Breaking News - 9News - Historic Colo. trading post to be recreated in Minecraft

     This news article goes into detail on how incredible this Minecraft project really is. When the project is finally finished, anyone in the world has the ability to access it. This is like the Japanese house in the Boston Children's Museum virtual exhibit I talked about in my last blog entry. You don't need to go there in person to get the full experience. You can access it with the comfort of a computer.
     On that note, it is important to state how incredible it is that we can connect something as old as Ben's Old Fort to a young, modern audience in a very unique way. The many ways that people learn are growing exponentially every year, and this is just an example of what is possible.

This is an assignment from the Immersive Education course that I am taking at Boston College. The course is called Collaborative Computing. For details, visit the immersive BC portal at http://immersiveeducation.org/@/bc/

Breaking News! - KOAA 5: La Junta students build virtual Bent's Old Fort

     This is the student's perspective on the task of creating Ben's Old Fort using the massively popular game, Minecraft. In Colorado, La Junta, many students and teachers are put up to the task of creating the iconic building for anyone to see online. The video shows many reactions from the students and teachers on this daunting, but fun task.

     A student goes on to express his views on the class, that he was quite neutral starting out, but as soon as Minecraft became a factor in class, he immediately became excited and started loving the class. Many teachers shared the same sentiment. They are happy that a popular game can be used not just for purely entertainment purposes, but for team-building exercises and education as well.

This is an assignment from the Immersive Education course that I am taking at Boston College. The course is called Collaborative Computing. For details, visit the immersive BC portal at http://immersiveeducation.org/@/bc/

Assignment 2-1: What is Immersive Education?

In this part of the video, impoverished students can visit an aquarium thanks to the help of iED and an online program. In this screenshot, the students are able to become a fish and swim around as it. The level of interactivity this program has is so much greater than that of an actual aquarium.

This is a virtual model of a Japanese house that is in the Boston Children's Museum. According to the video, the museum is able to hold more talks and lectures about the house online than in the actual museum. This allows visitors of the museum to visit the house again and people who are not close to visit.

This screenshot shows a student using a computer simulation of a pond to take scientific measures from it. Half the tasks you are able to do I have no understanding of, but the online environment looks very realistic and immersive.

This is my favorite part of the whole video. This is a huge school tournament that looks like a FPS, First Person Shooter, like Call of Duty, but it is somehow a game about math. I was legitimately surprised as to how awesome it looked. I immediately became jealous.

This is an assignment from the Immersive Education course that I am taking at Boston College. The course is called Collaborative Computing. For details, visit the immersive BC portal at http://immersiveeducation.org/@/bc/

My Meshmoon Journey

Circus:

The entrance to a circus with a lot of fun attractions inside. Really nice, soothing music is playing.

A fire breather prepares to flamethrower across the stage! Although to be honest, it does look a bit like mud.

Lunar World:

Ground control to Major Lau, what is it like up there?
Well it's uh... Buggy.
Yeah... Safe to say that this world is seriously bugged. I am sure this is supposed to look beautifully and moon-like, but I ain't seeing it, no sirree.

Wait, what? After further examination, I'm in the middle of the ocean, waves crashing around me, with a dinky little rocket? Okay I have no idea what's going on. Next world!

German Fire Fighting Museum:

woah Woah WOAH, is this real?! Am I really at the German Fire Fighting Museum? This is so cool! I can even hear the gentle lull of a museum-going crowd in the background. It's kind of like I'm actually here, this is really cool so far. Best world yet.

Wow, interactable web pages adorn the walls behind me, giving me an even deeper understanding of how fire fighting was. I am still in shock that this exists. This is pretty awesome. Next!

Winter Landscape:

How relaxing. A cozy winter cottage, frozen, beautiful empty winter tundra surrounding. I can get used to this kind of life. But alas, the cold is getting to my superhero body. Time to warm up!

Thank the heavens for a sauna! Now I can really appreciate how well-modeled this whole map is. It looks great everywhere I look. It's literally everything I want with a winter house. Next world!

Virtual School:

Oh God, so...many...unfinished...textures. Actually as I'm writing this right now, it's slowly loading more and more of the textures in. Let's see what it looks like completely finished loading.

Alright, this looks slightly better. Other than the off color scheme, I think it actualy looks pretty nice. The Google homepage on the TV and the Chrome icons on the smaller screens are definitely a nice touch. There is not much else to do here, so next world!

HairHeroes: Virtual Salon:

...I have no idea why I picked this for my last world. I mean, I guess this world looks like a hair salon. The products are well lined up and the picture that is next to my character is a nice touch. It would be even more impressive if the products had real labels on them. That would bring a whole new level of authenticity to the world. Let's go upstairs.

Woah, hold up a second. Real before and after pictures? Black and white pictures signifying the owners of the salon? Random walls in the middle of the room? What is this, a museum?Sadly I can't understand a word on that wall, but this is kinda cool.

Hello, my name is Alex!

Hello, my name's Alex and this is my first ever online course. I am 20 years old ,sophmore majoring in Communications. My interests lie with acting and music. I have done numerous stage plays and musicals in my past. I have also been an extra in some movies! I play guitar and can sing..well, to a point. So yeah, hello class!