Last week, a student named Wyatt Zimmerman found a discarded audio equalizer so he opened it, fixed it and brought it to school to add a creative element to his video game class.
Another student, Tess Routly, brought an old Mac computer, put on a duvet on a door to soundproof a small room in the corner of the class, and together they created a full sound room from scrapped parts.
But this use of creativity isn’t an isolated incident at the computer technology class at Centre Wellington District High School. For years, students passionate about computer programming have been teaching themselves and other students about the work that goes behind entertainment.
From the computer gear to lights, the entire lab was built by students.
“I think if they told me they want to build a time machine, I would trust them to build it. Really, we have a couple of really talented students,” said Timothy King, a computer technology teacher at the CWDHS with a background in information technology.
Tess has the sound board and recording system in full chat this morning recording original music by Nate and character dialogue through a filter.#soundengineer #videogame #sounddesign
— CW Computer Technology Program (@CWcomptech) October 19, 2021
Our student team built our 'sound studio' out of spare parts! pic.twitter.com/yFAN9mhonL
In Ontario, schools are able to offer specialized courses if a teacher is willing to teach a specialized class. King said because many schools don’t teach coding and video gaming expertise, students are learning it at home and are self taught.
“So, you give them the tools and you get them used to working in teams because that's one thing they're just not used to at all, because they're so solo in how they approach it,” said King.
“Since 2015, We've made VR games, we've made platform games, you name it, we've made that kind of game,” said King.
Grade 11 and 12 students in the school can choose between two separate courses of either regular computer science or game design.
And it all began six years ago. In 2015, two students named Brandon Smith and Jake Kenny pitched the idea for a class that allows them to make video games, something they spent hours doing at home.
When the school agreed, the students helped King design the course from scratch. Now every year, it fills to full capacity of 31 students. This year, the school needed two sections of the class to teach over 60 students.
“We have more grads from this program than any other school in the province. It has become incredibly good,” said King.
“Jake and Brandon went on to play Vulcron Games, and they sold millions of copies of their games online. So they're like a local success story, just these two guys working out of the basement,” said King about the two students who founded Vulcron Games.
King said many of these students spend no time watching television because they approach media with an entirely different outlook
“If you show them a movie it just aggravates them. They want interactivity, they want the ability to author what's going on and this lets them do that on kind of a meta level. They're there, offering interactivity which really charges them,” said King.
King said the problem is that most schools in the province are still teaching students how to make videos for TV.
“The media arts thing is still happening, but nobody's realized what's happened in the last 20 years. There's been a complete change in direction. Everything's interactive,” said King.
“The game industry now is bigger than TV, movies and music combined. People just don't realize it but you combine all of the traditional media, and the game industry. It's more than twice as big. It's where all the jobs are.”
At CWDHS, King teaches computer technology but leans heavily on student expertise. The class also received tremendous support from gaming programs such as Unity and Blender.
“We've gotten so much industry support, because they're desperate for people,” said King adding it took five years for the school to find find a second teacher with a background in game development.
Katryna Schletz, who graduated from CWDHS last year, is now a student at the Computer Graphics Master Academy. During her time at the program, she would teach other students to use the Blender software and prepare the occasional lectures.
“From what I’ve seen, this program is one-of-a-kind. It’s not often that you find student directed classes. With each new generation we learn and improve the course. Even to this day. Graduates happily help those currently enrolled in the class. Honestly it surprises me how far we have come. It all started with a small group of students with an idea,” said Schletz.
Routly said technology classes often get a bad reputation for not being very inclusive which is just not the case in this program.
“I'm queer. I'm autistic. I also have a physical disability. It's just an environment where I feel like I can get what I need to exist at the same level as everyone else,” said Routly, adding that King is what makes the class work.
Zimmerman said he’s been into programming and game design since he was young and the program helped him decide his career path. As a hobby, he would often fix old electronics growing up.
“This program is a huge asset for me going into university because I'm looking into software engineering. I think it'd be a lot more difficult for me to really know where I want to go without this program,” said Zimmerman, who is the technical manager of the class.
“Without Mr. King this program wouldn't be here, He's definitely the linchpin for this whole thing. It all revolves around him. He lets you take 100 per cent creative liberty with everything.
Now studying computer science at the University of Waterloo, Cameron Hadfield graduated from the CWDHS in 2017. During his time there, he worked on three video game projects, the first one being a VR rhythm game where the player had to jump between blocks in tune with the rhythm of the music.
“I had to write a custom audio decompression algorithm to accomplish that, so that it could do it in real time,” said Hadfield.
“It helped a lot by encouraging me to teach myself a lot of programming practices, as well as just sort of teaching myself leadership skills, and just how to succeed on a software project like that of the kinds of scale that a game requires,” said Hadfield.
Hadfield was encouraged to learn how to code by his father when he was eight-year-old. Now at the University of Waterloo, Hadfield said he comes with a major advantage with all this experience.
King said his goal has always been to deliver a pathway to prepare students for their post secondary journey.
“It's such a powerful thing and when you get a student come back and say thanks because coming from Fergus, coming from a rural area where there's not that buildup of technology, it gave them a real edge getting into the program and then getting into the profession.”
“We always kind of feel like we're on our back foot there but in this case we got in early and were so ahead of the game.”
