[game_edu] What have the Romans ever given us?

[Roberts, Scott]

Picking at crumbs?  Man, that sounds truly depressing.  There's plenty of industry-academic dialogue that's positive and on equal footing, and it doesn't have to be talking to a mirror or to students.  I've found a number of people in industry who honestly care about the education of the next generation of game developers, and who are willing to cooperate and collaborate as equals.  I wouldn't think this situation is that rare, but it may be more difficult in locations with few developers.

One effective method we've used is to invite our advisory board members to serve as "publishers" for our game projects.  It gives busy people an opportunity to contribute without a large or regular time commitment, but they feel ownership and a connection to the students.  Several of the publishers have ended up spending more time than they'd thought, and it gives extra motivation to students.  The industry people also learn something about the challenges of what educators face in the classroom, which helps create a more dialogue-friendly environment.

Scott



From: game_edu-bounces at igda.org [mailto:game_edu-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Ian Schreiber
Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2009 6:42 PM
To: IGDA Game Education Listserv
Subject: Re: [game_edu] What have the Romans ever given us?


>Does anyone have experience of a genuine two way dialogue between Industry Professionals and Academics

>on an equal footing, rather than one telling the other what should be taught, while the other picks at crumbs of >second hand evidence, rather than being actively aware of the process of game development?


Yes, mostly in cases where the same person is doing both (i.e. a past or present industry professional who is now teaching). That person can easily have a dialogue with themselves, and with anyone else on either side.

If you don't have any of those, students are probably your next best option:

* Some schools have an industry internship as a graduation requirement. When students go off to industry and then come back, they will let you know firsthand how things are done, and what skills they found useful and what they felt they were lacking.

* Keep in touch with your recent graduates who get jobs in industry. Bring them back to campus every now and then to speak to the current students. Pick their brains a bit in terms of how they would change their education if they had a time machine, knowing what they know now. These are people who have seen the inside of the industry and also the inside of your school; don't underestimate their value.

Another alternative is to encourage faculty to spend their Sabbatical year working for industry, which will get you the same kinds of benefits, with the bonus that they will come back for good, unlike graduating students. (Double bonus: after a year of crunch time in the industry, they will probably be GLAD to be back ;-)

- Ian

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