[Yr7-10it] VBugs - New Free Resource for Games Programming using VB.Net and SwinGame

[Robert Mercer]

Hello IT teachers,

I am pleased to announce the launch of a new resource designed by Swinburne's Faculty of ICT to assist secondary schools teach programming using games. 

The new resource, called VBugs is free to use in Secondary Schools and is suitable for students in Year 9 - 11.  VBugs uses the SwinGame Software Development Kit (SDK) and VB.NET.  Its aim is to teach students the steps involved in programming in a fun but non-superficial manner.

The downloaded resource has a teacher and a student section. The student section consists of self paced tutorials with exercise sheets for the student to fill in by hand as they progress. The exercise sheets have been designed as a way of assessing student knowledge and understanding of the topic as they progress.  The teacher folder contains solutions to both the worksheets and the project itself chapter by chapter as well as lesson plans for using VBugs in class.

VBugs has nine chapters and would take approximately 15 periods to complete (depending on your class). The final chapter is open ended so if some students finish faster than others, they can keep working on improvements to their game or they can develop a new game and enter it in the SwinGame 09 competition.

To receive a copy of VBugs and for more information, please register at the website below and I will send you the download details.

www.swinburne.edu.au/ict/schools/vbugs 






Regards,
 
Rob Mercer
ICT Outreach - Project Officer
Faculty of Information & Communication Technologies
Swinburne University of Technology
PO Box 218
Hawthorn VIC 3122 Australia
 
PH:  +61 3 9214 8768
FAX :+61 3 9819 0823
rmercer at swin.edu.au