Friday, November 13, 2009

General Hughs Shelton Leadership Forum

I attended the General Hughs Shelton Leadership Forum at North Carolina State University on Friday, November 6th. The first talk was about the Lack of Ethical standards in the currently workplace. The talk introduced the top 10 ethical standards to live by for business, education, and other industries. I will give a detailed post on these topics soon. I also participated in a discussion about 21st century skills and how the SGD department has succefully incorporated some of these skills into our curriculum. The discussion was intended to inform individuals about what the 21st Centery Skill are and how they can be implemented in public education and other education institutions. Overall, I enjoyed the dicussions and felt that I could bring some of what I learned back to the classroom as an instructor.

GeekFest

Yesterday was the 6th annual GeekFest hosted by Central Piedmont Community College. There were multiple speakers present doing workshops on presentations on a variety of Technological topics. My experience with the event was from two levels. The first was from a presenter level. I taught a class of approximately 45 people how to use Natural Motion's Endophin to create simple animations. I gave them information that could use to further their knowledge of the program and it's uses in different industries. I also experienced the GeekFest as a spectator. I spent time with students to observe their reactions and took note of their repective interests. From what I observed there seemed to be a high level of interest in Simulation, Game Development and Web Technologies. This didn't come as much of a suprise considering the popularity of those fields at this time.

The Simulation, Game Development department and myself have been networking with individuals from RedStorm Entertainment located in Cary, NC to speak at the GeekFest. Andrew Carroll from RedStorm Entertainment spoke on in-game modeling and best practices, as well as reviewed student portfolios and models. Overall, I believe the GeekFest was success for STARS teams (ImpactED, GeekSqOD), SGD, and CPCC.

Citizen Schools Update

Holly Plyler, Aleigha Helton, and I have continued to teach the afterschool 3D animation Class for Citizen Schools. We have worked with the middleschool students teaching the difference between Animations and Simulations, as well as basic Physics concepts to help them create their final animations. Recently we were informed that our instructors are to have a presentation ready for the final class to show what the students have learned. So, to date, the class is going well and I will continue to post updates.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

WOW 101 Training

Karen, Holly Plyler, Aleigha Helton, and I went to the Citizen Schools main office to meet with Meghan. She walked us the through the training book and forms that needed to be completed to better to teach the class. I will be working to complete the Endorphin (Game Design) track and get it ready for the Appreticeship Fair on Tuesday. Holly and Aleigha will be attending. I am meeting with Bill and Rebecca Wade to complete their WOW101 training.

Friday, September 11, 2009