[game_edu] Getting information about game education to those interested in it

[Andrew Armstrong]

Just a point, I'm getting feedback and ideas for revamping the Students 
SIG, and a few people have brought up the IGDA and accreditation for 
courses. I did mention this was more and Education SIG area, and 
possibly worth thinking about in the long term.

Since the Students SIG doesn't even exist yet, really, I honestly agree 
that the IGDA website is utterly unknown for those who are choosing 
where to go. If it gets off the ground (with worldwide information made 
available), the site as a whole could be pushed to those advice 
institutions who run career websites, perhaps.

(Advice for your career after you have a degree is something else 
though, and entirely suited to the IGDA site).

Anyway, neat idea, it didn't really end though - I presume this is 
something the Education SIG is now going to do?

Andrew

Lewis Pulsipher wrote:

> Some time ago there was a discussion here about how to help potential 

> video game students make good choices about their education. 

>

> The problem is not so much to create that information, as to make it 

> available where those folks might actually find it.  Unfortunately, 

> the IGDA Web site is not likely to be a high traffic method of 

> distribution; a great many wannabe students don’t seem to be aware of 

> the IGDA at all.  Further, the minority of game students who actually 

> come to IGDA looking for information is the group who least need what 

> IGDA might tell them.

>

> So I prefer to use GameCareerGuide.  At 200,000 page views a month, it 

> probably gets a lot more traffic from potential students than do IGDA 

> education sites.  My latest take on what students need to do is at:

>

> http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/757/industry_hopefuls_prepare_.php

>

> You may know that the company that runs Gamasutra/GameCareerGuide etc. 

> laid off some people some time ago, including the editor of GCG.  Jill 

> Duffy did a good job of answering student questions about game 

> schools, but now no one on staff has time to do that job.   This is an 

> opportunity, then, for educators to take a more active part by 

> contributing to GCG.   If you disagree with my article, or have more 

> to say (I know I have), then write something and send it to Gamasutra 

> (cnutt[usual symbol here]gamasutra.com <http://gamasutra.com>, the C 

> stands for Christian).

>

> Using this venue avoids another problem which was becoming obvious 

> during the discussion on this listserv, that any IGDA-approved 

> recommendations would be quite unlikely to “tell it like it is”, that 

> is, would be something like lowest-common-denominator (in this case, 

> that most of us teach game-related topics). 

>

> But more than just students need information.  Three other groups need 

> information:

>

> Administrators who have no idea what a game creation program entails. 

>

> Those who may teach in a new game creation program.

>

> Parents and councilors/advisors of those students.  (Because in many 

> cases it’s the parents who ultimately decide what their children 

> do---both a matter of financial resources and of the initiative to 

> find out what’s what!)

>

> How do they get this information? 

>

> Administrators will likely get it from people (teachers) at their 

> school who are interested in the new curriculum, most likely.  Very 

> few will have the time/interest to search out the information themselves.

>

> Teachers may go to IGDA to get the information.  They may also read 

> sites such as GameCareerGuide and Sloperama.

>

> Parents?  Maybe from the Web, but where?  I really have no idea, I’m 

> afraid.  Are there sites for parents whose children are about to start 

> college?  That’s where the information would need to be.

>

> What would they want to know?  Administrators want to know software 

> and facilities costs, level of student interest, likelihood of 

> students getting jobs, difficulty of finding teachers. Teachers want 

> to know what they should do.  IGDA already has one set of advice, the 

> recommended curriculum topics. Parents want to know the likelihood of 

> their children getting jobs, not just in the video game industry but 

> more generally, if they decide to do something else.  What useful 

> things will the student learn (many parents aren't going to regard 

> "making video games" as very useful!)?

>

> So if IGDA produced this kind of information and distributed it, some 

> people would enefit.  The interested teachers at the school could 

> provide the "Info for administrators" to the administrators; they 

> might also need a brief "what is IGDA" so that the administrators will 

> realize that the source is probably reliable.

>

> Lew Pulsipher

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------

>

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