Last week was computer science education week at BHS. Here at help desk we all prepared to talk about a specific topic that we have knowledge of. Personally, I prepared a talk for a portion of drone coding using the tynker app. Along with two other classmates, we showed students how to program the Parrot drones using the apps and talked about safety precautions with the drones. Another exciting thing that happened was the introduction of virtual reality at the high school. Microsoft brought two virtual reality headsets. One was a HolloLens virtual reality headset. This specific headset interacted with our current environment and incoorporated a virtual reality aspect that was programmed. Students were not allowed to use that headset, but I heard it was very interesting. As a class, we were all in love with the mixed reality headset that Microsoft brought. This came with two controllers and was very interactive. The first time I used it, it brought me on a hot air balloon that was above a mountain. It was crazy how real it felt and I almost did not want to take a step in fear of falling to my death. We found a game called Super Hot using the mixed reality headset (preview below). This game was so exciting and interactive and allowed students to experience virtual reality through a game. I found it was more intriguing than just taking in the sights from the hot air balloon. This game got the whole class hooked on virtual reality and a lot of us were really contemplating getting a vr headset for the PS4. Last week was a lot of fun because we taught students about what we have learned in help desk, but we also got to test and try out new experiences offered by Microsoft.
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Recently we have worked with 3D printing using both a printer and a pen. Using the 3D printing pens we briefly experimented with them, almost doodling of a sort. I attempted to make my name raised, but was very bad at using the pen. One of my classmates, Gati, is very skilled with the pens and actually made a model of an eifel tower seen below. We used BlocksCAD in order to make a 3D design that would be made in the printer. This website allows you to make 3D shapes like spheres, cubes, and cylinders. You can manipulate the shapes in terms of radius, x-axis, and y-axis. This let us stack things on top of each other in order to make objects and designs. My other classmate, Anthony, was able to make a 3D snowman that he also detailed with the 3D pens. Overall, 3D printing was able to peak my interest in block coding because we were able to create experiences and designs that were our own. I also really enjoyed using the 3D pens because they are very hard to use, but the process of trying to create a 3D object was fun for me.
This year we jumped right back into our involvement with drones. We have worked with coding specific directions into the smaller Parrot drones. You connect to the drones using bluetooth. After you are connected you can then program a sequence of block code that the drone will follow. A simple sequence would be to fly up for 3 seconds, fly forward for 3 seconds, turn 180 degrees, fly 3 seconds forward, and land. Other sequences could involve having the drone flip forward, backwards, and sideways. We also played around with different take off capabilities for the Parrot drones. We were able to toss the drone up in the air to initiate a takeoff. Although the Parrot drones teach a lot about coding and other aspects of drones, I have definitely found a liking toward the DJI drones, which include the Mavic Pro and Mavic Air. We have not gone into great depth about the capabilities of the drones in terms of video taking, but we have flown them a few times. One of the cool things we have done with the drone was learning how to fly the drone using our hands and not the controller. We are in the process of piecing together a video demonstration on how to fly the drones. We are using final cut pro in order to do so. In the video we go over, step by step, how to prepare the drone for flight as well as how to fly and work the drone. Some of these steps include checking the propellors, taking off the gimbal cover, and placing the drone on a flat surface for takeoff. It is important to be safe with the drones because they can be dangerous if used inappropriately. We use the DJI app to interact with the drone and it is very user friendly and efficient. We are going to continue to use the drones in class, but we are trying to figure out ways to use the drones for tasks other than recreational activities. They have already been used in physics classes to teach students about acceleration and velocity. Mr. Wong also used the drone to tape the half time show at the football game which came out awesome! In upcoming events students are going to take the drones to the middle school and possibly elementary schools, where they will show the young kids how drones work. This will help them learn more about technology in a fun and interactive way. Below there are pictures captured by the drone. There are no videos due to the difficulty in placing a video into the post through my google account. (Sorry!)
