Hi, I'm a freshman and this is my first year in Help Desk. I have two brothers, one sister, and a dog. I am excited to learn new things about technology and get to know new people within the class. I play hockey and I am really good at video games although, I am not a video game nerd, just pretty good at them. I spend most of my time using technology and teaching a lot about technology. I am looking forward to learning and helping people who don’t understand a lot about technology, new things about it, and what the benefits are from using technology and the internet. I am most interested in becoming a police officer. I want to become a police officer so I can help provide for my family and help my family with needs. I joined Help Desk because I was interested in the technology part, and my brother recommended it to me. I have always been into and known a lot about technology and stuff with robots. Mainly just knowing if something was wrong with it and even being able to fix it sometimes. I figured this was the perfect opportunity to learn more and spread my knowledge with technology.
Weekly Reflection: AWS
AWS (Amazon Web Services): Allows you to make a Alexa and program it to do whatever you want and many more things to go along with it. The codes you can do with it is crazy. So much to do, and unlimited time to do it. We worked for a whole week attempting to finish it and we still couldn't one part. That is just a small representation on how long it takes. I'm sure it would takes years to complete.
What is CS Edu Week?
CS Ed Week (Computer Science Education Week) is a fun week that classes take time off to come down to Help Desk and learn about computer science or just fun electronics. This year, Microsoft came down with a VR Headset and allowed kids to play a game called Super Hot VR. It is a fun game that involves violence but it is "Cartoonish" so it is rated teen 13+. Another thing we did was Nintendo Labo. Nintendo Labo is a set of cardboard cut out that you can make and use with the Nintendo Switch. There will be two slots that you put the controllers into and it will sense the motion and go along with the game. My personal favorite game is a car game. You can drive around with a gas pedal and steering wheel. I think it is fun because it is kind of like a simulation to driving. Some other things we did were drones and Circuit Playground. All were fun but the ones I listed were my favorite.
Semester 1 Reflection:
Semester 1 was a pretty interesting semester. As the first semester being a Freshman in high school, there was a lot to get used to such as getting around the hallways, and finding all of my classes. Luckily for me, I have two siblings that went to this school so I my older sister was able to help me out and help me get around the hallways before the school year started. After the first week, I was walking the halls like a student that is a higher grade and has experience walking the halls. But other than that, all of my classes were fun. I had a few of my friends in just about all of my classes which I liked and made me a little more comfortable in those classes and the other classes, it took a couple weeks for me to adjust and get used to the kids in that class but then I was normal like I was in every other class. During second term, it was much easier after getting used to all of the homework I had to get done by the deadline but I got used to it and did it much more second term. All in all, semester one was a little bit harder but semester two is getting easier and much easier to handle with.
DropMix! Mashup Creator!
DropMix is a fun and entertaining family game that you can play with up to 6 people around the game board and have fun with many different mode that ranges from single player song creator to party mode which can get quite competitive if you choose it to be. The game comes with the board and a deck of music cards. You can buy additional cards with different genres of music. The price is around $100 but with the amount of fun you can have, it is very worth it and will last a while. All that is required to download after you receive it, is download n application from the Apple app store or the Google Play Store.
Nintendo Labo VR
Nintendo Labo VR is a multi-option that has many different cardboard cutouts to make different objects and put the Nintendo Switch into the VR cutout and play fun games. It is a fun game to play because you can make it, the play with it, and then discover meaning you can play with all of the kits in one game. While playing the different games, you can have many different options for the objectives for each game. We have learned how to use the Vive and how to use many other cardboard VR "headsets". When introduced to the Nintendo Labo VR, it was a new way of learning the technology of cardboard and it not being some useless thing that you can make into boxes and put different things in it. This was a new thing being introduced to it and we did a different set the first semester and that was revolving around driving, flying, and boating.
End of Year Blog Post
The end of the year was like the beginning until internships started. We would be assigned a project and would do it without any help from anyone and was very easy for the most part. When the internships ended, Mr. Wong was back in the room and introduced us to new things that made the class more fun and engaged the kids in our class more.
Beginning of Year Post 2019-2020
Start of the year. Obviously have not yet done much with anything yet but we are getting into the swing of things and getting used to everything. I am the only returning student in my class so I am helping with instructions and explaining my side of everything from last year. We have learned coding and different ways to program code in order to make a simple game that can be fun and interactive. We have also played a game and learned the program in order to play that game and what the game designers did with certain pieces of the game in order for the person to play the game correctly and connect two different things for it. Last year, he did the same thing but didn't go as in depth with it so I even learned something new this year rather than a repeat because I was here last year.
