3D Virtual Worlds / Second Life

Video Games

     The first time I got acquainted with video games was at the age of 8-9 when parents presented us, me and my brother, with Sony Playstation –series of video game consoles. That was really awesome! We were playing day and night. Each of us was impatiently waiting for our turn to play our favorite games.

    One of my favorite action games was “Xena: The Warrior Princess”, based on the worldwide known  TV series with the same name, which I also watched. The second game, I “got a crush” on was the worldwide known, “the old good Italiano man”-“Mario”.

     These were the best moments of my life, whenever I took remote control and started my fascinating adventure to the amazing world of games.

   Later on when the world stepped into the era of new tools and my parents purchased computer for us, I did not return to my childhood, though there was the time when I could not resist myself and fell into the long-forgotten “Mario” and “Xena” worlds. With the purchase of computer my interests changed; things that caught my attention as games did at one time were listening to music, reading the books, watching online movies, chatting with the friends and what’s more important computer became an educational tool which let me search the websites I was highly interested in, which in their turn helped me to learn, to acquire and entertain myself.

   As far as I have mentioned I did not return to the video games any more, except the ones that developed my critical thinking, analytical skills, i.e intellectual games, like crosswords, memory games and so on. The person who has grown up, but is still playing games is my brother and his friends. He is an avid player. He plays lots of games, starting from WARFACE to SIMS, basically action games. When I say, you are growing up and you are still playing all of these games like a child, he answers: “You don’t get how useful the games are. Games, in spite of category, are intended to promote collaboration and cooperation with other players, provides them with cross-cultural interaction, because while playing, for example, during WARFACE, you are playing with players of different nationalities. You learn how to work together. You have to think quickly and make a decision and decide the strategy you are going to use.”

  “The games like SIMS place one in more real settings, where the players can design, experiment and, finally, create his/ her own world”.

    The main opportunity of the games is that after failing any level, the player has a way to start the game over and over again. Sometimes it gets boring, but “falling and rising again” every time leads the player to new solutions and thoughts towards this or that trick of the game.

    However, being as positive as they are computer games carry negative side. The same games, like WARFACE make players completely addicted to the virtual world. The robots who have a special aim, the players shoot and kill their enemies and they get pleasure of it. I suppose this turns young players into emotionally severe and cruel people who yearn for blood, killings and who are so happy, when they say: ”I killed them all. I won.” The children become aggressive and violent, and fearful towards the real world, which can lead to the bad consequences, like suicide, murder, getting crazy and so on. This happens when children forget the verge between the reality and fantasy.

    From the medical point of view, prolonged computer game use may lead to health problems which can be irreversible, for example the risk of dry eyes which happens as a result of rare blinking and petrification of the whole body as a result of not moving frequently. That’s why parents are the very people who should limit their children’s access to the computer games; if they want their children grow up emotionally and physically healthy people.

    Thus, from the educational point of view, computer games carry powerful mission for developing critical and analytical skills, creativity; promoting collaboration and cooperation, cross-cultural interaction; ability to think quickly and make an appropriate decision towards this or that move; ability to improve visual thinking and many other skills. However, these skills carry not only learning purpose, but also shape life skills that in their turn make our children the very representatives of the Digital Age.

    In my turn, I am really grateful that we touched upon this topic. For a while it took me back to the sweet childhood, where everything was as simple as a game at least in my case. This is the golden memory that awakens the soul, leaving it yearning every time.

Digital Video

     07.10.2014. You will ask: what is this date? Here is the answer. On this day Anna Harutunyan, Emily Hovhannisyan and I made a video. Can you imagine a self-made video? It was awesome. It’s not like I haven’t done anything like this before, but this experience was a bit different. Probably the reason was that this time I was making this video with my friends and secondly, because it was dedicated to the AUA.

     We called our video “One Day in the Life of the AUA”. In our video we tried to cover the places we spend most of our time at the AUA. These places include library, where we look for interested us literature and study, cafeteria, where have lunch and study, our classroom, where we do spend our classes. Our video was not only intended to show how we spend our day at the AUA, but also that the students come here for getting knowledge, for self-enriching themselves, i.e. for sake of study , which is the very suitable word for the AUA.

