NIU Today

For the campers and their instructors at NIU’s Summer 2016 Video Games Camps, the Pokémon Go craze arrived at the perfect time. A group of 10- to 13-year-olds spent a week at NIU’s Digital Convergence Lab creating Pokémon-like games into a Minecraft – an online video game – world. Campers learned how to use OpenSim,...

Girls interested in creating and playing their own video games can now register for the NIU Digital Convergence Lab’s “Just for Girls!” video game design camp. This day camp for students entering fifth- through ninth-grade will take place on the NIU campus from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, June 20, through Friday, June 24....

No surprise: Kids love video games. So what would happen if teachers delivered some of their lessons through video games? And not just any games, but the wildly popular Minecraft? Plenty of children will find out this fall, thanks for a one-credit “SMASH-UP!” course offered by NIU this summer. Teachers who enroll will spend a...

Instead of tuning out this summer, video game players can tune into creating games by learning computer science, graphics, animation and logic. NIU’s Digital Convergence Lab is offering summer day camps in video game design beginning Monday, June 22, and continuing through mid-August at Founders Memorial Library on the NIU campus. Designed for boys and...

Students looking for fun, hands-on ways to explore new careers this summer can register for Northern Illinois University’s summer camps. NIU’s day and residential camps run throughout June, July and August and cover a variety of topics to keep students in elementary school through high school engaged in learning and growing. They also offer students...

Imagine taking classes by video game. You wouldn’t just try to get to the next level or beat the game for the fun of it, you would play to ace a test and pass a class. Researchers are harnessing that motivation to play and win video games to teach new and challenging concepts to learners...

New technologies are making a permanent existence possible for temporary museum exhibits such “Lady in Red and Black: Ode to Northern Illinois,” which was created by Barbara Cole Peters in 2006. NIU’s Digital Convergence Lab recruited an interdisciplinary team of undergraduate and graduate students to expand Peters’ original concept into a virtual exhibit. The resulting...

The digital generation is taking over cyberspace. More and more K-12 students are getting online every day to do everything from shopping to playing games to connecting with friends, but many schools have been hesitant to embrace emerging interactive technologies in the classroom. Northern Illinois University’s HIVE Project is working to change that by generating...

Video games are becoming increasingly popular with girls and women. According to the Entertainment Software Association, “Forty-two percent of all players are women, and women over 18 years of age are one of the industry’s fastest growing demographics.” With such a high ratio of female players, one would expect more and more women to pursue...

From “Donkey Kong” to “Call of Duty,” video games have captured the imagination of generations of players, but what really goes into making Mario or a squadron of Modern Warfare soldiers come to life on your screen? This spring, teens ages 13 to 18 are invited to NIU’s Digital Convergence Lab to find out. The...

The NIU Foundation Venture Grants program supports faculty and staff in their pursuit of excellence in teaching, research and outreach to the larger community. Funds are awarded each fiscal year through a competitive application process and recipients are chosen by the NIU Foundation Grants Committee. This year, three Venture Grants were awarded, totaling $35,000. Huskie...

The NIU Digital Convergence Lab is recruiting students for a spring 2011 project that will create an interactive, online exhibition of vintage fashions that tells about NIU’s history and culture in the 20th century. The team will include six undergraduate and graduate students with backgrounds in computer science, art, history, women’s studies, museum studies, communications,...