SweetHome3D
With SweetHome3D, you can do just about anything revolved around making a house. It ranges from making a single room house to making a full size multi-million dollar mansion. It gives you all of the different options of building a house. You can add rooms, floors, staircases, and any furniture that you want, you can even add an aquarium. On top of being able to add anything you want, you can even export it onto a obj file and you can 3D print it and have a house that you designed to look at and have a dream of making it a reality one day.
Individual Learning Endeavor
The individual learning endeavor is a project that we are doing in a group. We are doing something in VR and making our SweetHome project into VR and making it look like we are in an actual house and make things interactive. My job in the project is testing and helping give Luke ideas on what to make interactive and what to do further to increase the experience and make it seem like you are walking around a real house with a good structure. We are making it in Unity and making chairs have the ability to be pulled out and pushed in. We are also making the stairs walk able so we can explore the different floors. Lastly, we are eventually going to make it have the ability to be fully interactive and be able to sit on all of the couches, beds, etc. It will be more interactive and allow for a better experience with the project all together. I think it will look better and more work will be put into it for better experience as I previously stated. I enjoy working on this project because I am the tester. This means I get to put the headset on and interact with everything as it is being updated, fixed, and added. Being able to experience the progress while in the headset is cool to see what development teams do behind the scenes of games in order for us to play them as smooth as we do.
Reflection:
An application that we have been working on is called CoSpaces. It is a kid friendly app teaching you how to learn block coding ect. It had a fun portion of it as well. We took a base Wipe-Out game and we remixed it to be more challenging. We started by speeding up some of the swinging objects. We continued by changing the background to make it look like we were on the moon and made the gravity less so it was harder to complete. We ended with adding a level to the overall map and making it look even more advanced. While building the new map, we learned so many new things in the app and became very advanced in it. We were able to add animals and people to make it look so much better than with no creatures. We also added a ship because there was empty space in the middle and the floor was blue looking like water. It looked much better and made it way more lively than before.
The CoSpaces we used in class: https://cospaces.io/edu/https://cospaces.io/edu/
The CoSpaces we used in class: https://cospaces.io/edu/https://cospaces.io/edu/
Week One Of Coronacation
It's been hard getting adjusted to being home every day all day with my entire family. In the middle of being quarantined, we moved now living with my grandparents. My grandfather has been sick so we are all trying to adjust to this change on top of the virus. I'm spending a lot of time on my computer and in my fridge! Trying to deal with all of these changes has not been easy but we are making the most of it.
Week Two of Coronacation
Things are getting better and we all adjusted to the new norm. Lucky for us, my grandfather was discharged after two months of being away from home. We all celebrated Easter and are looking for more positive in the weeks to come.
Week Four
Week four was much better than the first couple of weeks. My grandfather has gotten much better and is up walking. All of us have adjusted helping him and all have certain things that we do in order to help. My job is to help him get in and out of bed and his chair. I'm happy that I am able to help and see him progress everyday. My sleep schedule has become even more messed up over the week. Most of the time, I have gone to sleep sometimes 4:30 or 5:00 AM. The day I am writing this, I went to sleep at around 5:00 AM and woke up at 4:00 PM.
Week Five
Week five was much better than I thought it would be. Not knowing what to expect, I went into it like any other week. My grandfather is now able to walk the length of the house. He is able to walk to bed, with help of course. I am still not going to sleep at normal times but still get the necessary sleep needed for a healthy brain and energy. I'm starting to spend a little more money than I would like, therefore making the decision to begin working again. My aunt and her family are visiting everyday, taking all precautions of quarantine. It is nice being able to see them and hear things that are going on at their house since we are not able to visit there ourselves.
Week Six
I'm back to work and loving it! It's great to be out and interacting face to face with others even though we do need to wear a mask. Really getting used to the quarantine as we are all getting used to our the new normal. The weather was nice so it was good to be outside and getting fresh air every once and a while. Waiting to see when the state will open again so we can get more back to normal.
Week Seven
I've been driving a lot this week and getting ready to hopefully start doing driving lessons with the driving school as I could've had my license in April. I prefer driving my moms car because it is faster and more fun. I have connected with a few more friends that I haven't spoken to since we left school. We are all dying to get out and be able to do something together. My sister has started making masks for people and was nice enough to make me a couple for work. I got mask of the day the two days I worked! She has been getting lots of orders and loves helping others...Need a mask?!?
Week Eight
I have been trying every salad on the menu at work so I know what the best ones are when people ask. So far, I really like the Cobb Salad. I used to always get the Deluxe Chicken Sandwich with fries and a milkshake. I like the salads much better because they are cheaper and better for me all together. Thinking about the seniors that unfortunately aren't going to be able to graduate like the rest of us are going to be able to hopefully.