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Gaming, Design, Story
I came into LDT as an experienced professional desiring to shake up my career and my life. I was raised in Silver Spring, MD by my parents who are of Nigerian descent. I attained my bachelors in Sociology and Economics at Harvard. After college, I worked for six years at IBM producing learning technology. I was promoted into the corporate learning team where we created million-dollar learning software solutions for upper management. I had a heart for design so I sought opportunities to be creative, use technology and interact with people. I took that passion into diverse areas such as non-profit consulting in South Africa where I raised $90,000 ZAR to fund computer centers; teaching a game design course with the Urban Video Game Academy and producing a live human Pac-Man game which was televised on Fox News. My life prior to LDT was filled with exciting adventures, but none rivaled the work I would do in my masters program.
Learning Goals
My goal was to revolutionize the way people learn by creating immersive, interactive learning environments -- video games. Everyday I set out to achieve four objectives - Visualize ideas; Think like an educator; Use powerful tools and Become a game designer. I took advantage of every opportunity Stanford could provide with its location in the Silicon Valley and reputation in the game industry. I volunteered at conferences, self-funded two trips to Los Angeles, took courses with top professors, consulted on a children's game, accessed Stanford's vast video game library, assisted with research on virtual worlds, interned at Activision, wrote a magazine article, gave two conference presentations and won a serious games competition. It was the most exciting 12 months of my entire life. The LDT program gave me the flexibility I needed to successfully launch a new career.
Courses
Fall – Quarter 1
CHINLANG 6 – Conversational Chinese
ED 333A - Analyzing Functions and Needs in Learning Environments
ED 229A – Seminar in LDT
ME 313 – Human Values in Innovation in Design
ED 380 – Supervised Internship
Winter – Quarter 2
CHINLANG 7 – Conversational Chinese
ED 229B – Seminar in LDT
EC 151 – Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods
ED 208B – Curriculum Construction
STS 299 – Advanced Individual Work
ED 380 – Supervised Internship
Spring – Quarter 3
CHINLANG 8 – Conversational Chinese
ED229C – Seminar in LDT
ED 298 – Online Learning Communities
ME 110 – Design Sketching
ED 380 – Supervised Internship
Summer – Quarter 4
ED 229D – Seminar in LDT
AT 132 – Advanced Beginning Swimming
MU 65A – Voice Class I
See Project Portfolio
Internship
While maintaining a full course load, I held a five month internship at Shaba Games . Shaba is a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision, the second largest video game publisher in the world. Shaba produced titles such as Tony Hawk and Shrek 2 for Playstation, Xbox and Gamecube. I commuted to their downtown San Francisco office twice a week where I held an internship in game design working on the upcoming Shrek the Third movie game. My role was divided between reviewing competitive games, conducting playtests with users, reading the design document and learning their proprietary toolset. My internship was a powerful introduction into the world of gaming and brought to life the book learning I was developing in LDT.
Master’s Project
Outbreak – The Game
Outbreak is a computer game in development that puts the player in charge of responding to a deadly virus virus. The premise is that in the next 5-10 years the H5N1 virus (Avian Flu) will mutate and threaten millions of lives across the globe. Ironically, the first lives claimed to the virus will be the young and the healthy. Though you help virtual families in the game, the lessons are very real. The idea was birthed in partnership with Jeff Bowman, a computer science undergrad at University of California Berkeley. We submitted the concept to the Berkeley 06/06/06 Colloquium “Are you down with Serious Games?” competition. Outbreak won the first place prize and a $5000 grant which was used to fund future development of the game. Outbreak was recognized for the strength of its learning design, storyboards, innovative concept and timeliness.
www.outbreakthegame.com.
After finishing LDT, I joined Playfirst, the leading casual games publisher. In my role as an Associate Producer, I work with external game developers to produce games that have broad, mass-market appeal. Casual games are designed to be easy to play, but hard to master in the spirit of great games like Tetris, Bejeweled and Diner Dash. My long-term goal is to start a company and publish my first educational game for adult learners. Whatever comes next, I'm grateful for the connections and resources I gained through LDT.
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