The students of the Masters of Digital Media (MDM) program at the Great Northern Way Campus (GNWC) have been fortunate to receive a number of visitors to the campus over the past month. High profile guests such as Kris Krug, Blair Fraser of Ironclad Games, Mark Baxter of Fit Brains, Sandy Fleischer of Fjord Interactive Marketing and Technology, and Harold Chaput of Electronic Arts and others have recently spent time interfacing directly with the students of both cohorts.

The insights provided by the various speakers, and their forthrightness about the digital media industry and their place within it has been a great benefit to the students. Yet this was not just a chance to hear stories about work in the digital media trenches – this is also an opportunity for students to formulate a deeper understanding of - and connect with - members of their chosen industry. After all, the digital media industry is all about expanding networks – both digital and social.

Life has otherwise been in keeping with the status quo amongst most of the students of the MDM program. Except occasionally on the second floor of the Centre for Digital Media (CDM), where the second-year ‘firstborn’ cohort spends most of their time. Many of the firstborns have taken to the iPhone like a duck to water. Recently those same students have discovered one of the Star Wars Lightsaber apps. In true digital media and game designer fashion, a ‘lightsabering’ battle game has been conceived: To score points against another ‘jedi’ an attacker must activate the lightsaber app and swing the iPhone before the defender can respond. The halls of the CDM are now often echoing with the tune of the Imperial March and buzzing lightsabers - even some of the iPhone'd faculty have joined in. Hilarity, of course, ensues.

Ashley Blacquiere is a Firstborn MDM student.  'In Silico' is Latin for 'via a computer simulation'.