Diploma in Game Design and Animation February 2022 intake at Management and Science University (MSU)

The American writer, editor, literary critic, and poet Edgar Allan Poe was also an amateur cryptographer who conjectured that the ingenuity of man cannot invent a code that the ingenuity of man cannot break. Yet it was Japanese octogenarian Masako Wakamiya who inspired retired teacher of the English language Caryn Chung Hwee Lian to take coding to task; albeit on a different, more possible mission.

“I watched how my four-year-old great grandniece easily picked up simple, everyday English from animated educational programmes. I thought that if I had the skill to create something like that, I could help a lot of other children, too.”

Those other children happened to include one of her ex-students, a sixteen-year-old who had scored zero marks in his grammar test.

“I was shocked and the only methods I knew were scolding, nagging, and giving him extra practice. After some reflection, I realized that I could have used a more creative and effective way to teach him. Young people love to play online games and watch animated movies, so an idea began to form in my mind to combine my teaching skill with a new skill that allows me to create interesting and fun lessons.”

Having retired from a teaching career spanning four decades, the single sexagenarian with a love of gaming soon discovered the story of the Japanese lady who created a game for retirees and made a huge success of it.

Eighty-six years old this year, self-professed IT evangelist and digital creator Masako Wakamiya who created Hinadan (because there are nearly no applications, especially game applications that seniors can enjoy, and the young developers she had asked told her that they did not understand what the elderly would like and so Wakamiya-san should make it herself) was 81 when she learned how to code.

“Age is just a number. Just because we are old does not mean we are useless. Two years ago when we began the MCO [Malaysia’s Movement Control Order in response to the pandemic breaking out], I was deeply saddened and disturbed by news of senior citizens who killed themselves for losing their jobs or were abandoned in old folks’ homes. What Masako did – getting senior citizens engaged with technology so they can stay connected and lead more fulfilling lives – put wings to my faith in teaching as my life’s calling.”

Finding where best to begin her new journey was easy.

“I had thought of another university because of the discount to seniors aged 60 and above, but they do not offer anything in the way of game design or animation. And every morning as I wake up I see the big, bold MSU Campus lettering on the buildings right across where I live in Shah Alam Section 13. As soon as I was able to visit post-MCO, I walked over to check out the programmes offered and found MSU’s Diploma in Game Design and Animation and Bachelor in Game Design and Animation (Hons) at the Faculty of Information Sciences and Engineering (FISE).

A gamified learning experience that teaches students vocabulary and other English Language skills, built on the premise that the things kids like such as cartoons and games can be leveraged to make education more equitable and enable student success, would be yet another platform from which to make meaningful impact that transforms lives, enriches the future.

“Teaching gave me great joy. My students were like my own children. I miss being around young people. Now, these young people are my peers. I enjoy doing group assignments and projects with them, across all the diversity on campus.”

And the teacher of English, who upon her Oath Taking Ceremony this February is now officially a student of Diploma in Game Design and Animation at Management and Science University (MSU), offers a poem of her own.