Insights from a seasoned Computer Science Trainer
There are 31 entries for the tag
xbox
For the past ten months, I have been waiting and waiting sometimes patiently and sometimes not so patient for the DreamSpark program to be available to high school students. Back in February with a huge announcement by Bill Gates about the DreamSpark program, I have been waiting. So here's the program: The Microsoft DreamSpark student program www.DreamSpark.com makes available, at no charge, a broad range of development and design software for download. The program is now available to more than 35 ......
Last February, Bill Gates announced a free software giveaway to college university students and high school students as well. Here is what was offered to them: Microsoft developer tools. Visual Studio is the Swiss Army knife of computer programming. These professional-grade products provide a security-enhanced and reliable environment, enabling students to program everything from a cell phone to a robot or to create their own Web page. Students will also be able to invent compelling new gaming content ......
Microsoft has been lowering the price of the XBOX 360 in different countries recently and North America is the latest where there are price drops happening. You can get the low end version of the 360 for 199 bucks. That's an 80 dollar difference. The higher end sells for $399 and originally sold for $449. One has to question if another model is coming out in the distant future! Technorati Tags: Microsoft, XBOX ......
Microsoft has released sales figures on the XBOX 360 and they have reached the 10 million sold mark. The Wii is close behind with 8.8 million sold.
Great opportunity for game developers!
Next week is the last week of teaching XNA Game Development to my students. My year long planning for the course has really paid off and I'm proud of the 2D games that my students created. All of the games were deployed on the XBOX 360 to show the game play. I've posted some of the games that they created and I hope you like them too. Here are some DO's and Don'ts when teaching XNA. Do's Stick with one version of XNA and use it for the Semester. Teach your students the art of game design. Prepare ......
Well, my advanced programming students finally have a 2d shooter game that they have almost completed. It's been fun watching the development of their games. Some students are tweaking their sprite graphic, some are adding different sounds. Dan Waters from Microsoft will be coming to speak to my students on Tuesday about the new XNA framework that will allow you to create a game for a Zune. Dan has a great blog on XNA and I used his resources during the semester. I have been experiencing deploying ......
Well, we are in the home stretch of our learning of XNA. We have used the excellent tutorial by Charles Cook that is located on the XNA creators club site. Beginner's Guide to XNA Game Studio Express This all-in-one tutorial is everything you need to get started with XNA Game Studio Express. Follow along with in-depth video tutorials with source code examples to learn how to create 2D and 3D games from scratch. I'm hoping this tutorial can get updated to XNA version 2. My students concentrated on ......
I really like it when students discover things on their own and get excited about their own learning. This week, my students have been modifying an existing XNA Pong game. They have just learned the concepts of putting sprites on the screen, moving sprites, and sprite collision. There were two games they could select and some selected the game Dan Waters put together on his blog and the other was from Bill Reiss. Basically, they had to change game play in the pong game. Some added more paddles, changed ......
Big announcement at the GDC in San Francisco today. Microsoft has launched a community driven service that will let amateur creators build and distribute games via XBOX live. I was amazed to find out that XNA had been downloaded 800,000 times and there are more than 400 universities worldwide that are using the package. There are not that many high schools teaching XNA. I'd like to see more XNA training for faculty so that high school teachers would feel comfortable teaching it. Last summer, I took ......
Over at the creators club site is an online video tutorial entitled Beginner's Guide to XNA Game Studio Express that is new and will teach you how to create a 2d and 3d game. Charles Cox, a Developer Educator from Microsoft does an outstanding job at explaining how to code these two games. In addition, he reviews the hardware and operating system requirements of being able to run XNA Game Studio Express and how to install as well. What I liked was part of the Introduction steps you through how to ......
