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Remote Ready Biology Learning Activities
Remote Ready Biology Learning Activities has 50 remote-ready activities, which work for either your classroom or remote teaching.
Narrative is determined not by a desire to narrate but by a desire to exchange. (Roland Barthes, S/Z)
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A Random Walk
Play Chance in Life and the World for a new perspective on randomness and order.
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lots of MC reflections ...
i wasnt able to write up my reflections immediately after playing for the last few days, so i'm going to mush them all together in this post for today ...
accomplishments - I BUILT A HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! well, kind of ... but i'm still super excited and proud .... im still in singleplayer, so i feel awesome about myself that i survived long enough to do so ... i kept getting confused about how/where to get stone, and tonight i was mining some random dirt and then fell through the earth into this underground cave/mine. id seen other people in these spaces but didn't know how to get to them, myself. trial and error, yay learning process ... so then i mined the heck out of a bunch of stone, etc which was actually really empowering feeling ... i built lots of axes and shovels, etc. I spent my first night there, avoiding death .. the next day, i made some bowls but am one mushroom short of making stew ... then as night approached the second time, i panicked, feeling very protective of my hard won progress, so i quickly built a wooden enclave into the side of a mountain. this really consisted of me walling myself into the side of the cliff so that to get out i hard to hack my way through the wooden blocks and re-mine them ... but it kept me alive! i get bored at night, though, i just had to stand there until day broke. at first, though, i didn't understand how to actually place blocks to build things but then realized it must be like placing anything else, like a crafting table. so in a more meta learning sense, i was able to make connections between an unknown/question and what i already knew and had practiced. i used the 'how to build a house in MC' website i found last week for step by step instructions (mine wood, build a wood pickaxe, mine stone, build a stone pickaxe, etc ..) - so i've been liking this combination of guided and at times explicit instruction and then my own free exploration. i also didnt understand how to build a roof at first but just kept clicking frantically to place blocks until it seemed like i was safe enough. so i know im still 'behind' the general curve of the rest of us in terms of my building skills/expertise, but i wanted to celebrate my own accomplishment haha .. i hope to re-join the class server soon so that i can actually contribute to larger/communal projects, but maybe its good that im developing my skills individually before joining the larger group, who knows...
observations - i've had 3 experiences in which i've been able to connect my 'life' in MC to my life outsisde of it (or to use thomas' lingo, which i like, my analogue to my digital life) - or in another sense, MC has helepd me strengthen my relationships in the analogue world, which is something i never would have expected and have strongly thought the opposite until very recently.
questions - id like to talk with some of these friends i've mentioned who play/have played MC on their own. id like to ask them similar questions to those that we raised in our talk with thomas. id like to know more about their own experiences with it. especially because my one friend said she had 'wasted' the day playing it, i wonder if she could think of it as an educational tool or something that can so benefit your personal development ..
struggles - i had paused the game to do something else, and all of a sudden once i rejoined the whole imagery was totally pixelated (more so than usual :) and very blurry .. things still worked ok, but it all felt like slow motion as i tried to move around and do things. it was very hard to look at. i asked my resident MC expert, and he said that it was probably because the game itself is such a large file and that my computer might be overloaded .. he fiddled with some of the game settings for the graphics and other things, but it didnt help .. i suggested i close out of the game and maybe even restart my computer, which he agreed with, but i havent done so yet .. anyone else experience this?? another struggle is that i still can't seem to get back on the class server! i had forgotten the code, but after i ran into robert in the DC he reminded me of it, but when i entered it i still was not able to connect ... i will bring this up in class tuesday and hope someone can help me straighten it out ..