[game_edu] Game Education SIG Elections have started - Please Read :)

[Sheri Rubin]

  Hi Game Education SIG members!

*The elections have started. They end on September 17th. Voting is underway!
*
My crack team (Andrew) was able to take the subscriber list of emails 
and add anyone to the website whose email matched an email in the system 
to the Game Education SIG group. Then anyone whose account was shown to 
be a Full paid member was also placed in a sub-group for voting. You 
should have (or as the system sends it out) received an email today that 
says "IGDA: New Forum thread in IGDA Game Education SIG Voting Group". 
That is the email that will give you the links to the candidate 
statements and the voting links.

So that's the good news.

The bad news is that some of you are inevitably going to say that you're 
a full paid member and should be able to vote but didn't get that email. 
If that's true and you do not receive an email today please send me an 
email *OFF-LIST* that tells me this. There are three likely reasons for 
this:

1) You are not a full, standard paid member (free and student members do 
not get to vote) after all. But hey, we warned you.

2) You registered to this mailing list with an email that does not 
correspond to the email used with your membership for IGDA/the one you 
registered to the website for. We did not try and figure out which extra 
emails (the ones with no accounts associated to them) belonged to people 
registered on the website. Especially since after looking at the list it 
seems some of you register with many emails. :)

3) The IGDA database hasn't fully been cleaned up and at some point you 
registered to the IGDA website with the email you registered to this 
list with and so we have you down as a free user because we didn't have 
your email that shows you as a standard member. (Similar to #2 but this 
means you also have an extra account and you'll show up in the group 
with that email.)

Everyone but #1 can be addressed for these elections, but we still 
encourage you to join the IGDA and fix #1 for next time. :>

Since not everyone has access to the elections sub group below are the 
candidate statements for Mark, Pete, Bill, Suzanne, and Chris who were 
the five who stepped up to run for steering committee this time around 
(in alphabetical order):

*Mark Baldwin:
*Hi, my name is Mark Baldwin, and I'm one of the old timers in the 
industry.   I would like to be elected to the Game Education Steering 
Committee because I bring a rich history in the game industry, in 
teaching games, and in supporting the game community.

After a number of alternate careers including cook and Space Shuttle 
flight designer, I settled into game design and development full time in 
the middle 80's.  In those days games were one man projects, so I became 
involved with all aspects of the game development process, from designer 
to programmer to artist.   Since then, I have designed and developed 
over 20 successful games, won Game of the Year, and had 3 games on a 
Best 150 Games of All Time list (and one game in a 50 worst games list).

My game management experience includes being President and Vice 
President of several development companies.  I was also a founder of a 
publishing company.   Currently, I am a college professor teaching game 
design, and in addition I provide consulting and expert witness services 
to the game industry on design and the development.

I became involved with teaching games a number of years ago when I was 
asked to travel to New Zealand to start up a graduate games program.   
Since then I have taught game design and development for several 
colleges and universities.   I currently teach for Westwood College and  
DeVry University.

With respect to my work for the community, I co-founded one of the 
oldest local development group in the world (Colorado Game Developers), 
was on the founding board for the IGDN (half of IGDA) and was one of the 
original supporters for GDA (the other half).

What this adds up to is a huge amount of experience with both education 
and the game industry, both of which I believe are necessary for this 
position.   The industry has changed a great deal since I first became 
involved with it, and I have successfully adapted to those changes and 
hopefully even had a small influence on those changes.  Should I be 
elected, I will be bringing a long history of dedication, knowledge, 
skill, and vision that will allow the industry to move forward into the 
future.


*Peter Border:
*My goal for the EdSIG steering committee is to produce a place where 
game educators can meet other game educators and talk about teaching 
game design. I have been running the Game Design program at the 
Minnesota School of Business for three years now, and it would be very 
nice to have a way to talk with other educators. I continually find 
myself facing questions that I'm sure someone else must have figured out 
already, and some sort of forum where I could ask others about their 
solutions would be terrific. I run into problems ranging from the 
mundane ("Is book X any good?") to the near-spiritual ("How do you tell 
a student that he realistically has no chance of fulfilling his 
dreams?"). I think the EdSIG is the natural place for people to talk 
about teaching game design, as distinct from doing game design, and so I 
am volunteering to work on the Steering Committee.

Academic programs in Game Design vary dramatically even in such basic 
questions as how many credits makes a degree, or whether everyone needs 
to know Photoshop and Java. Some programs are clearly outstanding, but 
many are not. Placement numbers in particular are just NOT a good topic 
at many schools. We really need some sort of central clearing-house 
where we can share information about our programs and learn what works 
and what doesn't. I don't intend to push for any kind of formal 
standardization, but many of us are working in the dark and need to 
share what little light we have. I love teaching my courses, and I think 
designing games is one of the most fun things I've ever done, but a 
place to discuss methods and techniques with other teachers would be 
wonderful.

My background is rather odd, like most people in this business. I 
originally acquired a Ph.D. in particle physics, and spent 20 years as a 
research post-doc at the U of Minnesota physics department. I started 
working on games as a way to make physics classes more interesting, 
eventually produced some physics teaching games, then finally bade 
physics farewell and now spend all my time teaching game design at the 
Minnesota School of Business. I bring a perspective of a very small 
(40-50 students) 4-year program.  I'm also starting my own company which 
should have something to show soon.