     How did we work on producing the video? Our video was made of several shots. When we were done with the shooting, we got down to montaging it. For this purpose we used a website “Kizoa”- a free slideshow maker and photo editing site. We did not use any special effects. We wanted to make it as natural as it is possible. It seems it turned out really well.

    As far as our hands-on project is dedicated to Video Production, we will be able to present website “Kizoa” and as an example we will show our video. I hope everyone will like our video.

    This was our first experience of making the video together, and as a result of our mutual collaboration we got an incredibly amazing “One Day in the Life of the AUA” which we’ll cherish as many other days that passed and days that are still to come in our memory forever.

P. S.   

  Basically, for my thesis project I was supposed to do movies as a source of the authentic language for foreign language learning and language enhancement and I had a lot of ideas how I was going to bring this project to realization. During my lessons I would introduce students with movies which could be a supplement for their curriculum and which also would present them with English-speaking culture and help not only to improve their language skills, particularly their listening and speaking skills, but also develop their critical thinking and broaden their outlook. In this case my students will act as the consumers. To turn them into producers I would also ask them to make a digital video, which would give them the opportunity to put their experience, imagination, creativity, innovative ideas into realization ; promote their collaboration and cooperation with their peers. Producing the digital video would give them the authentic learning opportunities, develop life skills and what’s important their video would be produced for in real-life contexts and real audience. My purpose is that after watching particular video on a certain topic students will be able to create a digital video related to that topic which will help them better to grasp the essence of the studied material. I think that could be a really good experience for them as students which at the same time will bring them one step closer to the e-learning. Unfortunately, I was demotivated and cut from the opportunity of realizing my ideas.

     As you see the usage of digital video has a lot of advantages and can be used for educational purposes. Of course, in my case I was going to combine watching movies and producing video/ movies, but this type of e-learning can be used in different pedagogical implications and different spheres. For example, if students study environment issues and topic of the day is “Pollution”, one of the tasks may be to make a video on “Pollution in Armenia”. That way students will be more engaged in learning process and will be the main investigators and witnesses of real-life situations happening in a particular context, in our case pollution in Armenia.

    That’s why my message to all of the teachers: do not be afraid of using technology in your class. Definitely some of you may think that using high tech tools will only divert your students’  attention from the studied material, but it is not so. On the contrary, it will motivate and encourage them more not only in theory, but what’s important in practice, because only in practical way our students will be able to get to the core of the studied material, which will be possible via using tech tools, particularly in this case, via digital video.

           "The Adventures of a Polar Bear"

                                                                                                    by 

                                                                                                
                                                                                           Anna Abgaryan

    

     Once upon a time, there lived a polar bear. She spent most of her days waiting with her two cubs near the leads in the ice, hoping to hunt a seal once they came out of the water to breathe. This was the third day that they have been waiting, but still there was no sign of any seal. They were hopeful so they continued waiting. Days were passing. She knew that waiting was not a solution anymore. When her cubs fell asleep she decided not to lose another minute and left them in hope of finding some food. When she returned she couldn’t believe her eyes. They were gone. She couldn't see them anywhere. She should go and find them but the weather was so cold and the wind was blowing the snow so hard.

     That was an omen; omen of a blizzard, the one that usually happens in the Arctic Circle and does not end very fast. Even though, the snowstorm was hard, she could not stay calm and wait when her cubs will appear.” And what if not?  What if something bad happened to them? “Why did I leave them? What if I will never see them again?” These thoughts haunted her the whole way. She called their names: ”Where are you?" She looked for a long time, but she couldn’t find them.

   “I won’t stop, I will keep looking, until I find them”-she kept saying

    The wind howled, blowing crystal flakes of snow through the air. After a few minutes she spotted on a Penguin, another representative of the Arctic World.

   "Hello, Penguin. Have you seen two Polar cubs wandering around?" The Polar Bear asked.

   "No, I am sorry, but I haven’t. Are they lost?" the Penguin asked.

   “It’s all my fault. “-she burst out crying. “I left them alone in hope of finding some food, because my little cubs haven’t eaten anything for a long time and the days were passing. I could not wait any more. I am a bad mother.”

    “Do not say like this. You left to find food for them. They probably got carried away with the game and somehow got lost. Don’t worry. I am gonna help you to look for them.”

    “You are going to help?”-she asked

    “So, do you need my help or not?

    “Of course, of course I would be endlessly glad for your help”.

