Featured Students

Krista Larsen and Evan Smith

Saint Paul College Computer Graphics & Visualization Careers Program

There's a new revolution going on in the computer realm. In the last few years, Web 2.0—the next generation of Internet applications, communities, and hosted services—has fundamentally changed the Internet. At the same time, virtual reality worlds such as the massively popular Second Life, which started as a multiplayer game, are finding acceptance as robust educational and business tools.

In short, there's a wealth of opportunities out there, and the College is helping introduce technology-minded students to their futures. One way is by exposure to many areas of next-generation technology—in part through courses such as Second Life Basics, but also through new programs in Web 2.0 and Computer Graphics and Visualization.

The Web 2.0 certificate is designed to prepare students to help develop advanced Web applications such as social-networking sites, wikis, and folksonomies, which all have a goal to facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. Students are exposed to the technologies and patterns of use of the Web that have led to Web 2.0, according to Warren Sheaffer, an instructor in Saint Paul College's Computer Careers department who helped develop the program. "The idea for the program came from a worldwide educational conference held by Sun Microsystems in February 2007," he says. "I attended it along with CIOs from a number of four-year colleges in Minnesota. The ideas I thought were the best, and that could be converted into curriculum, all seemed to revolve around Web 2.0."

The program, which became available at Saint Paul College in Fall 2007, focuses on areas such as Ajax programming, LAMP software, online collaboration, open source software, blogging, vlogging, and other Web 2.0 technologies. Sheaffer notes that by the time he returned from the Sun conference, Web 2.0 had become a concept that was being increasingly discussed—if not exactly understood—by non-techies. That convinced him that the creation of a Web 2.0 certificate would appeal to Saint Paul College's faculty and students.

"Web 2.0 is pretty well hyped, so people at the College had heard about it," he says. "I basically had seen what Web 2.0 was all about—the collaborative programming, the use of the Web as a programming platform. From that, we put together a curriculum that would introduce students to the technologies that are grouped together under the Web 2.0 term."

By learning Web 2.0 scripting languages such as PhP and Ruby, as well as gaining skill at developing highly interactive Web sites using Ajax and Java FX—and immersing themselves in such open-source technologies as Linux, Apache, MySql and PhP—students certified in Web 2.0 can write their own career tickets. Software development firms, training and communication departments, and even governmental bodies are increasingly seeking Web and multimedia workers with Web 2.0 backgrounds.

More important, says Sheaffer, a Web 2.0 certificate allows students to view the big picture about where Internet technology is now—and where it's going.

One big world

The Saint Paul College Computer Graphics and Visualization Careers certificate, on the other hand, helps students see computers as one big world. The program prepares students for careers in graphics and animation—and if there's any doubt of its ability to do so, one only need look at Saint Paul College's involvement in Second Life.

Second Life is an Internet-based virtual world that enables its users, called "residents," to interact with each other through avatars (which are essentially graphical images of themselves) in a variety of settings. In Second Life, users meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, and even create and trade virtual property and services with one another. Businesses have gotten involved (the Geek Squad, H&R Block, and Coca-Cola, among others, have major presences) and colleges and universities have started using the medium to teach classes and hold discussion groups.

The nearly 9 million Second Life account holders around the world create most of the content in their virtual "worlds"—or hire trained developers to do it for them. That's where the forward-looking curricula of Saint Paul College comes in. The Computer Graphics and Visualization program teaches the computer graphic design skills and programming necessary to be a Second Life developer. Using the Java programming language and the Linden scripting language employed in Second Life, students learn to marry programming savvy with design acumen and their own imaginations.

Saint Paul College student Krista Larsen has used her work in Saint Paul College's Visualization program to gain valuable experience in the Second Life realm. Along with fellow students Evan Smith and Wyatt Flores, she's been part of an internship program at the College where she helped develop Second Life worlds for a variety of different organizations. "We had one client, Collier Computing, that purchased a Second Life island, and we recently dropped our work on its island," Larsen says. "We created and detailed items like buildings, furniture, T-shirts, hats, and backpacks."

Smith, who contributed to much of the creative work on the College's own Second Life project (which began in February 2007), says the skills he's picked up on that effort and over the course of working toward his Visualization certificate will allow him to forge a career practically wherever he wants to. "There's a lot I want to do, to the point where I haven't narrowed it down to a specific career—maybe advertising or film," he says. "But I'm learning to do things like Web sites and 3D graphics, and I feel like I've learned so much here that whatever I decide to do, I'll be able to prove myself and get basically whatever job I want."

The two new programs are expected to draw the interest of many students, Sheaffer says, adding that they expect the program will prepare students for the rapidly growing realm of virtual world applications.

As Web 2.0 and Second Life and other virtual world applications continue to grow, look for Saint Paul College's offerings to grow with them," says Peggy Kennedy, the College's vice president for Academic Affairs & Student Development. "Second Life and the virtual world platform bring the classroom into an exciting virtual world environment."

Dan Heilman is a St. Paul-based freelance writer.