LAST: Stumbling Blocks of Higher Education and the First Bullet
This is part of a series of same titled blogs that focus on the teaching of gaming above the high school level. As a professor who taught (and sometimes still teaches) gaming, I’ll share my perspective on the pros and cons. I’m going to try to go in depth on what to expect and what we shouldn’t. I also will answer common questions by students and prospective companies who wish to hire. I teach at community colleges in the United States, so my experience may differ from other parts of the world. Take my opinion for what it is: the most authoritative. No, just kidding, but I wouldn’t mind hearing any opinions for or against my own.
- Too much to teach
- The Computer Science Problem
- How does it fit in with the rest of college?
- Advanced topics
- Industry standards
Looking at the first bullet last entry, we can see that it bleeds influence on the second problem: the computer science problem. This is not the only subject like this, but it best demonstrates the problem. This problem is that game developers usually don’t hire programmers from gaming colleges. The big reason is that they feel they can mold a traditional programmer to their style. They fear that gaming colleges may focus too much on gaming and not enough on programming, not allowing for the student to get far enough into programming and its practices to be effective for their company.
This isn’t an invalid concern. It does beg the question. Is it that one mode of teaching is more applicable and effective in conjunction with job training? Will it take a generic trained computer science less time on the job to adapt to programming gaming concepts, or will it take less training of the game programmer to learn the extra concepts and areas and get up to speed? Or does it even matter? Will they both need equal amounts of on the job training? It is hard to figure this point out. I’m not sure any conclusive studies have been done on this.
The students, themselves, will have a say in this as well. Students absorb material quicker at certain stages. The green light doesn’t go on sometimes when you first introduce a concept. However, when you bring the same concept weeks later, the students can find great wisdom in that same concept as if it were in a book by Nietzsche. There are many factors and variables at play. I guess we should look at:
NEXT: Stumbling Blocks of Higher Education #3
If you like to try out one of my free apps (for copying and moving bulk files,) please go here:
https://apps.microsoft.com/store/detail/filesnatch-free/9NTT08T64GLF
If you’d like to pay me $2.79 for roughly the same app without ads, please go here:
https://apps.microsoft.com/store/detail/filesnatch/9P6WGSGHCN67
If you like to see me post silly things from my company, try this:
https://www.facebook.com/people/Digital-Tumult/100057555664875/
If you’d like to see me in action:
I stumbled upon a digital lifeline: a website that became my trusted ally in the journey towards college acceptance. With its wealth of resources, including writing prompts, editing services, and personalized feedback, I honed https://www.nursingpaper.com/examples/clinical-reasoning-and-decision-making-in-nursing-essay/ my storytelling abilities and crafted essays that not only impressed admissions committees but also reflected the depth of my character and aspirations, ultimately paving the way for a successful academic career.