Month: October 2020 (Page 2 of 2)

PE Blog #1

October 23, 2020 / Carla / 0 Comments

Learning to row

Since the pandemic restrictions were put in place last spring I have been spending much more time at home and, mostly, sitting at a desk or computer. So when I found out that my 310 class would have us try out a new recreation activity I was pretty excited to have more motivation to get moving. One of my housemates got a rowing machine in the summer and since it is in a common area they told all of us we could use it if we wanted to try it out. I had initially been hesitant to use the rowing machine, but I figured that this was the perfect excuse to try it out.

Before I started on the rowing machine I checked out a few videos on proper form and techniques, my housemate also gave me a few helpful tips to get me started. They also warned me about starting out too fast. Originally I had thought I could sort of jump in and go for 30 mins but they suggested to start with 10 mins the first time and work my way up from there and am I happy I did. I normally get exercise by biking so my legs had no issues with the rowing but my upper body was a whole other story. After my first 10 mins I felt pretty good, but later that night there was some pain in my back and arms. The next day I felt good so I went for another 10 mins and continued doing just 10 mins the first week and managed to get 4 days on the rower.

I had some back and arm pains but nothing that didn’t feel better in one or two days.

Until next time!

Learning the guitar

October 22, 2020 / Carla / 0 Comments

This term I will be learning some beginner guitar and exploring music with it

New Recreation Activity

October 22, 2020 / Carla / 0 Comments

Here I will be posting about my adventures as a begin rowing on an indoor rowing machine.
Check back for updates!

Finding my Minecraft home

October 10, 2020 / Carla / 0 Comments

Making Progress

Okay, I have spent a bit more time in this game and this was the first week where I wanted to keep playing after my scheduled time was up. Because of the open world concept that this game has I was finding it hard to really focus on anything. I also found the day-night cycles annoying because I felt the need to run back ‘home’ every time the sun went down. Oh yeah, I found a home!

My Town (it’s a ghost town)

I found an abandoned village at the end of my last session and I was genuinely (a little) excited. I didn’t know that you can set a respawn point at a bed when you sleep in it, so that was great. Now when I die I don’t just appear in a random spot, somewhat close to all the loot I dropped, on the map. I cleared the spiderwebs out of one of the buildings and added doors so I could stay safe during the dangerous night mode in the game. This probably took me way longer than it should have but thats what I get for watching a single how to video on this convoluted game.

This feels familiar, sort of.

During this Minecraft session I started finding a bit more enjoyment in the crafting side of the game. I

Cooking some food in Minecraft

am building up an array of materials and am able to remember where I can find certain materials in the game. In fact, the crafting side of the game reminded me of the game Stardew Valley. Which got me wondering because I enjoyed playing Stardew Valley so why wasn’t that same enjoyment coming through in Minecraft? There is even a day/night cycle, a part of Minecraft that I have been frustrated by, in Stardew Valley so what gives? Then I realized that I stopped playing Stardew Valley after I had completed the storylines in the game. So maybe that is the problem, although I’ve spent hours in loot-grind cycles in other games. It could be the open world, no obvious goals that makes it seem a little pointless to me.

Wait, is Minecraft “free inquiry” in game form?!

Okay I’ll have to unpack that idea on my own for a little bit. Next time I’ll be talking about venturing away from my new found home and delving deep into the earth around me, after all it is called MINEcraft.

Until next time!

Fourth Week Reflection

October 10, 2020 / Carla / 0 Comments

This week I decided to look into using Trello. We had talked about this app in class and I was intrigued because I am always looking at ways to schedule myself or groups more efficiently. At first Trello looked like Padlet, which I was using frequently in the summer for work. I used Padlet to work on weekly camp schedules and activities with my coworkers so we could both add in ideas where we thought they would fit best. However, after working in both apps I can see how much more powerful Trello is.

Details Details Details!
I was impressed with how much this app allows you to edit in a single ‘card’. For instance, you might have a card labeled “English 201 Essay” but you can click into that card and add a more detailed description, a checklist, a due date, or assign that card to a member of a team you are working with. You can also assign colours (Trello also includes colour blind options) to cards, so you could make all your biology assignments appear blue, but those cards will turn red if not completed by the due date you assigned them. Although I wish they applied a traffic light system to the due date so you get a warning, yellow colour change, when you are 24hrs from a due date.