Fornite is a game that has taken the world by storm. It seems that everyone, everywhere is submersed in the online game. It is a platform that can be played in solos, duos, or squads. Duos having a 2-person team, and squads having 4 people per team. Fortnite has even made its way into many professional sport locker rooms. With a lot of traveling and a lot of time spent in locker rooms, players have found many ways to keep themselves occupied. Some teams get into heated ping pong matches, or play a game of cards, but the new wave is fortnite. Teams and players have started playing in their locker rooms, in hotel rooms, and at home. But the question is, is fortnite bad for these athletes? David Price is a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. He has claimed to be an avid fortnite player, talking about how he, and the team, plays it everywhere they go and when they have time in the locker room. They have even used many fortnite celebrations after big hits. In a series against the Yankees, Price missed his start due to carpal tunnel syndrome. This is when the median nerve, one of the major nerves in the hand, is squeezed or compressed as it travels to the wrist. This causes a pain, numbness, or tingling in the hand. For a pitcher the hand and wrist are a major part of throwing a baseball. With all of Price's gaming, speculation has risen as to whether gaming caused Price's carpal tunnel syndrome. It is possible, but unknown. As for Price, he has proclaimed that he will be cutting down on his gaming in order to lessen the stress placed on his hands and wrists. Drones are starting to take over as technology advances. People love the ability to pilot drones and put them to all different sorts of uses. People push the limits on the usage of drones and they seem to find new advancements every day. Whether it is for filming a cool adventure, using them for a construction site, or even scoping out an area in the military. If you watched the Olympics you may have even seen the crazy drone show that was put on by Intel. The sky is the limit for drones. Here at BHS we are in the process of integrating drone usage into learning. We received a drone grant here at Help Desk and everyone seems to be extremely exited about it. We are most likely going to be purchasing a DJI Mavic Pro, an additional Mavic Air, and another set of Parrot Mambos that we will make available to teachers that wish to make use of them. We already have one teacher that seems to be interested, and I'm sure that with students' love for technology that the usage will go up once we receive the drones. As for right now, we are taking a Mavic drone on flights while in class to get used to how they operate. We have split ourselves into various roles that include, drone safety, pilots, integrating the Parrot drones with Chromebooks, and programming parrot drones. I am personally very excited to see how we can combine fun and entertaining technology in school related topics. Everything Gaming! Gaming is huge right now. Year by year gaming popularity seems to increase with all of the new platforms that help promote it. With websites like twitch, gamers can stream their games as well as themselves for people to watch. At the moment, the most notable gamer on twitch, would be Tyler Blevins. He is more well-known for his gamer tag, "Ninja". He started taking gaming very seriously when he was a junior in high school. In an interview he had in 2011, he was making around 100 dollars a day through his stream of Halo. He has been a part of many gaming teams that compete at different tournaments. Currently his streaming of Fortnite has brought him the most success. In an interview, he states that he is making around $500,000 a month. This is made through things like sponsors and donations. With his global success, he is making waves around the world for the possibilities of professional gaming. For a rundown of Ninjas life refer to the video below. With the biggest competitive gaming platform being eSports, many gamers dream of someday winning large at a tournament. ESports offers an extremely wide range of games to play. Almost any game that has a winner and loser can be played on eSports. The more popular and competitive a game is, the more likely you will win more money and prizes. Crowds to watch big tournaments can be larger than most sporting events. There is a combination of team play and solo play. Most relevant tour community at Burlington High School, as we have talked about in help desk, we have our own professional gamer here at BHS. Ronin D'Auria, a junior, has been gaming for a while now. He started playing when he was young and was drawn to the tournaments due to his great talent. He has a lot of success with his gameplay in Rocket League. He has one many tournaments and has amassed a lot of profit from these tournaments. He most notably played in RLRS, Dreamhack Atlanta, and the NBC Universal Open 2v2 format. At dreamhack he and his team placed top 8. He has earned a contract from FlyQuest and is a paid a monthly income. Although he is not allowed to disclose the terms of his contract, he does state that, "the current average salary of a signed team in the RLRS is around $2.5k-3k per player, monthly". Ronin finds it extremely difficult to balance professional gaming with school and activities because he strives to be a good student, but also needs to find time to practice his play. When I asked Ronin about his future he talked about the dependence on how big gaming could become. If it does keep growing and he has the option to make it a career, he will pursue that. If not, college is always an option for him. Gaming and gaming leagues are allowing many people to pursue a dream. Good luck to Ronin on his future in gaming, and thank you for giving me a better, and first hand insight, into the world. |
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