EdTech 531 Exploring Minecraft

View my video blog on exploring seven different minecraft servers.

EdTech 531:It’s okay to fail?

The EdTech 531 quest titled, Minecraft: Surviving the Night, started by reminding us that “you will fail.” And fail I did. Prior to starting this quest, I did on a previous occasion in Minecraft make it through the night while mining. I was so engrossed in looking for resources that I didn’t realize night had fallen and a since I wasn’t being threatened by zombies, skeletons, creepers, or spiders, I worked the night away. Upon viewing the tutorials for this quest, I realized caves are great night places to stay and mining and crafting are great night time activities to help pass time. So with this new information, was it easier to survive the night? At first…not really. I still either consumed way too much energy looking for caves or/and resources or I still encountered zombies, skeletons and spiders without adequate protection. However, after a few rounds of trying to survive the night, I managed to survive not just one night, but three nights. The first night was in a cave without any coal. After realizing I would not find coal, I decided to build what I could and reserve my activity level. Upon daylight, I set out to get more wood, attempt to acquire food and find a place to mine coal. My stone sword seemed useless in hunting cows or pigs and before I knew it I was in the forest as night time was approaching without any shelter and only two meat pops showing. I decided to seek shelter in the trees and stand guard with my back against a tree trunk. During those (long) seven minutes of darkness, I was fortunate to only spot one zombie who was obvious of my presence. At dawn I was safe and noticed in my inventory that I had indeed found one lump of coal and had acquired an apple. I used the coal to melt my iron and the apple provided me with 2 meat pops of energy. I was now ready to explore with a new arsenal of weapons and a little sustenance in my ‘belly.’ With an iron sword, I was able to hunt some cows (and due to the pleas of my 10 year old daughter, I left the dogs alone). My first two cows yielded me nothing, however, the third and fourth cows provided me with raw beef and leather. There was plenty of daylight left to seek a cave that would hopefully have some coal. And shelter and coal was actually what I found. I quickly ate and regained all my strength and remained underground safe from the rain that began to fall.

It took me several attempts to get this far. I don’t consider myself a ‘gamer’ and may have actually stopped trying to survive because ‘what is the point of this game’ attitude. I’ve got other things to do instead of wasting my time trying to conquer blockhead images on the computer. Don’t get me wrong, I can be stubborn and stick with something until I get it right or get it done. And I stuck this challenge out because it was the nature of the quest. So try, try and try again is exactly what I did. I would like to say that I am now better equipped to navigate (and survive) in minecraft. Hopefully my new minecraft skills will help me be a productive member of the EdTech 531 Minecraft village.

EdTech 531 “Virtual Bodies and Human Identity” by Dr. Jeremy Bailenson

In Dr. Jeremy Bailenson’s talk, “Virtual Bodies and Human Identity,” Dr. Bailenson threw out statistics about the number of hours children and adults are immersed in virtual environments. For children in 2010, the low end was 8 hours per week (outside of school) and for adults it was 20 hours a week. That seems like a staggering amount of time we spend in virtual worlds. As a result we are becoming more and more comfortable in virtual worlds and interacting with avatars. Therefore, it only makes sense we begin to learn in the same environments in which we play. From experiments titled augmented gaze, digital chameleon (mimicry), facial identity capture and Veja Du, participants demonstrated an increase in attention, trust and likability of the presenter. In the case of Veja Du experiments, researchers were able to modify the behaviors of the viewer. These results can set the stage for effective learning and can lead to increased focus on the material being presented, better recognition and recall, as well as improved learner confidence. All of these qualities have a positive impact on the learning process.