVE TECH REPORTS IN GOOGLE DOCS

Virtual Worlds:

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Virtual Reality:

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Wearable Computing:

 

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3D Printing:

 

I have edited all of my essays so that they are greater in both quality and quantity of content. I have done these essays before but they were very barebones and basic, but now I have some legitimate sources and information about the different products and systems I talked about previously.