Is Exercise Keeping You Down? (Digital Story Critique)

Digital Story—People Who are Hesitant to Exercise

Ugh getting up in the morning is too hard! I make it into work around 7am and find myself struggling to wake up. I have countless coworkers who go to the gym in morning…Wait, what?! How could anyone possibly wake up and work out before work?! These coworkers never seem to be tired, in fact, they seem more awake than most of us. Is there a secret to working out early?

I know for myself, working out just doesn’t happen. I am too tired in the morning and way to beat in the afternoon to even think about lifting a finger. According to de Bruin, the first tip is to find a role model.

“Find a role model that you can look up to who is healthy and fit. Next, always be nice towards your body and mind. Always start easy, and work your way up. Find a friend who can work out with you, this way you are less likely to hangout on the couch. Use fun apps to motivate you and keep your goal in mind.” —De Bruin

This digital story was motivating and inspiring because it came from a true person who went through the struggle of working out herself. She had wonderful advice and seemed to love the new her.

Urban Gardening (Response to Literature)

Response to a piece of selected scholarship- Paris and Urban Gardening and Farmers Feeding Families

“The garden is the smallest parcel of the world and then it is the totality of the world”-M. Foucault, Of other spaces (1967).

A huge interest of mine is food justice and urban gardening/farming. I took a wonderful class at CU Denver that taught me a lot about what food sovereignty can bring to a community. Food sovereignty, as defined by Peña (2006) is, “a concept that combines the rich notion of local food security with the idea that food sources are consistent with cultural identities and involve community networks that promote self-reliance and mutual aid” (p. 3). However, Denver has very strict laws about urban gardening. For example, one cannot plant a garden on the street sidewalk, as illustrated below. 

Excitingly Paris has just passed a law that allows any resident to plant urban community gardens wherever in the city. The proposal, by Mayor Hidalgo, is a project that will hopefully introduce 100 hectares by 2020. Not only will this make the town even more beautiful, it will also keep bees alive. 

As stated by the Major”Residents will receive renewable three-year-permits that enable them to grow anything from fruit and vegetables to flowers and plants” (Hidalgo, 2016).

What is even more amazing about this new project, is that any citizen interested in starting an urban garden will receive seeds and topsoil to help get their gardens started. Yay for gardening!

What are your main insights and ideas from the given reading?

This week I wanted to read about something that interests me, urban gardening. I love gardening with my students and they love it as well. We learn so much out in the garden and it is really easy to incorporate math, literacy, science and writing all outside in the community garden. By co-creating community gardens, the community will be able to grow organic food while becoming self-reliant and responsive. These gardens create equity by creating access to healthy food, jobs and work opportunities all while building a strong sense of community. Creating economic opportunities through gardening shares power and voice, and in turn communities will be able to focus on creating safe and sustainable neighborhoods for all. 

Resources:

Abode, K.R. (2016). Paris passes law that allows residents to plant urban gardens all over the city. /My Modern Met/. Retrieved from http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/paris-urban-gardens 

Foucault, M. (1986). Of Other Spaces. Diacritics, 16(1), 22-27.

Peña, D. (2006, March) Farmers feeding families: Agroecology in south central los angeles., Pullman, WA. 

Teaching STEM with VR (Digital Story Critique)

Digital Story Critique: by Arno Hartholt 

Does anyone remember The Magic School Bus? At the end, real children would “call” the show and ask charters questions about the episode. Questions regarding weather, animals, and plants. I know when my scholars watch this show, they absolutely love the questions kids ask.

Now thanks to virtual reality (VR), students can now engage in real-time questions, track astronauts in space, and witness animals in their natural habitat through a telescope. The new project is called Canvas and the main charters name is Ada. 