    The Polar Bear and the Penguin walked on, looking behind barrows of snow, and anywhere they thought the little cubs might be. Soon the blizzard began to lighten up. They could see much better. Off in the distance the Penguin noticed a great mass lying on the ice. It’s a Walrus.

   The Penguin said to the Walrus: ”We’re looking for little cubs. They went out in the storm earlier and now we can’t find them.”

   “Have you seen them?" asked the Polar Bear.

   "No. Haven’t seen a slightest thing. I’ve been sleeping. That is our main lifestyle: we eat and we sleep.”

   “Do you want to come and help us?" asked the Penguin

   "Sure, I’ll definitely help you. Where do you think they might go?" The Walrus said

   "I don’t know. They are so small.” The Polar Bear kept weeping.

  “We’d better find them before dark, cause after it gets more dangerous and besides, the cubs will get frightened" -The Walrus said.

   Three animals walked on, calling little cubs’ names, but there was no answer.

   The storm had soon stopped. Only some flakes of snow fell and the wind had slowly “calmed its severity down”. The sky turned blue and the sun started to come out of the clouds and shine on the icy ground.

   The more they walked they neared the edge of the ice where it meets the ocean; they spotted a white Snowy Owl, sitting on a rock.

   "Owl, have you seen two little polar bears?" The Walrus asked.

   "No, I haven’t. Why do you ask?" the Owl wondered.
   "My little cubs are lost. They are so small and alone in this land of Ice” The Polar Bear cried.
   "I’ll come with you and hope the sky will help us to find them”-said the Snowy Owl.
    And so four animals were looking for the polar bear cubs all calling, the cubs’ names, but still, there was trace of them. They kept walking.
   Time went on. Suddenly four animals stopped, because of the sounds reminding them the chirps, trills, whistles and clicks. Out of the ocean they saw the White Beluga swimming around. They stood on the edge of the ice looking down at the White Beluga.
   “Where are you going? “-asked the White Beluga
   The Polar Bear:” Here is the thing: my little cubs are lost, and we cannot find them anywhere.”
   The White Beluga replied-“I do have kids. I do understand you like no one else. I’ll help you find them. I’ll swim around and see what I can see and let the ocean help me" she said and swam away.
   The night came. All of them stopped the searches. They were tired and exhausted. They had been walking for hours so in no time they all fell asleep. In the meantime, the White Beluga swam around. She looked everywhere, but she couldn’t see any sign of the polar bear cubs.
   The whole night the Polar Bear could not sleep, sighing and weeping until she met the dawn.
   The searches of the little cubs renewed. They went on and on and it seemed the hope was already gone and they were about to give up when the Snowy Owl’s eyesight spotted on the three figures: one of them lying on the ice and two of them playing on the icy ground. When all of the animals got closer, the Polar Bear cried out: “Cubs, my little cubs!” With these words she was running towards them. The cubs turned around in excitement, hearing the dearest voice. They started running, shouting” Mommy, we are here”.
   She was embracing and hugging them and kissing them from head to foot. She was crying, but these were the teardrops of joy.
  “Why have you run away? I got scared to death”-asked the Polar Bear crying.
  “We wanted to help you and find the seal ourselves”. –said the boy cub
 “And we found Mommy. He was lying on the edge of ice.”-said the girl cub.
 “So much time passed and you are hungry.”
 “No, Mommy, we ate”-said the girl cub
 “You ate? Where? How?”-asked the Polar Bear surprisingly.
 “The seal fed us.”-the cub said
 “The Seal?”- wondered the Polar Bear
 “He caught the fish from the ocean and gave to us”-joyfully answered the boy cub.
  The Polar Bear came up to the Seal and thanked him for taking care of her cubs.
 “I would never hurt them. They are so nice little cubs.”-answered the Seal
   The Polar Bear felt ashamed. She wanted to hunt for the Seal out of food and it turned out the food saved her cubs. “Life is a mystery”-she thought. “One can never predict what can happen and how the situation can turn out.”
   "Thank you, the Seal, for saving our cubs," said the animals.  

    The Polar Bear lost her cubs for a while , but  gained many friends –the Penguin, the  Walrus, the Snowy Owl ,the White Beluga and the Seal. Never again will the cubs get lost, but if they do there are many friends looking out for them and find them.