Austin Games Development Institute for High School Teachers
Here is text from the press release for the workshop I'm organizing for teachers next week. The participating teachers are revved up for this one, and I really think it promises to deliver an awesome experience for everyone involved (including yours, truly). This is a big event and which, if everything goes smoothly, should be a really nice way to finish off a fairly successful schoolyear.High School Teachers Learn Games Development For Mobile Devices During Digital Media Collaboratory Workshop
AUSTIN, Texas � June 9, 2003 � Eleven high school computer science, multimedia and 3-D graphics teachers from five school districts in the Austin area will participate in the first Games Development Institute (GDI) for High School Instructors, June 9 and10.
This workshop, intended to become an annual event, will focus on developing entertainment software for mobile devices. The IC2 Institute�s Digital Media Collaboratory (DMC) at The University of Texas at Austin has teamed up with the Capital Area Training Foundation (CATF) with support from the Capital Area Tech Prep Consortium and Austin Community College to present the workshop. Corporate sponsorship is provided by Electronic Arts (EA), Metrowerks, Team Smarty Pants and SurvivorSoft. The workshop is part of a long-term collaboration to work with information technology teachers in Central Texas.
The GDI is designed to provide teachers with examples of how individuals with different skills ranging from art to business to programming must work together on complex projects. The GDI, held at the Metrowerks and Electronic Arts campuses, will enable teachers to talk with authority to their students about the process of game-development from an idea in someone's head to an experience in a player's hands. The institute includes presentations from industry experts, exposure to tools used in games development through realistic lab exercises and a brainstorming session for the teachers to collaborate on building lesson plans based on their new knowledge.
�Video games are a compelling way to encourage students to take interest in computer science,� said Darrell Woelk, DMC Artificial Intelligence coordinator and CATF IT Cluster chair. �The only thing that students love more than playing games is developing them. Our goal is to provide educators with the industry support they need to direct students into the IT profession.�
The emergence of handheld and wireless devices as viable and powerful delivery platforms presents opportunities for educators to learn about cutting edge applications of technology that are accessible to students. Through tools like Metrowerks CodeWarrior, a student can quickly and easily build an application to run on a cell phone. Representatives from Team SmartyPants and SurvivorSoft, experts in entertainment software development for mobile devices such as cell phones, will participate in the training sessions.
�Since video games touch every aspect of IT, including programming, multimedia, networking and business applications, skills learned while exploring game development are easily transferred to other IT professions,� said David Nunez, Cluster Director, CATF.
During the workshop the institute teachers can tour the Electronic Arts (EA) studios to experience the energizing culture of a games company and perhaps glimpse some of the pioneering work EA produces. EA representatives will talk about their work and answer questions.
At the conclusion of the workshop teachers will have new ideas for curriculum development, a binder filled with materials that can be used in the classroom and software donated by Metrowerks.
In the 2003-2004 school year the DMC will start a video games design contest for high school students with support from CATF.
Reporters are invited to attend the two-day Games Development Institute. For an agenda and additional information, contact David Nunez, CATF, at 512.323.6773 x107, emaildnunez@catf-austin.org/email; or Emmet Campos, at 512.482.0273 x231, emailemmet@icc.utexas.edu/email
About CATF
Capital Area Training Foundation is an Austin-based non-profit devoted to workforce development in the Central Texas area. Other CATF IT Cluster projects include career awareness activities such as an extensive classroom speakers' bureau and industry site tours, additional workshops for teachers and students, and summer internship opportunities.
About the IC2 Institute at The University of Texas at Austin
The Institute for Innovation, Creativity, and Capital (IC2) at The University of Texas at Austin is an international, transdisciplinary "Think and Do" tank devoted to solving unstructured problems to accelerate wealth & job creation and shared prosperity at home and abroad. As a research unit IC2 is focused on knowledge exploration, dissemination and application across a broad range of academic and applied areas. See the IC2 web site url=http://www.ic2.orgwww.ic2.org/url for more information.
