Theories of visual, interactive, and game design are often lost on students. I tell my students that unlike math and science, design is an art. In this light, design theories usually don’t offer solutions to complex problems.  These theories do however break huge complex problems into smaller more manageable problems. Through that breakdown, production tasks can be set in order, elements can be categorized, issues of narrative and interaction can be channeled into specific questions, and lastly with common terms, we can talk and support each other more directly.

Also I have them note that math and science deal with hard facts and laws of nature. Designers deal with human beings, those ever changing - ever the same, simple – complex, smart – silly, rationale – irrational human beings. There are no fix rules to hold them, and no theory is about them is safe.

"The Art Institute of Pittsburgh - Online Division" Overall it is a good job, with fine people, and great flexibility. Also I can not only finish my doctoral project (the Magic Classroom), but to use it to teach my online courses.

The courses I teach are generally 5.5 weeks in length and related to Game Design and 3D modeling. A short list includes: Game Design, Interface Design, Game Interface Design, Low Poly Modeling, 3D Camera and Lighting, Game Audio. The school however offers a vast array of majors and I often teach a new class every 5.5 weeks. I don't mind the diversity as teaching non-game courses like Illustration, Advertising, and Web Design brings back memories of my early productaion art and freelance days.

Typically I have 1 week to grasp the course objectives and assignment methodology, view the assignment texts/materials then update/fix/personalize those texts/materials, and get up to speed on the subject and/or technology. It is hard sometimes, but my experience as a multimedia production artist (GRA Interactive) honed my ability to make sense of huge educational projects, and spot issues that need attention, has kept me out of trouble.

Descriptions and Eaxmples from past courses:.

"3D Camera and Lighting" A really fun class to teach. On the technical side, understanding attenuation and the use of lights other than the Omni are the major goals. In application, Three Point Lighting gets extended into the virtual through the concept of Key, Fill, and Backlighting. The idea of Key lighting ties their application to narrative and mood. Expressing abstract moods, like anger or loneliness is the goal of several assignments.

The major project is a scene that relies heavily on lighting and camera angles to tell the story
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"Other Courses" I've taught a lot - more information is available on request

"University of Baltimore - KidsTeam, and Guest Teaching" KidsTeam was an intergenerational design team that brought students from middle school, undergraduate, and graduate levels together with university professors to solve new media design problems. The model was "Kids as Design Partners", along the lines of Allison Druin's work at College Park. For two years I worked with others to develop projects, structure the weekly 3 hour sessions, and review the outcomes.

Projects were usually youth and game oriented. Projects originated in graduate and undergraduate classes at the University of Baltimore. Others came from MIT, NYU, and Penn State. A few were solely for the middle school students, and not only did they create paper prototypes, but we taught them ActionScript and the NeverWinter Nights editor with which they built games.

"Georgia State University - Communication Research and Information Technology"
As a PhD student I was expected to teach undergraduates along with taking classes. I taught 2 sections of "Communication Research and Information Technology" and took 3 classes for 2 semesters.

My technology background was reason I was selected to teach this course - but I soon learned that the course had little to do with technology. It was a research methods course designed by a Sociology professor. That professor also wanted the graduate teacher to have taken her course. Needless to say, I was highly unprepared for my first full teaching experience. There were some interesting days as I sifted through the materials. The subject of research - writing questionnaires, observing subjects, ordinal/nominal values, and the use of subjective/objective data sets was great to learn and I enjoyed the experience.

Two things helped me out. My professional background (the ability to read the entire course and make sense of it) and the university's "Pedagogy of Education" class. The Pedagogy course was both a weekly support group to help new teachers and a lecture on educational tips, tricks and pedagogies. Going "Meta" with disruptive students remains a great tool for me. Rather than debate the fine detailed points of any issue with a student who refuses to open their perspective, I go larger or "Meta'

My Atlanta Pedagogy teacher also would declare a "Snowday" in her courses. I've done the same in my online ones.

"Georgia Tech - Assistant to the Chair, Hands on Atlanta" My experience at Georgia Tech was excellent largely due to my assignment to be Ken Knoespel's teaching assistant. Ken had just been brought back as the Chair of the School of Literature, Communication, & Culture. He still wanted to teach classes and do conferences and lectures. My role was to see that he could do both. I worked with him, set up his course materials, and supported his other efforts. One perk was sitting in on his undergraduate courses.

My other job, was through Georgia Tech, but technically was a separate public organization called Hands On Atlanta. I tutored second grade students in the Atlanta public school system. What was extra useful was the training they offered. They gave simple, basic, and very practical information on how to teach. One key tip was just dividing up the session into different tasks. 15 minutes here, 30 minutes there, 15 minutes to review and answer questions.

I often taught in the library which had computers. The students liked surfing the web, so I blended that with reading and understanding the browser interface, words in the sites own menu and some of the text on the site. I taught them how to search for information..