“Canvas is a machinima authoring tool that uses virtual human research technology to rapidly create educational STEM movies for kids. Canvas is developed by the USC Institute for Creative Technologies and sponsored by the Smithsonian Science Education Center” (Hartholt, 2016)

Ada is a super cute, spunky character that loves to answer questions! She has an entire segment called Ask Ada, where anyone in the world can ask questions and digital find the answer with Ada. The videos presented are short STEM-themed videos that feature Ada investigating scientific questions presented by the Smithsonian Science Center. 

The video I watched was called the Treehouse Tour and it showed all the fun activities that students can engage in with Ada. Above are some examples of various things scholars can engage in. This new technology will bring in a wave of new information that students can download at the click of a button. What a fun way to learn! 

Concrete Poem

This poem was inspired by my favorite poet, Ellen Hopkins. She has a way of creating multiple meanings in a single poem. Miakoda means power of the moon and I created a few poems about this fictional character. Can you read my hidden poetry in this concrete poem?

Miakoda

All 

her life was pity,

shame.

Locked in her own world

of blame.

She was a child of

Darkness,

a child of void.

She quenched for golden

rays of sunlight,

sun dewed kissed grass.

Will

she leave her overgrown home?

Continue to be alone?

She wanted

to close her eyes under the stars,

hear the rainfall through

the leaves.

Have the lightening

Consume

her, entice her,

excite her.

Was 

this task to great?

To finally clean her slate?

Her

life was in shambles,

broken shards of

glass.

To be

true to herself she must

leave

travel

and see…

Maybe now Mikoda can

Be free.

Job Assistance with VR (Digital Story Critique)

VITA: Virtual Interactive Training Agent

VITA is a virtual reality job interview practice system that was created by the Institute for Creative Technologies alongside director Kristina Ledo. This system was developed for young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). VITA allows users with ASD to help build competence, confidence and overall, help reduce anxiety before going to an actual interview.

As stated by Greg, “It taught me what to say and what to do, and how to say it. It helped me with my negative and my pros and helps me with the interview process”-VITA participant.

Many individuals with ASD have stated that the process of going to a job interview causes great anxiety. These same individuals report that they have trouble verbally expressing themselves in a job interview. Therefore, VITA allows users to engage with virtual reality (VR) to practice receptive job interviewing in a safe, simulated environment.

“Even right now the results are really astounding. You can see them smiles, you start seeing them being able to really cooperate. And even their answers are starting to become longer and a lot more explicit in terms of their skills and their strengths”—Kristina Ledo, VITA Director

ICT brings gaming and the film industry together with multiple artists and computer scientists that all work together with social scientists to create immersive VR experiences. VITA  has a total of six characters, each has three different settings to control the behavior of the interviewer: soft-touch, natural and hostile. This range in personality allows participants to interact with real-life scenario persons. VITA allows users to review their performance afterward; therefore allowing ASD patients to gain a greater perspective of their interview presentation.

VITA will support users’ efforts to overcome the anxiety that they report during this process and provide a platform where job interviewing skills can be practiced with the support of a vocational expert” (2:58)

Not only does this help individuals with ASD, it could also benefit anyone looking to sharpen their interview skills.

Growing Up in a Virtual World (Digital Story Critique)

Digital Story Critique-Are games better than life? by David Perry

Growing up, I’ll never forget my old school Nintendo 64 with all of its amazing Mario-themed games. This was my first experience with a gaming system and my love for gaming continued to increase as I grew up and as games systems became ever more complex. Flash forward to today, where we have the technology to make graphics look as like real life; where users can feel deep emotions with their characters, and develop and a sense of community within an online gaming world. As one can see below, game development has come a long way since 2010. These pictures illustrate a game called Gran Turismo, the 5th edition game out in 2010, the 6th edition in 2013, and now the 7th edition set to come out in late 2016.

What will my student’s experiences with gaming be like? My scholars will never know the world without screens, phones, and videos games being a click away. They will never know games that are not fully immersive and emotional. Will these immersive games give greater insight to human empathy or spark creative ideas among the children of today?

