A group of Ball State University students will be teaching middle school students in a week how to make a game for the iPhone.
The Ball State Digital Corps is having two summer camps to teach students about some of the basics in the creation of games for iPods, iPhones and iPads.
The Digital Corps planned a summer camp because it wanted to teach others than Ball State students about technology in a fun way, junior fine arts major Renee McCrady said.
"The Digital Corps's philosophy is to continue learning and teaching people from the community," she said. "This is our way to branch out of the Ball State community. We want to teach these kids about technology where it will get them interested."
Students will learn how to design the background and make moveable graphics through a simple-to use software and the use of math, logic and art skills.
But the summer camp is not only an opportunity for students to learn more about technology. McCrady said she decided to take part in the summer camp as an instructor because she was curious about how advanced children that age are.
"It's something interesting to see where sixth through eighth graders are in technology — How generations are advancing with it," she said.
With six instructors and two staff members as advisors, the four-day camps will start with students learning the basics of the software. Senior journalism graphics major Riley Paulsen said students will use very simple software to build their games.
"They will learn more about art direction and the basics of programming," he said. "The software we will be using does not require you to write codes, which would result difficult for students to use."
After the camp is over, students will be allowed to take the software home for free to continue developing games and to continue practicing, Paulsen said.
Paulsen said he too was interested to see how advanced students are on technology and wanted to teach them something he was familiar with.
"I have some programming background, and I wanted to see if it was applicable," he said. "I also wanted to see if we can teach them something new. We're not sure how advanced they are."
Both McCrady and Paulsen said they did not know what to expect when it came to showing the middle school students something new.
"We expect the unexpected, and we are trying to figure out what they already know," McCrady said. "We've been going through every scenario, and although we don't know what will happen yet, we'll be ready."
Paulsen said he expects students to be more familiar with newer technology just like he was when he was younger.
"We are the generation that grew up teaching our parents about e-mails or Facebook, for instance," he said. "When we were in sixth grade we thought we knew everything, but as we grew up, technology has also evolved. What is available for consumers since we were that age has narrowed quite a bit."
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