*William Crosbie:
*Greetings to my fellow ed-sig members.   I have been a member of the 
IGDA, North Jersey Chapter, since 2001, coordinator for the game 
development program at Raritan Valley Community College since 2007 and 
have taught game design courses at Teachers College, Columbia University 
and Rutgers University.

I am asking for your vote as a member of the steering committee for the 
education SIG so that we can work together to strengthen game 
development and design programs around the world. Academic game 
development programs that were in the first wave fostered excellence by 
forming strong ties to practitioners in industry. This was often done in 
person at GDC or the Austin Game Conference. Many of those early 
conversations have become part of our oral tradition, passed on from one 
to another over drinks or via email. The relative rarity of events in 
the early 00's made it possible for this to be the primary method of 
disseminating information. The landscape has changed.

My primary initiative is to leverage improved communication about 
specific elements of the revised curriculum framework from the point of 
view of developers and educators. Specifically, I would like the new 
online curriculum framework to include with it brief video interviews 
with developers and practitioners for whom that bullet point is 
extremely relevant.  (ie - this is why vertex ordering in a 3D model is 
important - artist perspective(s), engine programmer perspective(s) and 
then snippets recorded by educators about how they go about teaching 
that one topic.) Over time it will be possible to have as many 
curriculum bullet points covered by as broad of a range of the industry 
as possible, using both familiar names and folks 'in the trenches."

To implement this vision requires 'rebooting' our communication, 
curriculum and the technical infrastructure for the SIG. This is not an 
easy task. The SIG already has multiple channels that currently exist 
and require greater curating and advocacy.  It will require significant 
planning and commitment from both the leadership and members of the SIG. 
It will not necessarily be completed in a single board's term.  If you 
agree that this is an important initiative, I would appreciate your support.


*Suzanne Freyjadis:
*My name is Suzanne Freyjadis and I want to be on the Steering Committee 
for the IGDA Edu SIG because I would like to help take this great 
organization and make it even better.  I am dedicated to the creation of 
an even stronger game education community that includes support for the 
educators as well as increased interaction between the education 
community and the industry as equal partners in the drive toward the 
future of gaming.

Much dedication and hard work has gone into the Edu SIG and I am really 
grateful that Susan Gold was at the forefront to create this amazing 
group and the support she has given game educators over the years has 
been invaluable.

I want to be part of the Edu SIG Steering Committee to create an even 
more robust community of game educators with all educators included and 
heard. I would like to see even more discussion on the list-serv and 
more opportunities for educators to gather at conferences and events. I 
also think it is important to bring together all areas of post-secondary 
game education so that the wide variety of universities and colleges are 
aware of what is happening in the other programs.

I am also dedicated to increasing the conversations between game 
educators and the game industry.  I feel very strongly that active 
communication exist between the industry and academia so that programs 
have an understanding of what the future holds for the industry and the 
game industry is aware of the research and advancements being made 
within academia that can benefit it.

Another reason that I feel I would be a valuable member of the Edu SIG 
Steering Committee is that I have a master's degree in Women's and 
Gender Studies from the University of Texas at Austin where I spent most 
of my course time in the Radio-Television-Film department learning about 
developing technologies and how gender influences access to technology. 
My thesis was on gender and the game industry and I have written 
articles for several industry and academic journals and media.

Please vote for me for the Edu SIG Steering Committee. I promise to be 
responsive to the needs of the community and to do my best to make this 
great community even better.


*Chris Swain:
*I am interested in serving on the steering committee for the IGDA 
Education SIG.  One thing I am passionate about is helping talented 
student game makers from different game programs connect with one 
another to produce projects.  For example it would be great if 
enthusiastic engineering students without access to visual arts students 
could connect with them through an online exchange sanctioned by the IGDA.

I have 14 years of experience as a game developer and university faculty 
member.  My area of interest is in original play mechanics.  I have been 
on the faculty at the USC School of Cinematic Arts since 1999.  I 
co-founded the EA Game Innovation Lab at USC and currently direct the 
USC Games Institute which is a collaboration between USC's schools of 
cinema, engineering, and communications.  I have produced game research 
projects with funding from NSF, NIH, Rockefeller Foundation, Annenberg 
Center, US Army, and US State Department.  Prior to USC I created 
innovative games in industry for Disney Online, Disney Imagineering, 
Sony Online, Microsoft Network, MTV Online, NBC, Activision, and many 
others.  In addition to USC I taught game design at the School of Visual 
Arts in NY, City University of Hong Kong, UCLA Extension, and in 
workshop format at conferences around the world.  This past summer I 
chaired the Game Education Summit conference which we hosted at USC.

------------------

That's all you basically need to know. Thanks for reading all that.

Have fun and happy voting!
Sheri

P.S. For the two who won't get elected this time around - don't fret! 
The ones who do usually make it a point to call on those who don't first 
to make sure they get put to work right away! :)

-- 
*Sheri Rubin*
Founder and CEO

*Design Direct Deliver*
Website: http://www.designdirectdeliver.com
Email: sheri at designdirectdeliver.com <mailto:sheri at designdirectdeliver.com>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://seven.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_edu/attachments/20100906/8366a34c/attachment.htm>