[game_edu] Education Membership and Chapters?

[Peter Border]

I think that, at least in my area, there isn't sufficient interest to justify a separate educational chapter. I'm an officer in the local regular chapter, which we have recently revived from a previously moribund state. We get about 25 people a month at our meetings now, which is doing pretty well. But there just aren't enough educators showing up to justify a separate chapter.
 
BTW, I talked the administration at my school into hosting the meetings of the local IGDA chapter, which has turned out to be a good thing for everyone. IGDA gets to meet in a nice room, with wiFi, AV gear, and a big parking lot. The school gets some good publicity and my students get to talk to professionals. Everybody wins!
 
                             Pete Border
 
Pete Border
Programming and Game Development Co-coordinator
Minnesota School of Business
Richfield, MN
pborder at msbcollege.edu 

________________________________

From: game_edu-bounces at igda.org on behalf of Beth Aileen Dillon
Sent: Tue 4/8/2008 12:19 PM
To: IGDA Game Education Listserv
Subject: Re: [game_edu] Education Membership and Chapters?



 

Don't forget the quick and fun method of having your students put together a working game group through your school and then reaching out to other campuses. That seems to be a lot more useful than setting up a separate IGDA education interest chapter. Rather, you're actually getting the students involved in something that will help them develop content for their careers and personal interests. 

At one point we had more of a Student SIG that did this and it got umbrella'ed under the Education SIG with no strides made recently, so this may be an interesting initiative to pick up if anyone wants to get back to it. It'd be nice to have a list of IGDA school groups and what they're up to beyond the forums.

- Beth




On Tue, Apr 8, 2008 at 10:10 AM, Tim Langdell <langdell at gmail.com> wrote:


	Susan, you make some good points: personally wherever possible I think it would be preferable for a local IDGA chapter to include local game academics and students (actively so) in their meetings. But I am aware that there are areas with no local chapters or where they either do not permit students to attend or have no outreach to or inclusion of academics. In those situations I think if there is sufficient interest to form a separate EdSIG chapter then that would be a good idea - once up and rolling then that chapter could perhaps reach out to the local IGDA chapter (if there is one) to foster relations ... my 2 cents.
	 
	Tim
	 
	
	Tim Langdell, Ph.D.
	Associate Professor
	Lead Faculty, MFA in Videogame Production & Design
	Department of Media
	School of Media & Communication
	National University 
	tlangdell at nu.edu

		----- Original Message ----- 
		From: S. Gold <mailto:goldfile at gmail.com>  
		To: IGDA Game Education Listserv <mailto:game_edu at igda.org>  
		Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2008 9:49 AM
		Subject: Re: [game_edu] Education Membership and Chapters?

		On 4/8/08 11:08 AM, "Ian Schreiber" <ai864 at yahoo.com> wrote:
		
		

			I'm based in Columbus, where we have *mostly* students and educators and very few industry professionals, so our chapter has the opposite problem :)
			  
			For other areas, I'd advocate NOT having a separate chapter for educators -- this would only serve to further distance academia from industry. Rather, give local chapters incentive to include nearby students and educators in their meetings and discussions.
			  
			 
			

		Actually there are two chapters in the states that I know of that will not allow students. Plus, of the 90 or so educators that I found in Boston, only a few had ever attended an IGDA chapter meeting in their town as the topics/subjects do not help them create collaborations, they only have the opportunity to network. I was thinking of an education chapter as providing those types of opportunities, plus sharing experiences - exercises - demonstrations, possibly have professional development that sort of thing. Also, I was thinking an ed chapter would be in addition to, not to replace an IGDA chapter. Also, probably meeting only twice a year as opposed to monthly. Could also be a student work showcase... that type of thing. Just ideas of course.
		
		Susan
		
		-- 
		Susan Gold
		goldfile at gmail.com
		
		"In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom!" - J. G. Ballard
		

		

________________________________

		

		_______________________________________________
		game_edu mailing list
		game_edu at igda.org
		http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu
		


	_______________________________________________
	game_edu mailing list
	game_edu at igda.org
	http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu
	
	




-- 
Beth Aileen Dillon
PhD Student, Simon Fraser University
School of Interactive Arts and Technology
Research Assistant, Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace
http://www.bethadillon.com <http://www.bethadillon.com/>  
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/ms-tnef
Size: 9302 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : <http://seven.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_edu/attachments/20080409/4c8e422b/attachment.bin>