I was roaming the internet looking for helpful board templates and wow is there a bunch available out there! I love being able to try out different systems because I am able to see what I like best from a variety of sources and then merge them into something that I like working with. Trello boards are no different, so I’ll be copying some of the boards I have found to see what works for me.

If you want to copy some free Trello boards here is a video of how to copy a Trello board.

I found the Trello boards in the above video through this YouTube account.

Until next time!

A Minecraft post for people sensitive to motion sickness

October 4, 2020 / Carla / 0 Comments

Photo by Nina PhotoLab on Unsplash

This week I spent more time in the world of Minecraft but with a few changes. The first session I played I had to cut a bit short because I was overcome by nausea and dizziness. I originally attributed the feelings to the large amount of ice cream I had eaten while I was playing but was worried it may have been motion sickness. After paying for a while during my second session my suspicions were confirmed, Minecraft is among the first person view games that give me motion sickness. I have had this happen with other games before (Portal and Halo to name a couple) but not all first person view games have this effect on me. To solve, or at least lower, this issue I have a couple tricks I try before giving up on a game so I tried these out on Minecraft to see if I could continue this inquiry.

First I went into settings and lowered the mouse sensitivity, this makes the movement of your mouse slower on screen so that instead of flicking all around in the field of view your “head” moves slower within the game. Less chaotic movement in the game can be earlier on the tummy sort of how going down a rollercoaster gets some adrenaline going where going down a rollercoaster while spinning would be much uhm, messier. I mentioned field of view and this is another setting that can be changed in Minecraft, and many other games. I find that a wider field of view can help with motion sickness so I increased the field of view, this is also done in the settings menu.

The last change I try to solve motion sickness issues in first person view games is my last resort change. I only do this when the first two changes still leave me nauseous and the change is the “window” the game. This is when you play the game out of full screen mode, as a window, with part of your background/desktop showing. Having the game sit within a stable image really helps me with motion sickness, but the game can feel much less immersive so I only do this if the other changes don’t work.

This photos show a game starting in “windowed” view

Video Games Made, Not Played By Flickr User Myrtle Beach The Digitel (CC BY 2.0) Photo cropped in to show screen

Here is the YouTube video I got these tips from

I’m not sure if there are other methods to solve motion sickness while gaming because these have always worked for me.

I ended up finding an abandoned village in my game, more on that in my next update!

Sign that reads "No video games until after homework is done. Capice?"

No games photo by Robert Couse-Baker Cropped in for emphasis

A good reminder, but what if my homework is video games?

Photo of tree in field — Photo Taken By Carla Scott

Third week reflection

October 1, 2020 / Carla / 0 Comments

Photo Taken By Carla Scott

This week we took a break from a typical class and had guest speaker Jesse Miller join us. Their presentation was about social media in education, and safety concerts around that. Miller was also speaking to broader digital identity, rights, and literacy among students and school staff members.

It was a great presentation partially because I had never really spent time to really think about topics they brought up, like how schools handle cell phone policies. I supposed I aged myself a bit by saying that, but when I was in secondary school students having cell phones was very rare. Having never been on the receiving end of this debate the idea of cell phones being confined to bags all class never bothered me. When Miller talked about teachers including a phone break in class it made me think of all the times when I’m feeling stuck, or can’t focus so I check my phone or watch a couple quick YouTube videos to have a sort of brain break. There are also times where I am on a roll and head down for long periods of time, but I think using timed breaks can really help maintain focus. There have been many times where I am dreading the start of a project because I foresee it taking X amount of time and its really daunting, or I don’t even know where to start. When starting is the hardest part I try thinking “I’ll just try for 20 mins and then take a break” I’m not sure why the promise of a break has this effect on me but it can be really amazing what is produced in that time. That was a bit of a long explanation but I think what I am trying to say is the promise of “free time”, even 5 or 10 minutes, can be really motivating.
I was also really interested in the conversation about boundaries and expectations being a way to empower students. I think this is a great idea and I’ve used a similar technique at summer camps with children. We set up “camp rules” that we make as a group so everyone has a say in what we want to put into and see from campers and leaders. This activity always results in more community accountability as the children seem to feel more like they are an important member and decision maker rather than a person that has to follow a list of boring rules made up by the leaders.
Now, I’m off to play some more Minecraft!