{"id":14011,"date":"2017-05-17T09:00:32","date_gmt":"2017-05-17T16:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=14011"},"modified":"2017-05-17T12:52:52","modified_gmt":"2017-05-17T19:52:52","slug":"camosun-student-shines-through-helping-others-learn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2017\/05\/17\/camosun-student-shines-through-helping-others-learn\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun student shines through helping others learn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Curiosity led second-year Camosun Computer Science student Hebron Watson down an unexpected path in life. It opened up doors for Watson, leading him to a job where he can be challenged and help produce some innovative study tools for students.<\/p>\n

Watson says that it was through some incredible luck\u2014and curiosity\u2014that he was able to land himself a job working at the Camosun Innovates applied research department as an application coder helping students learn through games and online programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had no idea what they did originally,\u201d says Watson. \u201cI just sort of felt drawn to the building, and one day I just walked in and asked them, \u2018Can someone tell me what exactly it is you guys do here?\u2019 So I just had a conversation with these people, and I kept coming in, and they welcomed me. I told them I wanted to work for them, but they had no jobs since they mainly hired Mechanical Engineering students. They eventually ran into a situation where they needed a Computer Science student, so they hired me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Camosun student Hebron Watson walked into a Camosun building because he was curious and ended up employed (photo by Jill Westby\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Working at Camosun Innovates is a constant test of Watson\u2019s knowledge; right from the get-go, he was doing things he was unfamiliar with. He says that although it\u2019s been tough, it helped him to get a hands-on experience in a line of work he loves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started, it very quickly became a very complicated task where I had to do math that I didn\u2019t know and I had to learn programming tools I didn\u2019t have,\u201d he says. \u201cIt became a strain on my knowledge and it showed how much I didn\u2019t know. Even still to this day, it constantly stretches my knowledge. I\u2019ve come a long way and I\u2019ve also learned a lot about deadlines and working with teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watson and the team have developed a few programs so far. Watson says that although these programs are for student use (and are available on the Camosun website) the team is creating open-source material that\u2019s free for anyone to use, whether they\u2019re a student or not.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re making is a collection of open resources for learning,\u201d he says. \u201cOur first program was a scaffold simulator game; part of the struggle is that you have to understand how the scaffold works before you build it. Basically, what we have so far are educational games that are a free product that Camosun is offering.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watson says that the team is developing programs to inspire innovation in classes and to help make educational resources more affordable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re also using the programs for online classes,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019ve taken what was historically an on-campus class and turned it into an online one where you have an access key that you buy to get into the class. A big thing is that the programs are actually going to be used to reduce student fees directly\u2014the engineers are working on, basically, a digital course pack where you just get a plastic card but you then use that to get access to all these online resources instead of having a big textbook, which is a waste of resources and money.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Curiosity led second-year Camosun Computer Science student Hebron Watson down an unexpected path in life. It opened up doors for Watson, leading him to a job where he can be challenged and help produce some innovative study tools for students. Watson says that it was through some incredible luck\u2014and curiosity\u2014that he was able to land […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","category-may-17-2017"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t