[game_edu] game_edu Digest, Vol 54, Issue 15

[kevin at kogsspin.com]

Ian's definitely hit the nail on the head here.  I've taught at three  
schools and online and nothing is worse than creating a curriculum of  
convenience . . . "Oooo, look, we already own this software so let's  
teach it to the game students too"  or "Well these 486 machines were  
good enough for the business students, why can't the game students use  
them, too?"

There's the curriculum you roll the program out with (fingers crossed  
the people that pulled it together were at least aware of the Ed SIG  
Curriculum Framework) and then the tinkering and fine tuning that goes  
on from that point on.  It's like an MMO -- the launch is the  
beginning, not the end of the process.  I understand that not everyone  
on the faculty can or needs to be an industry vet, but you can't have  
none!  Sure, most of my published titles were for customers under 12  
years old -- but I've been through the process at with four dev  
studios and a publisher.  I've been teaching game development for five  
years, but I still go to GDC and stay current with the industry.  I  
participate in this SIG as well as the new Game Design one (as does  
Ian).  I noticed that lots of programs are starting to use Unity, more  
schools are submitting quality IGF student games, and iPhone apps are  
getting out of control.  I have already shared this info with my  
department and we will continue to shape our program.  A handful of CS  
professors who still insist on teaching Java, Maya experts who make  
lovely rendered character animations that use more polys than an  
entire Left 4 Dead mission, and well-meaning instructors who are using  
game design books from three years ago are not positioned to keep  
their programs relevant.  I know, because I have seen the  
"deer-in-the-headlights" looks at the Academic Summit the last few  
years.  I've seen the instructors who show up all pumped about their  
programs but then attend a session held by Brenda B. or Jesse S. and  
their jaws just drop.

In a way, I'm sure that market forces and industry progress will pare  
down the number of degree programs or at least stratify them.  But in  
the meantime, I feel for the students who are unknowing guinea pigs  
who are getting shafted in the long run.

By the way, there was a push in the Game Design SIG to work with the  
Ed SIG to educate schools in the proper use of "game design" and "game  
development" and "game studies" when naming degree programs and this  
might be a good place as any to start that.

--Kevin

Quoting game_edu-request at igda.org:

>

> Message: 7

> Date: Fri, 3 Apr 2009 08:01:33 -0700 (PDT)

> From: Ian Schreiber <ai864 at yahoo.com>

> Subject: Re: [game_edu] Man under a Bus Survey

> To: IGDA Game Education Listserv <game_edu at igda.org>

> Message-ID: <236528.19718.qm at web39707.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

>

> Let me change the question around a little bit: what is the value of  

>  an individual professor? Is it a skilled labor position, or is it   

> monkey work that any idiot with a set of lesson plans can do?

> ?

> In my case, I see three major things that I do for the departments   

> I'm working for:

> ?

> 1) Content creation (i.e. making lesson plans)

> 2) Curriculum development

> 3) Content delivery (i.e. actually teaching the classes)

> ?

> There's a lot of focus on that third one, and whether someone else   

> could deliver my content as well as I can. Of course they can't;   

> it's my content, so I'm the one who can present it the best. Could   

> someone else deliver my content at some baseline level of   

> competency, so that their students would at least get the general   

> gist of things? Yeah, I think so.

> ?

> But here's the thing... #1 and #2 are not one-shot tasks. The   

> industry changes so frequently that courses and curricula need to be  

>  re-evaluated on a more or less constant basis. If a school brings  

> me  in as a consultant, has me create a full curriculum and all of  

> the  content to fill the courses, then I get hit by a bus... well,  

> they'd  better have someone else who knows what they're doing, or  

> their  whole program will be obsolete in a few years.

> ?

> As I told a colleague recently, this is why I'm doing the summer   

> course online. Yeah, I'm giving away some of my content for free,   

> but that's not my primary value. You can have the golden eggs, but   

> the real value is in the goose that lays them :-)

> ?

> - Ian

>