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

[S. Gold]

Lew,
The team that is redoing the once called Breaking In site has made
tremendous headway and is hard at work putting together the new information.

We are working on developing many layers to this website and currently we
could use a volunteer or two to help us write the following sections:

* Trad'l CS degree vs. game prog degree
* Difference between Game Studies and Game Development
* Breakdown of programming jobs
* Breakdown of audio engineer, sound fx designer

Please email me offline if you are interested in working with our great team
of educators and professionals working on this project. By the way, I would
like to give them props for working on this, thank you Scott Roberts, Tom
Sloper, Jim Rivers and Dan Carreker.

Currently we were planning on having the site reside on the IGDA site, but I
do take your point that we really don¹t have a lot of traffic there. Sadly
but true, a lot of folks don¹t know who the IGDA is or know the mission. I
will talk to our new Executive Director, Joshua Caulfield and get his
feedback about creating some sort of affiliation or something with Game
Career Guide. 

I, on behalf of the SIG thank you for writing such a good article in keeping
with the recommendations of the current curriculum framework, well done.

Susan
-- 

Prof. Susan Gold
Chair, IGDA Education SIG

"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression
and knowledge." - Albert Einstein


On 7/9/09 9:42 AM, "Lewis Pulsipher" <lewpuls at gmail.com> 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 don¹t 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 ³tell it like it is², 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

> it¹s the parents who ultimately decide what their children do---both a matter

> of financial resources and of the initiative to find out what¹s 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, I¹m afraid. 

> Are there sites for parents whose children are about to start college?  That¹s

> 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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