It's hard to believe that we started this class a month ago and we are moving along to finish the C# learning before we begin our adventure to learning XNA. Students are programming assignments utilizing the if statement. We reviewed the switch statement and how that is used as well. In addition, we covered webcast 3 overview of Game Elements that Digipen has available. This webcasts covers graphics, input, sounds and networks. My students only have time to program 2d games in XNA but I wanted to ......
Tech night 08 was a great success last night in the Lakefront room at LHPS. There were close to 50 students and parents in attendance to listen to Andrea Barr from Apple who talked about Podcasting. Etan Horowitz from the Orlando Sentinel talked about Tech Tips for students. Richard Connor from Laptop Plus dove into pc security and finally Dan Waters from Microsoft talked about the tablet pc and Onenote software. Lots of information in two hours time. Thanks to Microsoft for the donation of an XBOX ......
I've only taught my Honors Programming II Game Programming class for 3 days now and I'm evaluating my students C# skills with various beginner programs. In addition, I am introducing Gaming concepts with my students using the free online book called The Art of Computer Game Design by Chris Crawford. I am also using some the Video Gaming Webcast that Microsoft has available with Matthew Mead who is a Computer Science Instructor from Digipen Institute of Technology. The Webcasts does not cover XNA ......
So today was our first day back to school after our Christmas break. We had meetings in the morning and we get the rest of the day to get ready for the next semester. I have 20 new pc's in my room so I needed to windows update each one along with installing the software for the xbox controller that the students will use in my XNA class. Here's a picture of the lab. I was able to write my lesson plans for each class that I'll be teaching and put the finishing touches on the Honors Programming II class. ......
Here is an outline of the Honors Programming II class that I'll be teaching next semester which begins next week. The curriculum that I'll be using for C# was written by Digipen and Microsoft. Introduction to C# C# Types & Variables C# Input & Output C# Expressions & Operators C# Functions & Flow Control C# Classes C# Arrays C# Structures The curriculum that I'll be using for some of the XNA training will come from Bill Reiss and Blue Rose Games. Introduction to XNA Getting Started ......
For over a year now, I've been busy learning XNA and then try to put together some curriculum for my Honors Programming II class to use. 3dbuzz has an excellent online class and. I would highly recommend their training. I am using moodle class management system with my students and it is a very convenient way of organizing a course. I'll be doing weekly blogs on the progress of the course . I am hoping more high school teachers would teach XNA to their students and we all can share games together. ......
Five years ago is when our school had the first Tech Night. It seems like yesterday. Tech night was sponsored by the US Computer Science Department and it was a night to discuss technology. Microsoft has always sponsored the event and sent lots of swag to give out to students and family. An XBOX was donated and given out as a door prize. This year we have scheduled our Tech night for Thursday, January 24th from 6:30 to 8:30 pm on our campus in Orlando, FL. The speakers will include: Dan Waters from ......
I was watching the Boston Red Sox play the Seattle Mariners at Safeco field in Seattle yesterday and thought it was wierd that the Wii was advertised on the wall behind homeplate. You would think that the XBOX would be heavily advertised seeing that Redmond is only a few miles from the park.
Just an observation....
I finally put the finishing touches on the course that I'll be teaching next school year on game programming. This will be an 18 week course for students who are experienced at programming and have taken our Honors level Programming course. I plan on using the online book The Art of Computer Game Design by Chris Crawford. The book is a short read but covers some key points such as: What is a Game? Why do People Play Games A Taxonomy of Computer Games The Computer as a Game Technology The Game Design ......
After waiting several months now, I finally got my hands on this new book. The author has a nice blog on game development and he has created a series of videos on game development in directx where he created the rocket commander game. I'm hoping that Benjamin can create the videos on how he created the rocket commander game with XNA. One bonus for this book is that it's not just about coding games using XNA. The author adds input to his own experiences on creating games and emphasizes making a plan ......
There is always some time left after the AP exam to teach our students more before we leave them for the summer. In Florida, we have a couple of weeks to learn more and if you’re from different parts of the country you may have even more time to teach students something new. I am really sold on having students learn about creating games so that’s what I’ll be doing with my students. There are several options available for you to do with your students and several languages to use as well. If you want ......
