Thursday, January 10, 2019

Industry Relevant Project

I can't believe it's been over two years since my last post! My school recently transitioned from a part-time school that students attend for two periods a day to a brand new, state of the art facility and full time high school. This has afforded my students and I a lot of time to work on in-depth projects. Currently we are starting a new project that is geared around industry relevancy. Many times in a game studio people specialize on individual pieces of a game rather than one person doing all programming or creating every asset. In a classroom setting it proved difficult to do more than a few people in each group so students ended up doing a lot more rather than one specialty field. That is all changing with our current project. Students are working on a project that requires every student in the class the collaboration and work together. It began with students choosing what specialty they wanted. Now students are meeting in large groups (the entire class) as well as small groups with those they need to work closely with. Every student will become a specialist in their particular area. Students have to communicate effectively and often to make the project a success. Two project managers lead each class and set guidelines and rules for communication, collaboration, sharing work, conflict resolution and more.

It has been an exciting and amazing two days! The room is buzzing with relevant conversations and excitement. Students are idea sharing and collaborating on everything. I am able to take a step back from a leading role into a truly facilitation role and the project managers are the classroom leaders. The invaluable experience all students are gaining brings a smile to my face. This project is a game changer.