Guest Speaker: PhiL

We were so fortunate to have PhiL, who works in the gaming industry, come visit us and answer all our questions. He was so nice and full of interesting information about the content of video games, how games are made, how gaming systems work, and his experiences enjoying and working on video games.




The number one thing I learned from this experience was to have WATER for your guest speaker. In our over 100 year old building almost none of our drinking fountains are in working order and so he was parched! Even after he talked with us he was searching for water. All I had to offer him was my Nalgene which was not even full of water. So, next time I will be sure to have water bottles on hand (which is also good for teaching in general! The next day I came in with a galloon of water. I decided to leave that in our classroom in case there is ever a water emergency!)


More importantly, I learned the significance of taking the time to prep students for the guest speaker. Because we spent time thinking about and working on our questions, they really created a lot of discussion with PhiL. I also emailed PhiL with our questions so he wasn't totally caught off guard. My students also practiced asking their questions the night before as a part of their homework and we practiced our timing of the questions in the morning, prior to PhiL's arrival. This really improved the quality of our conversation with him.


My students also had time to ask him a number of other questions they had, some closely related to our project and others that were clearly important to my students. For example, one student asked why the CD doesn't work when there are fingerprints. PhiL was able to explain in simple terms how the laser reads the information on the disk and how things like prints and hair can interrupt its ability to read the information.


Overall, my students were very excited to spend time talking with an expert about video games. One student told me as he left for the day that it was "so cool. My favorite games was one of his favorites." My students were as touched by his willingness to teach us as I was.