Professor Sickmon?

This one has a little bit of back story to it that I’ll explain how things got to this one statement – there’s an off chance I might become an instructor or lecturer at a local college (the Professor part is a joke ).  Because none of the details are really worked out, and it’s in area where they’ve thrown the question out there but the rest of the discussion hasn’t happened yet, I’m not going to say names of what college or who I’m discussing it with since I have no idea what sort of due diligence goes into that sort of thing.

A while back I meet up with an instructor at a local college and had tea, and we were chatting about various things we had done over the years, and game development came up.  The nature of the conversation changed a bit at one point, and she asked the question “If given the opportunity, what would you teach about video games?”  I pondered it a bit and explained “Game Design.  It’s an art, rather than game development, which is just a wide set of programming and development skills.”  I continued talking, but she got that “thinking” look that some people get (usually just before someone springs an idea.) 

She also happens to own a local non-college educational business, so I’m figuring she’s thinking about that business, and how to leverage my experience to further her business.  Hey, that’s what people do sometimes 🙂

But time passed, and nothing was materialized from the conversation as far as I could tell.  No biggie.

Then I was asked to speak at a class on digital media at the college – she wanted to bring in a couple of “real world” people to speak about, well, life in the real world of digital media (and my various experiences are damned near a checklist when it comes to digital media.  People need to add an “all of the above” box.)  Just before the speaking thing, she introduced me to her side kick.

The dude was pretty cool, and we got to chatting a bit – but the conversation started with one of those statements that make me a bit suspicious whenever I hear it “This is Davis, the guy I was telling you about.”  Hrm.  Anyway, the conversation quickly turned to Game Development – they are actually starting to teach game graphics, game development, etc.!

Before the end of the conversation was over, he told me he’d like me to be on the advisory board for the course track “at very minimum”, or teach a class.

What are they using for their game development class?  Torque.  Could I be ANY more qualified for the class?  There’s probably still little bits of scripting and engine code that still have my handiwork involved, like particle LoD and some editor tweaks here and there.  We chatted about that for a while.  I of course could care less about speaking at this point – it’s been YEARS since I’ve talked to someone in real life that has any experience with game development!  Great to get a chance to talk geek about it.

Come to find out this was a setup.  

She has a pretty good idea what was going to happen – she wanted to get me down there, see their facilities (MMMMmmm… LOTS of Macs!), etc., and to meet her sidekick.

Of course I was ecstatic about the idea – at one time I considered being a teacher, but I hate the pay that goes with it.  But being a part-time instructor for just one class?  Well, that wouldn’t be bad at all!  Plus it’s good dust-cover fodder – instructor at any college on any subject would look good on the back cover of my books.  (I’d kill for “Adjunct Professor” – however, while not IMPOSSIBLE, it’s unbelievably unlikely unless I do it for quite a few years.  BTW, that’s a title I really hadn’t heard much about until this year – come to find out it’s “You’re a professor with less qualifications, no tenure, and we screw you over on pay.”)

The question struck me though – is it even possible to be an instructor?  Don’t I have to have a masters degree and a teaching certificate and blahblahblah?  Looking into it, it’s quite possible I don’t.  Postsecondary teachers are completely different, and it gets odd when you start looking at two-year colleges.  Yes, it actually IS possible that I could become an instructor or lecturer.  Huh.  

I figure it’s an outside chance that this will actually happen – but the fact they brought it up makes it interesting.  Even just being on the advisory board would be great dust-jacket fodder (and ego fodder 😉

This one is something to kinda keep under ya’lls hats at the moment (it’s being posted as contacts only.)  Until I know which way this is going to go, I’m not spreading it around to much.

Life just keeps getting stranger and stranger.  Teaching at a college would definitely be getting one of those TShirts I never expected I’d pick up.

Davis