As stated by a student of David Perry: “I am just one of a new generation that is growing up. A generation who may experience much more meaning through video games than they will through the real world. Unlike any pop culture phenomenon before it, video games actually allow us to become part of the machine. They allow us to sublimate into the culture of interactive, downloaded, streaming, HD reality. We are interacting with our entertainment. I have come to expect this level of interaction. Without it, the problems faced in the real world — poverty, war, disease and genocide — lack the levity they should” (12:37).

I found myself instantly connecting with this student because I too have experienced more in a virtual world than have in the real world. I have driven more miles in my virtual car than I have in my actual Jeep. Video games are deeply emotional for me as well. One in particular that really stuck with me was a game called Life is Strange. I was playing a girl in her last year of high school and was reunited with “my” best friend Chloe. This game is story based choose and I was able to rewind time and affect the past, present, and future with this virtual world. I can still cry about Chloe dying; it was so real and I had such an emotional connection to this character. I was able to literally grow up with her, travel the world, and then she died. It was overwhelmingly real and I still think about Chloe a lot…

Isn’t this was literacy has strived to do since its existence?

Simply said from Perry’s student, “The people who create these games are smart. They know what makes me scared, excited, panicked, proud or sad. Then they use these emotions to dimensionalize the worlds they create. A well-designed video game will seamlessly weave the user into the fabric of the virtual experience. My fate and the fate of the world around me lie inside my hands” (14:29).

Will humans intellect and technology evolve side-by-side to create a broader meaning of existence? I surely hope so. 

Can You Guess This Song?

Hmmm can you guys guess my favorite song of all time?!

Leave me a comment and see if you are right! 😉

News, Empathy, and Virtual Reality

 

Digital Story Critique-The future of news? Virtual reality 

Being an educator, I have had many students come from refugee camps; it is hard for me to imagine what my students’ lives were like prior to arriving in the United States. But what if I could place myself in a refugee camp to witness a story that I could remember with my entire body and mind? Thanks to virtual reality (VR) pioneer Nonny de la Peña is making stories like these come to life; bridging another gap between journalism, virtual reality, and human empathy. This new immersive media allows humans to place themselves in situations that they may never find themselves in.

As stated by de la Peña (2015): “I really wanted to do something about Syrian refugee kids, because children have been the worst affected by the Syrian civil war. I sent a team to the border of Iraq to record material at refugee camps…And then we also recreated a street scene in which a young girl is singing and a bomb goes off. Now, when you’re in the middle of that scene and you hear those sounds, and you see the injured around you, it’s an incredibly scary and real feeling. I’ve had individuals who have been involved in real bombings tell me that it evokes the same kind of fear. The civil war in Syria may seem far away until you experience it yourself.” (5:27)

Upon watching this video, I found myself in tears because it allows me to feel like I am there; helpless to do anything but watch and it is an eerie feeling. This duality of presence allows humans to interact with news in a compelling new way. Instead of wars or hunger seeming far away, humans can now experience these hardships first hand. Other noteworthy virtual reality works by de la Peña include being at a food bank when a diabetic individual collapse into a stroke due to lack of food as well as seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin’s case.

Though these examples de la Peña (2015) is able to show “Families in America are going hungry, food banks are overwhelmed, and they’re often running out of food. Now, I knew I couldn’t make people feel hungry, but maybe I could figure out a way to get them to feel something physical” (0:39)

This is quite a powerful statement. It is often difficult for many to place themselves in another person’s shoes. With new technology, journalism, and virtual reality, humans as a whole can begin to feel greater empathy. This new form of journalism will be interesting to watch as VR headsets are released to the public this fall.

Simulated Reality

Scholarship Review of: The Difference Between Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality for Enterprise

This article was written by Augment which address the difference in virtual reality and augmented reality. This article also focuses on how business can use VR and AR in communication, meetings, and trainings.

