Remember that your final projects, as well as any late make-up work, are due today by MIDNIGHT. Email your files to asalter (at) ubalt.edu. I am responding to projects as they arrive–make sure to watch your email for confirmation that your file was received and is working!!
Final grades will be posted tomorrow. If you have any questions or concerns, I will be in my office Thursday from 12:30 to 5:00.
Reflective Essay:
Imagine that, one decade from now, you are working in the Baltimore
area in the industry. University of Baltimore approaches you and asks
you to teach this same course, Applied Simulation, but updated for the
new concerns facing the field. What do you teach? How do you teach it?
For reference, you’re given the Applied Simulation course description:
This course concentrates on non-entertainment applications of
interactive simulation in areas such as technical communication,
emergency preparedness, and education. Students will study a range of
simulations representing various approaches to visualization and
interaction, analyzing the ways in which they use conventions of
interactive play to serve larger purposes of learning and discovery.
Using basic multimedia tools, students will prototype interactive
presentations for training and education.
Write a 1-2 page plan for your new version of the course. Email your
essay to asalter@ubalt.edu.
Final Reflective Essay
In class (1-2 pages, 30 minutes)
Class Evaluations
Final Project check in: remember, your final project is due by email 12/15 at midnight!
I’m bringing cheese curls, barbecue potato chips, and pretzels.
Virtual environments that teach students within a single or multiple semiotic domains. The environment could be tailored for each individual student focusing on their strengths and weaknesses to achieve a customized learning path. A newer, fully interactive version of the smartboard, only smaller and located on each students desk. Students that are weak in math but stong in english or history, could concentrate more on math without impacting other students learning paths. These “mini-smartboards” would also adapt the virtual environments by remembering the students particular learning styles. (ie. texted based or picture based)
Ryan Thorton, James Crimmins, Jon Bednez, Kyle Bowser.
The critical skill which our group decided was missing from the current educational system is the ability to learn how to learn what you don’t know, opposed to route learning facts. The critical issue is that students will constantly need to search for new more modern information. As technology and information advance, the cold hard facts and the ability to recall them become less important than the ability to access and use cognitive artifacts. To this end students will need to be able to research a topic and process their findings.
Our classroom aid is a class where students are required to choose a subject and push their understanding of that topic. Students learn to research their interest and push their understanding to a higher level. This does two things, first the students gets to spend school time researching what their interested in. The secondary benefit is that it teaches students how to research. A skill which will become increasingly more important as the world’s information becomes ever more accessible.
Learning lessons in a virtual experience, such as a holodeck, would elevate the educational retention of students. The standard subjects of school can be practiced in a form that you can experience fully. It is a practical experience as opposed to a theoretical foundation. It enhances the way that the student perceives the lesson. In biology the student can see the inner working of animals, watch chemical compounds binding, and see DNA replication. In history, you can experience the key battles, meeting all the generals and combatants. For literature you are in the story itself; experiencing everything the character experiences and living the story.
Maureen Sullivan
Zachary Ryan
Jason Rummel
3d hologram box – “The Box” – users form thoughts to manipulate/create their ideas. Users utilize this box to formulate and visualize their ideas rather than the idea of forming a thought bubble. Users will mold their thoughts like sculptors mold clay. The technology will engage all of the user’s senses, (touch, smell, taste, sound, sight) which will enable further learning and emotional engagement. This technology will be some kind of machine that portrays 3d holograms where users can further explore their own ideas by experiencing them with all of their senses. Users will have to begin interacting with the box in kindergarten all the way through their high-school/college years. The box will end up becoming an actual projection system in later school years – high-school college. In later years, the user will be able to project their though process from the conception of the idea to a finalized product. Other people will be able to see the entire process of the thought. Users will learn about all subjects of learning similar to the illustrated primer but much more interactive. Christina, Josh, Bryan, Sean
The changes that could be made within the next 10 years to the way we learn and teach will most likely change mediums, as it has already begun, the mediums would change from paper on pen and books to, computers and games and websites. Where per say a history class would no longer be taught or learned, but rather played and/or observed. It would be more of a modern and futuristic philosophy. Where philosophy is seen as a random arrow being shot, and the target is later drawn around it. This class would be taking the past and present on multi-educational platforms to predict the best trajectory for the arrow, and in ten years the distance between the target – the present state – and the arrow – the prediction 15 years prior – would be measured to predict the future. As we talk about what will become of us in the next 10 years, when that point is reached we would still be thinking about the next 10 years after that, and thus improving or trying to improve the way things are taught and learned.
In class discussion of Cory Doctorow’s For the Win and futurist visions
Thoughts on Farmville: They Reap What You Sow /FB games and privilege
The game layer on top of the world
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