[game_edu] Brenda Braithwaite's game_edu rant at GDC

[Kenneth Willes]

Bill,

Thanks for your concern and for sharing the video interviews. Yes, we saw the trend a long time ago and decided to put a program in place 6 years ago, but maybe it was too early. I guess what I was trying to say in my original email is that it is tricky to find the right balance of programming and design. Be careful how much emphasis you place on it otherwise you may alientate your students.

--
Kenneth Willes, MFA
Associate Professor
Southern Adventist University
School of Visual Art and Design
http://art.southern.edu<http://art.southern.edu/>
423.236.2090

________________________________
From: game_edu-bounces at igda.org [game_edu-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Bill Crosbie [bill.crosbie at gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2011 8:33 PM
To: IGDA Game Education Listserv
Subject: Re: [game_edu] Brenda Braithwaite's game_edu rant at GDC

Kenneth,

I'm sorry to hear that your program didn't pan out. The skills you were training fall in to the realm of technical art, a discipline that, according to the people doing it, has only recently gained traction within the industry.

I spent almost the entire week of GDC recording interviews with tech artists for the Education SIG. The first interviews are up on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/opcode6
(I'm processing more in the background as I type.)

There are interviews with TAs from Volition, Insomnicac, Bioware, Krome, Avalanche, IO Interactive, Criterion, Red Storm, 1st Playable and Valve on the way. I'm sorry if this information comes a touch too late for you, but I hope that other programs looking to bridge art and coding find the resources they need to encourage students to stick it out.

There will be a formal announcement of the contributors and companies once all of the files are uploaded.

Bill



On Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 5:49 PM, Kenneth Willes <klwilles at southern.edu<mailto:klwilles at southern.edu>> wrote:
We designed an Interactive Media curriculum that combined visual design and programming. Our placement rates have been very high in that program and I believe it is in part due to this unique combination.

Despite the program's success, it had low enrollment numbers--too low to continue on. So I'm currently teaching out the remaining students.

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