In preparation for the gaming course that I'll be teaching next school year, I came across these interesting facts about the industry that is put out by the Entertainment Software Association: TOP 10 INDUSTRY FACTS US computer and video game software sales grew six percent in 2006 to $7.4 billion – almost tripling industry software sales since 1996. Sixty-nine percent of American heads of households play computer and video games. The average game player is 33 years old and has been playing games ......
I'm putting together a course for my advanced programming students and could use some help. My goal is to teach my students C# and then how to program a windows game and finally an xbox game using 2d. Hopefully, all students can complete their game and then deploy on an xbox. I have 18 weeks to do this. Any input you can give me that would help high school computer science students be successful in this course is appreciated. ps I have looked at a majority of tutorials that are online including a ......
Alfred Thompson, a former high school computer science teacher and now a Microsoft employee, blogged today on taking a look at AP Computer Science. Quite timely I thought even after I posed this question last week to Microsoft boss Bill Gates, "Is computer science education dead". Quite timely indeed even after I said something to my Associate Director here at school on Friday about how frustrated I am teaching AP Computer Science and that when our school hires another Computer Science Teacher next ......
By SETH SCHIESEL Reaching out to millions of aspiring game developers around the world, Microsoft plans today to announce a contest that will award $10,000 and the opportunity to entice millions of eyeballs to the next great digital diversion for the company’s Xbox 360. In addition to the game console’s snazzy graphics, the Xbox Live online service has been the most important component of the Xbox 360’s success since its debut in 2005. And perhaps the most popular aspect of Xbox Live has been the ......
Alfred Thompson who works for Microsoft invited me to go to this event. Alfred is a former high school computer science teacher and I worked with him on the Microsoft Faculty Advisory Board. He works hard promoting high school programming for his company. So why the AHOY? Well, this event is on the Disney Wonder Ship and it sails to Nasseau, Bahamas and the Disney Castaway Island. I'm sure you think that I'll be getting a good tan during my time there but the agenda is packed with interesting speakers ......
Tech night 07 was a great success at Lake Highland Prep. There were close to 50 students and parents in attendance to listen to Tom Carbone who is the Technical Director at the Florida Interactive Academy in Orlando. Tom has many years of game programming experience working for Microsoft and Electronic Arts and other companies as well. He spoke on how math and science are used to create video games. Tom spoke about mathematics and the skills programmers must have to create games. His emphasis on ......
(O)rlando Elec(tron)ic (I)nteractive Entertainment (Con)vention will be at the Orlando Science Center for ten days. OTRONICON brings together the entertaining world of consumer video games with a behind-the-scenes view of the art, technology and science that form the foundation and the future of both the videogame and simulation industries. Families and individuals of all ages will have a tremendous range of places and opportunities to explore. There will be old school games and new ones displayed ......
Well Joe Healy from Microsoft will be coming to our annual Tech night to talk about Cool Features of Vista to our students and parents.
Joe will be bringing an XBOX 360 to donate as a doorprize as well.
Thanks Joe for participating.
Imagine that you are the only one who can save a person, a city, or even a nation. And imagine that you must provide the right combination of strategy and programming skill to save the day. The Project Hoshimi - Programming Battle brings to life the world of Professor Hoshimi and his crew of scientists and programming experts in a fantasy of life and death. This competition uses a background story, comic-style graphics and coding challenges to test the skills of student programmers from across the ......
If you tuned into the NBC show called Three wishes that was aired on Friday night you would have the answer to my question. The show is about how people send in their wish and the night of this show there was a young man who wanted to be an astronaut so his wish was granted and he went to Huntsville, Alabama for some training. A young woman was granted her wish to be an actress so off to Hollywood she went for acting lessons and a chance to try out for a small acting role which we got. Finally, there ......