From:                                                      Kelvin Sung [KSung@uwb.edu]

Sent:                                                        Friday, August 01, 2008 4:50 PM

To:                                                            John Nordlinger; Kelvin Sung

Subject:                                                  July 2008: Progress Report on: XNA CS1-Lab Workbook

 

 

Re: XNA CS1-Lab Workbook: July 2008 Progress Report

 

June/July time frame there was some vacations taken. The vacations have given us great opportunity for foreign visits and PRs. We are looking at opportunities of getting Universities in Malaysia to use our materials. The project is moving forward on schedule. Here are some details:

 

  1. PR and Dissemination: Kelvin gave two talks during his vacation time in Singapore:
    1. Multimedia Development Company (MDeC), Cyberjaya Malaysia: MDeC is a government appointment company that is charged to work with higher education in Malaysia to assist the development of multimedia technology in Malaysia. I was invited to present our XGA work to about 20+ faculty members from 4 universities in around Cyberjaya (near to K.L.). The talk was very well received, I visited the MultiMedia University (MMU) after the talk and we are seeking opportunities for future collaboration. In addition, MDeC is interested in our XNA based curriculum. All in all, a great visit, with lots of future potentials.
    2. Outstanding Alumni Talk at Kelvin’s Elementary School in Singapore. The only reason I mention this is, I gave a talk to 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students, a portion of my talk was based on the XGA materials we have developed. In this portion of the talk, the students and I discussed and programmed a very simple character moving around on the screen. The students were impressed out of their minds and couldn’t stop clapping their hands. This got me thinking, we can’t really hope to teach elementary school students code, but we can show them what can be done and hopefully inspire a few of them!

 

  1. Work book progress:
    1. Example code: done with chapters 2, 3, and 4. With 10 chapters to work on, this represents about 40%. We are making good progress.
    2. Documentation and explanation of the examples: we are done with Chapter 3. This progress is also on schedule.
    3. CVS environment: as we start producing sizeable amount of materials, the folder and CVS structures are continuously being updated. We can hope this should be settled now.

 

  1. Paper writing and conferences:
    1. SIGCSE deadline is end of August, this year we have 4 items planned (for now):

                                               i.     XGA second paper on assessment: this will be continuation of last years paper, this year we have lots of assessment results and this paper will discuss this results.

                                             ii.     GameMaker class for non-majors: this is the new class we have designed and taught based on the materials from XGA. We will concentrate on our very creative approach of interleaving GameMaker and XGA.

                                            iii.     Workshop on XGA: this will be similar to last years’ MS-pre conference workshop. Alternatively, as we have more materials from the current Lab workbook project, we may choose to present these results instead. Last year’s experience in the MS pre-conference workshop really helps here!

                                            iv.     Panel on Games-Theme CS1 classes: our panel was not successful last year, this year we should try again.

    1. CCSC-NW: this conference will be in October, we have two submissions accepted, we will be spending time on preparing for these:

                                               i.     G. Orr, K. Sung, B. Wilson, and D. Wolff (Organizer/Moderator), "The Content And Role of The Computer Graphics Course in Small Liberal Arts Colleges," To appear in Panel at CCSC-NW 2008 Conference, October, 2008.

                                             ii.     M. Panitz, and K. Sung, "Incrementally Incorporating Video Games Into Instruction Using XNA Game-Themed Assignments," To appear in Tutorial at CCSC-NW 2008 Conference, October, 2008.

    1. Cruise-Conference: we are planning on developing a paper describing our approach in XNA Lab Workbook.

 

  1. Others: Kelvin attended MS GameFest in Seattle, and MSR faculty summit. Both where great with lots of relevant information. Faculty summit is of particular rewarding, Kelvin ran into Reed Stevens from UWS Education Department. Reed will work with Kelvin in developing materials for assessing the effectiveness of the XNA lab workbook materials!