NIU Today

What if playing video games could help prepare junior high and high school students for college and career success? In the right competitive and collaborative environment, it can do just that – while also being a lot of fun. This past summer, the NIU Esports Bootcamp introduced students in grades 7 to 12 to popular...

This summer, the Digital Convergence Lab at Northern Illinois University will offer seven weeks of video game design camps for middle school and high school students, including four weeks of affordable day camps for students entering grades 5 through 9. “We think summer camps should be fun, and kids like video games, so we kind...

This summer, NIU’s Digital Convergence Lab will have camps on video game design and coding. Campers will explore innovative and original games while learning the basics of video game design and coding. By using the popular video game Minecraft, campers will explore and build a virtual world while learning ComputerCraft, Redstone and coding. They will...

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....

Drew VandeCreek has proven that when history meets high-tech, it’s a winning combination for visitors to DeKalb and around the world. “We recently completed a collaboration with the Ellwood House and Glidden Homestead historic sites that furnishes them with web-based video materials discussing their historical significance,” said VandeCreek, director of Digital Initiatives for the NIU...

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...

Using technology to solve real civic issues for local communities and organizations is the focus of NIU’s participation Saturday, June 6, in the National Day of Civic Hacking. The Huskie Hack event, scheduled from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the Digital Convergence Lab of Founders Memorial Library, is open to anyone interested in a...

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...