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Judson Birkel

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RE: Career Explorations Lesson Plan / Unit ?

Posted By Judson Birkel 03-19-2024 22:37
Found In Egroup: Video Game Design/Developers \ view thread
Here's a slideshow created by one of the professors at a local community college. It's not related to game design, but focuses mostly on the college-directed Computer-Science focused options (Software Engineering, Computer Science, Computer/Electrical Engineering, IT, InfoSys, Cybersecurity). https: ...

RE: Wednesday Check in - CTSOs

Posted By Judson Birkel 10-22-2023 02:19
Found In Egroup: Video Game Design/Developers \ view thread
Oh! I found my point of error! When I said "As I said, that says more about me than about the actual value of CTSOs." That came off confrontational. In reviewing the thread, I see that the context was completely missing. That was meant to acknowledge your good response and point it back to my initial ...

RE: Wednesday Check in - CTSOs

Posted By Judson Birkel 10-22-2023 02:01
Found In Egroup: Video Game Design/Developers \ view thread
I apologize for any miscommunication on my part in the previous response. I feel my tone may have been misinterpreted. My initial statement of failing to see much point in the other portions of a CTSO was rhetorical, but I did appreciate your response and insights. You explained way better than I can ...

RE: Wednesday Check in - CTSOs

Posted By Judson Birkel 10-21-2023 13:38
Found In Egroup: Video Game Design/Developers \ view thread
As I said, that says more about me than about the actual value of CTSOs. I do question whether the competitive events is as secondary a purpose as you think. If it wasn't for the competitive events, would all the students still see a purpose in participating? If you asked your students "Why do you participate ...

RE: Wednesday Check in - CTSOs

Posted By Judson Birkel 10-20-2023 13:45
Found In Egroup: Video Game Design/Developers \ view thread
The competitions are the only reason I want to participate in SkillsUSA. I don't see a lot of value in any of the other components of CTSOs - but that may say more about my personality and lack of organizational skills than the actual value of the organizations. TSA = Technical Student Association. ...

RE: Wednesday Check in - CTSOs

Posted By Judson Birkel 10-19-2023 11:36
Found In Egroup: Video Game Design/Developers \ view thread
I'm currently in SkillsUSA and checking out TSA. I've been unhappy with them. As a CTE program, I know I have to have a CTSO, but I struggle getting students interested and the organization's state leadership has not been good at communicating and responding to emails. I have more students participating ...

RE: Wednesday Check in - Challenges

Posted By Judson Birkel 08-30-2023 17:21
Found In Egroup: Video Game Design/Developers \ view thread
Man, that stinks! I have the opposite issue - Too many freshman who were placed in my class, not because they wanted to be there, but because they had holes in their schedule. I'm working to provide a wider range of classes in hopes that I have more options for students. I'd rather teach 6 different ...

RE: Monday Check in - Program goals

Posted By Judson Birkel 05-16-2023 17:58
Found In Egroup: Video Game Design/Developers \ view thread
My Pathway is CS, not Game Design, but I use Game Design to gain interest and grow my program. My program focus: 1. Provide a breadth focused program introducing my students to many different fields and topics in computer science (programming, robotics, web dev, and game dev - If I can include cybersecurity ...

RE: Entry Course Suggestions

Posted By Judson Birkel 05-15-2023 11:16
Found In Egroup: Video Game Design/Developers \ view thread
I'd be concerned about students going from no programming background to suddenly jumping into C# for game development. My initial response to this is push (without overwhelming) the other teacher to having some sort of programming content that is low level (either drag and drop or a really compact set ...

RE: Game Dev/Design Resources and Ideas

Posted By Judson Birkel 04-28-2023 10:30
Found In Egroup: Video Game Design/Developers \ view thread
Supplemental Video Resource: "10 Reasons Board Games Are Better Now" - Video on Game Mechanics and how modern rules have made this generation's board games better than games of the past. * 24 minutes long * Discusses things like player elimination & huge scoring differences for skilled players (Monopoly, ...

RE: Choosing a Game Engine

Posted By Judson Birkel 04-25-2023 16:20
Found In Egroup: Video Game Design/Developers \ view thread
Whether or not the game engine matters really depends on what you're doing. I'm a computer science teacher and I'm using game development to hook students into coding (way more fun than trying to get students interested through teaching Scratch, Python, or Java in high school, not that those are bad ...

RE: Introductions

Posted By Judson Birkel 04-25-2023 10:59
Found In Egroup: Video Game Design/Developers \ view thread
Hey everyone! I'm Judson Birkel, Computer Science teacher @ South Salem High School. Started teaching here in 2015. Prior to that I worked as on online computer teacher through Oregon Virtual Academy (ORVA), graduated from BYU with a Bachelors in Technology and Engineering Education and a minor in CS ...

RE: Game Dev/Design Resources and Ideas

Posted By Judson Birkel 04-25-2023 10:35
Found In Egroup: Video Game Design/Developers \ view thread
Oregon has an "Oregon Game Project Challenge", encouraging schools to participate in game development. They provide a Resources page that has some really great info in it: https://www.ogpc.info/resources.html In it, they list different: * Game Engines * Programming tutorials * Game Design courses/Youtube ...

RE: Choosing a Game Engine

Posted By Judson Birkel 04-24-2023 11:16
Found In Egroup: Video Game Design/Developers \ view thread
I'm using Gamemaker (updated version) for a number of reasons: - Easy to create assets - Relatively quick to learn - Drag-and-Drop + coding interfaces - 2D Game Development - Coding is similar to javascript - Large focus on coding (I'm a computer science teacher) - Many built-in functions that make coding ...