[Year 12 SofDev] Gamemaker

Tue Sep 11 23:31:12 EST 2007

We teach games programming in year 10 with VB6. Next year we have 17 
enrolled in Software Development (VB.NET). We won't be doing games for 
assessment although I might introduce one as a folio piece. We introduce 
a range of programming activities similar to what are found in 
organisations (yes, I know some organisations create games but we wish 
to open their minds to the wondrous variety of opportunity out there. We 
find students become quite excited when they solve realistic problems 
they can relate to.

Charmaine Taylor
Sunbury Downs College

Bill Kerr wrote:

> hi david,
>
> Before we work out the solution perhaps the first question should be:
> Why are enrollments declining in computing courses?
>
> I teach in a different type of school to you (Woodville High in South 
> Australia, a huge range of abilities and multicultural background) 
> but  maybe my experience has some relevance
>
> I've offered game maker based computer courses in senior school 
> thinking that the "motivation factor" would increase my class sizes. 
> It didn't. I didn't want to publicise this I suppose but when I did 
> finally get around to telling some other IT teachers no one was 
> surprised - they all said our enrollments are declining too
>
> I'm still very keen in using computers in creative / constructionist 
> manner but now think I'll have to go back to more middle school 
> involvement to achieve that - but more than that it would require some 
> sort of whole school change in the way computers are conceptualised, a 
> sort of VELS with steroids perhaps
>
> We have the world's greatest machine but no idea about how to use it 
> in School. It's a  bit like what Murray Gell-Mann said about School - 
> "invitation to a banquet and then being fed the menu"
>
> However, I digress, to return to the topic ...
>
> When students choose courses in senior school they are thinking:
> * vocational futures - desire for either interesting job or lots of money
> * uni entrance requirements - leading to ditto
> * can I do it, its good if its not too hard - the doable factor
>
> Perhaps surprisingly, these days, all of these factors tend to work 
> against computer courses to one degree or another -
>
> Since the dot com crash the general perception is that although you 
> might get a job from computing its not going to be particularly high 
> paid or interesting. Of course if you are very brilliant you might end 
> up making a million from game design or whatever but that's not going 
> to fill a class
>
> Uni entrance - there are too  many stakeholders pushing their own 
> barrows at senior level - the advice students will get is do maths and 
> science and if you really want to be a programmer leave that to uni, 
> they know how to do it properly .... (finish sentence for yourself)
>
> Doable - the reputation of programming is that it is difficult and 
> many courses are also "dry" (eg. RDB). Making the switch here to game 
> making helps a bit but it's also possibly lifting the "hardness" 
> factor because everyone knows that real programming is harder than 
> say, RDB. So maybe the dry factor and fun factor cancel out for this one
>
> Mark Guzdial (tertiary college, Georgia Tech, USA) has an analysis on 
> his blog which goes:
>
> 1) The main reason for declining enrollments are economic, the dot com 
> crash. Students are prepared to put up with a lot if they are going to 
> make a lot of $$ at the end of the road. But computer science is now 
> tarnished with respect to that.
>
> This little stat is interesting - "more high school students now take 
> the Latin AP exam than the Computer Science AP exam" :-)
>
> 2) The secondary reason is that computing courses are seen as boring 
> but hard. ie. computing is seen as a dry data processing  sort of 
> thing (boring) and the programming side of that is seen as hard. From 
> Mark's perspective and mine things can be done at this level but 
> remember this is the secondary reason, not the primary
>
> Mark sees the declining enrollment crisis as an opportunity for 
> curriculum reform and they are developing new courses at Georgia Tech 
> along those lines. I wrote a blog recently containing lots of links to 
> mark's blog including links to how they are redesigning their courses. 
> I think the important point here is that they are looking at major 
> integrated course redesign not just adding something that is "fun" to 
> what is already there.
> http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2007/08/mark-guzdial-on-computing-education.html
>
> If you are still reading, this is getting long, and interested I'll 
> post in some more URLs below about enrollment decline,  the first 
> three from Mark but also one that I wrote a while back
>
> The Wonderful opportunities of the declining enrollment crisis
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNK2CTH0WX2V9LYK
>
> Software engineering and the cause of the declining enrollment crisis 
> (part 1)
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNKUURHQRKBJYSU
>
> Software engineering and the cause of the declining enrollment crisis 
> (part 2)
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNK3P84TON4BKGND
>
> Declining enrollments in IT courses
> http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2006/11/declining-enrolments-in-it-courses.html 
> <http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2006/11/declining-enrolments-in-it-courses.html>
>
> -- 
> Bill Kerr
> http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/
> http://www.users.on.net/~billkerr/ <http://www.users.on.net/%7Ebillkerr/>
> skype: billkerr2006
>
>
> On 9/11/07, David Dawson <David.Dawson at wesleycollege.net 
> <mailto:David.Dawson at wesleycollege.net>> wrote:
>
>     The VITTA Gamemaker sessions actually begs the question:
>     Should Gamemaker or other gaming software now be introduced into
>     the yr
>     12 ITS course.
>     I have previously not been that keen - however, progmatically. with
>     falling enrolments - perhaps the students are voting with their
>     feet and
>     would pick up this subject if it was seen as more *fun*.
>     What do others think?
>     What chance the VCAA would accept new languages for next year?
>     David Dawson
>     Association Inc
>
>     David Dawson
>     Head of Information Technology
>     Head of Learning Technologies
>     St.Kilda Rd Campus
>     Wesley College, Melbourne
>     Wk 8102 6340
>
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