Skype is software that enables computer users to make a video call to one another, if you didn't know that. It is very popular with grandparents and grandchildren. I can attest to that. We found a good use for video-calling in the classroom. Luke DeLaet was a student at Full Sail University a couple of years ago when he came by and made a presentation to my then senior students. Luke was in the thick of his final project at Full Sail and demonstrated some of the projects that he had worked on from his game programming major.
What I remembered from his visit were things like long hours, intense, demanding, nobody passes every class there without failing something...and also no Gen Ed classes. It was a valuable learning experience for the students and some "real world" insight was gained by students that enjoyed video games with friends at home and were wondering how one does that for a living and what schools teach that?
Full Sail is for the serious student. Luke survived and thrived at Full Sail and has worked now for just under two years at EA Bioware in Austin, Texas, and was agreeable to coming back for a visit with my junior class via Skype. Each student prepared a question or two for Luke that related either to Full Sail or Bioware and his current job. The students took turns positioning themselves before the webcam, asked their questions, and the session was projected to a large drop-down screen in the front of the room so that all students felt like they were participating even when not one-to-one with Luke.
Luke was very candid and did an excellent job connecting with the students and giving friendly, concise answers to their questions. The students did a great job with their questions and overall it was a wonderful conversation that gave the students some things to think about and that I took many notes from.
Luke offerred to visit with us again next year, We will look forward to that.
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