As noted by Augment (2016): “Virtual communication for meetings, presentations, or training can all be made more lifelike, immersive, and impactful by using VR. For example, a company can create a simulation of a conference room with furniture, art, and fixtures so all the participants feel as though they are sitting in the same room. Training sessions can also be enhanced, particularly in learning new skills or procedures that require a high level of hands-on detail and experience.”

 

It will be interesting to see how businesses change thanks to these new technologies.

What Does this Mean?

I’ve been getting quite a few questions about augmented reality and virtual reality, what are they? What is the difference? Why do they matter? Please let me explain 🙂

Augmented Reality vs. Virtual Reality:

Augmented reality (AR) is technology that uses computers, tablets, or phones to enhance apps in order to make them more meaningful and easier to interact with. For example, AR is used with apps on our cell phones and blends digital components into the world so that they enhance one another. AR is used to display score overlays on sports games and AR is what creates 3D emails, photos, and texts in cell phones. Augmented reality uses visual elements  and in conjunction with say a tablet, can create a virtual element in the real world, as illustrated by this picture.

Virtual Reality (VR) is a computer-generated simulation or recreation of real life that can either be computer-generated or produced. VR allows the user to be completely enveloped  within these virtual worlds and users often report feeling like they are experiencing what is happening around them. VR works by covering the user’s eyes and ears in a device that ‘transports’ the user to a new reality. This technology is used in two different ways:

1. VR is used in gaming systems as entertainment and play (i.e. movies and games).
2. VR can enhance real life training environments for aspiring pilots and medical students.

Why should people care about AR and VR?

In the past, both of these technologies seemed like science fiction and a figment of someone’s imagination. However, these two technologies allow the user complete control and deep interaction with real or virtual humans. This interaction allows potential for changing the medical field. For example using AR and VR medical students can now practice ‘remote surgeries’. Another wonderful aspect of this upcoming technology is its use to help Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other psychological conditions. Additionally, with HoloLens AR and VR are coming together for the first time and the result is breathtaking.

Reference:

Augment. (2016). The difference between virtual reality and augmented reality for      enterprise. Augment. http://www.augment.com/blog/difference-virtual-reality-augmented-reality-enterprise/

 

Real-Time Cinematography and Virtual Reality

The picture you are seeing is not a real person; meet Senua, a Celtic Warrior on a quest into the Viking Heartland. Why should you meet her? Well, Senua is a virtual human made possible by Melina Juergens, who is acting within a pre-established gaming world called Hellblade. Senua is a milestone in real-time cinematography, in which a real actor or actress takes stage with-in a virtual world.

Hell blade’s producer and director, Dominic Matthews, created this concept and it went to proof in only seven weeks.

 During this time Matthews was able to: “have a conversation wth Senua from within the game world, and it really hit me. It mean that as a director I could set up  the scene and have full control over things like lighting and cameras and VFX, so if I want to add fire to the set I can just go, ‘let there be fire’. The power of this means that we can change the performance of the scene without any green screen in sight” (1:03).

This is exciting news, especially in terms of what is possible for gaming, virtual reality and all movie production. So how exactly does she look so real?

Melina, the actress, was scanned in over one-hundred different expressions. From these, 3Lateral was able to contrast a double image of Melina that can portray every single possible facial expression.

The actress’ skin is so realistic that it can react with light, within the game, to show wrinkles, blood flow and even peach fuzz. Melina’s clothes and body were digitally scanned and uploaded, which were then manipulated by digital designers to make Senua the most realistic human ever to exist in a video gaming world. This means that users can interact with virtual characters, who are stunningly real and present, in ways that weren’t possible before.

Matthews created Senua who as a result of drama is battling with psychosis. Matthews wanted to represent the physical, emotional and metal trial of her journey.

“When you’re actually in virally reality and you’re looking into the eyes of this character, it really puts you there. You believe that this person is real.”-Dominic Matthews

Creating empathy through virtual reality is becoming even more possible thanks to real-time cinematography.