[game_edu] guidance for students and parents

[Dan Carreker]

> It doesn't appear that anyone is proposing real, concrete actions to 

> improve the situation....What is appropriate is to present a list of what 

> students and parents should look for: positives and warning signs.


I believe this thread started off offering some suggestions similar to what 
you proposed, as well as something geared towards schools who want to 
improve but don't know how (I know we have the white paper, but it's more 
formal and assumes a level of understanding of the industry that most deans 
of academics don't have.)


>Can I propose that we try to add some education advice to this site, and 

>then all work to link to that location from our program sites?


I think this is kind of where we have stalled.  Everyone (I think) agrees 
this is a good idea, but no one so far has offered to take the bull by the 
horns.  So--I guess I'll be the first to throw my name in the ring.  I AM 
NOT the best person here to come up with the content , but I am capable of 
laying out and expressing the content well.  If there are others interested, 
maybe we could form a group to work on a project like this.

--Dan

Dan Carreker
www.NarrativeDesigns.com
"If I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood.
 I'd type a little faster."  - Asimov

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Roberts, Scott" <sroberts at cim.depaul.edu>
To: "IGDA Game Education Listserv" <game_edu at igda.org>
Sent: Monday, April 06, 2009 2:44 PM
Subject: [game_edu] guidance for students and parents



> All the recent posts on "those" programs and the all the "other" evil 

> schools/administrators are entertaining, but I'm not sure who they're 

> aimed at.  Are there members of those schools subscribed to this list?  If 

> so, they must have thick skin to take all this venting.  (And is it just 

> my imagination, or does this thread happen every year following GDC?)

>

> It doesn't appear that anyone is proposing real, concrete actions to 

> improve the situation.  I think it's inappropriate for this group to 

> publish a list of predatory schools, and problematic to list schools that 

> are AOK (the specter of the IGDA stamp of approval).  What is appropriate 

> is to present a list of what students and parents should look for: 

> positives and warning signs.  Do we have something like this and I've just 

> missed it?  I wasn't able to locate it on the SIG site.

>

> Breaking In

> I'm embarrassed to say that I just noticed the IGDA Breaking In site: 

> http://www.igda.org/breakingin/ , and I have no idea how old it is.  It 

> appears to be meant to encourage students to get into the industry, but 

> there's no real guidance of any kind for choosing a good school (at least 

> that I could find).

>

> Can I propose that we try to add some education advice to this site, and 

> then all work to link to that location from our program sites?  That would 

> raise the chances of students finding the site (through a better Google 

> rating based on our traffic) and avoiding some of these predators.  FIEA 

> has a list of questions for prospective students to ask: 

> http://www.fiea.ucf.edu/shield/showpage.php?page_id=1007 , and I liked it 

> so much that we made our own version: 

> http://gamedev.depaul.edu/?page_id=38  I'm sure many schools have their 

> own versions.

>

> Maybe something like this could help the situation, and we'll have less to 

> gripe about next year.  :)

>

> Scott

>

>

> Scott Roberts

> Associate Professor

> School of Cinema & Interactive Media

> DePaul University

> sroberts at CIM.depaul.edu

>

> http://GameDev.DePaul.edu/

>

>

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