Keeping It Real Blog
By: Aijah Jones
Week 1:
Engineering: The skills that I am training for in engineering are my acting skills. What I've learned so far about what it takes to be an actor, is that you have to be serious and know how to fake your emotions super well. Some challenges that I had were searching for sites to support my job. There wasn't a lot of websites that could teach me how to act in a VR world. My celebrations were playing the acting games that my group and I created. It was able to get us used to what it's like to be an actress etc. My goals for next week are to be hired as a researcher maybe for Ximena's proposal. I love to research and find out new information about things.
English: Our study about Propaganda and doublespeak had a huge impact on my thinking because I am able to look at things from a whole different perspective.
Week 2:
I think that the most disturbing prediction of the Singularity reading was when they predicted that a little later from now, lawyers will not be needed. This fact kind of blew my mind away because I have a lot of family and friends who plan on becoming lawyers etc. I think that the job fair interview was authentic because in a way, it was preparing us for the real world and what it's like to actually have skills and qualifications. It could've been made more authentic by making it it more professional. Like maybe us dressing up etc. What I learned about myself throughout this process is that I am very good with job interviews.
In my opinion, I personally think that advertising does shape and reflect our society because it influences us. If we didn't see those things, we would most likely behave in a whole different way. There should be stricter regulations on advertisers that way kids won't be influenced in such a negative away. Restrictions should be that there should be no alcohol in kids commercials.
Week 3:
Something that's working well so far is that I am able to surround myself with very supportive peers who help reduce my stress. A problem that I've noticed so far in this project is that a lot of my peers are stressing and having trouble wondering whether or not we're going to be able to finish the project on time or not. I would fix it by maybe having other class assignments to balance out our grades especially in Dr.Don's class.
Some strategies that I find helpful when trying to work in distracting environment is simply blocking out the noise with like headphones or moving to a quieter space.
People in power use words to influence or choices by trying to get us to feel bad about certain things etc.
Week 4:
Some celebrations that I have for this week is that I am learning how to create coral in Blender and I am more than excited on finishing my narrative essay and UC prompts.
A time where I have experienced cognitive dissonance is while we spent time talking a lot about virtual reality. I felt like virtual reality is kind of a negative thing in a way. People should be able to experience the real world and not the technology world. I felt kind of frustrated in class discussions, just listening to what the world could possibly come to where everything is based on technology.
My opinion on hashtag activism has changed over time because I now believe that actions speak louder than words. If you are going to create a hashtag, you should also be able to go out and start a movement as well. Hashtags do come in handy though because they allow people to effectively voice their opinions and come together with other people on the media to talk about something.
Week 5:
We can share our VR worlds at the makers faire by possibly having many different screens with the VR's playing. Maybe have like tables where each producer is standing and talking about their work. I will explain to them all of the struggles we faced while having to create our VR worlds and I will allow passerby's to experience our VR worlds by approaching them and informing them on all of the things we had to go through to produce such a unique project. Something that they can take away from looking at our own VR projects is teamwork. We spent a lot of time working well with others in groups to come up with such a beautiful project. I feel like they can learn a lot about what it takes to be a team. I will communicate with them about the things I created by giving them tips on how to properly 3D model and maybe even consider showing them an example of how to use Blender. I will also explain to them the perception of reality and explain to them my own personal definition. Reality to me is what you perceive things to be, having a mind of your own and thinking for yourself. We can recognize biases by really paying close attention to Advertisements. For example, thinking to ourselves about what the advertisers are really trying to get us to see, and then taking that in and making our OWN individual opinions about it.
Dewey believed that thinking is the method of intelligent learning. The process of dealing with experiential activities so that the student is to solve. He also believes in critical thinking and wants to challenge pupils to examine their ideas critically and then wants his ideas to eventually be translated into action in the life of a child. I see his ideas being implemented a lot through the project, there were many times where my peers and I had to critical think to solve something and it definitely helped a lot. They could better be implemented when we are planning our exhibition. I feel like critical thinking can help our exhibition to turn out perfect!
Pink's argument basically states that we should motivate others and push them so they don't give up. I agree because we should all motivate our peers, I feel like that gives people a push to want to do better and improve on their tasks most definitely.