News Release/Media Invite

Sisler High School hosts GAME ON February 2 and 3

January 30, 2017 (Winnipeg, MB) – Winnipeg School Division’s Sisler High School Interactive Digital Media program (IDM) is hosting Grade 6-12 students from across the division for a two-day conference and celebration of game/app design and coding.
The Game On: G3 conference, which takes place Feb. 2-3 at Sisler, will have students learning from industry experts, showcasing their own game and app designs. This is the third Game On event held at the school.
Grades 6-9 students will take instructional workshops before entering a team-based Game On Jam Competition to build their own games and apps. Grade 10-12 students will have instructional workshops, as well as a “Showcase and Play” event where students demo their ongoing projects in a gallery walk environment.
Guest instructors will include industry experts from the Vancouver Film School, Game Jam Winnipeg, Electric Monk Media, Mid-Ocean School of Media Arts, Kindoma and more.
“This is an opportunity for students to learn something hands on, like sound design, coding, creating characters and designing assets,” said Sisler IDM teacher Bernard Alibudbud, who oversees the game design component of the program. “We’re also hoping they’ll see some of the potential careers in this field. There’s a need for artists, coders, promotions, all of these jobs and roles that students can eventually do.”
Sisler’s ongoing partnership with the Vancouver Film School is giving students who are pursuing a career in game design a potential destination following high school.
“Industry people are coming in and seeing that our students have their heads wrapped around where they are going in the future. The questions they are asking are levels ahead,” said Jonathan Dyck-Lyons, who teaches film with Sisler IDM.
Steven Erickson, who teaches app development and computer science with Sisler IDM, said students need to get in as much time as possible building “habits of mind” when it comes to coding.  “They need that practice to develop habits of mind on how to approach a problem, break it down into its parts and identifying the smaller goals that eventually make up a large project,” he said. “When you give students a project, where they have to accomplish a goal without a lot of described steps along the way, it’s very challenging. They get better at it with time…but the only way to get better at it is by doing it.”
Contact information:
Jamie Leduc
Sisler High School
Phone (204) 589-8321 ext 504 jleduc@wsd1.org
Radean Carter
Public Relations Officer Phone (204) 789-0412 rcarter@wsd1.org

Schedule:

Game On 2017 (Grades 6-12)Ideal for students: in grades 6-12, with little to no experience with coding, asset design and prototyping, who have never taken an IDM or computer science class,	Game On 2017 (Grades 9-12)Ideal for students: in grades 9-12, interested in Coding, VR, Prototyping, Game Design & App Development, who have done some coding, who have taken Computer Science, IDM, Game Design &/or App Development course(s)

Map to Sisler: