[Year 12 IT Apps] Girls in IT

[Kneen, Catherine A]

To put a female perspective on it:

Back in the late 90s when I was doing Computer Systems Engineering there were 200/250 people in a lecture hall with tops 10/15 females. Sometimes the hostility in the room was palpable. I was actually doing a double degree with Business Admin – the ratio of male to females once you added that double degree went up to 50:50.

Students are often surprised when they find out that I’m a computer engineer and that I know how to operate computer equipment! When people out there in the world hear my qualifications, the eyebrows rise in surprise. And I’m talked down to but technical staff A LOT.

In my current orientation to 2015 classes, the Yr 11 class has 24 students, 3 are female; the Yr 12 class has 14 students with 3 females. I get really frustrated when this stuff hasn’t improved. Then there was that Barbie book http://www.npr.org/2014/11/22/365968465/after-backlash-computer-engineer-barbie-gets-new-set-of-skills that came to light recently that was written only a couple of years ago.

There’s a good teaser clip for a documentary about the gender gap on wired: http://www.wired.com/2014/11/code-documentary-gender-gap/.

Catherine Kneen| Maths & IT Teacher
[Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: http://www.keysboroughsc.vic.edu.au/email_logo_01.gif]
Banksia Campus | T 9546 4144
www.keysboroughsc.vic.edu.au<http://www.keysboroughsc.vic.edu.au/>

From: itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Savage, John L
Sent: Thursday, 27 November 2014 12:29 PM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: [Year 12 IT Apps] Girls in IT

I teach in a girls college, so boys don’t get a look in! But here’s a little anecdote that illustrates some of the ingrained attitudes in IT:

Outside my day job I work in a few bands. I rolled up to a gig and there was a young, cool dude filling in on the drums. We got to talking and I discovered the rather cool sports car outside that I’d been admiring was his and he was a Web App developer with a small, very successful business. We got to talking and the conversation veered to COBOL as it usually does. I mentioned Grace Hopper as the pioneer of that arcane language and he responded “Oh, she must be a lesbian.”

Enough said. Why would you choose to work in an environment with colleagues like that?

Laurie Savage

From: itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Roland Gesthuizen
Sent: Thursday, 27 November 2014 11:31 AM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Cc: Nicky Box Ringland
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] Creating websites?

The number of girls in my IT classes has been steadily increasing each year from zero to 1 to 3 to 6 to more

Its hard work Mark, sometimes we need to take a reality test to work out what is ‘repelling' them from this subject. It isn’t entirely the gender of the teacher and perhaps more how some of us are teaching or promoting the subject. Starting from a room filled with boys can be rather negative place to begin but there are some positive steps we can take to redress the balance. For one, I made it a huge priority to word up the year 10 team leader and the career coordinator that this was a very important challenge and I could not do it alone. Within the class, I let the girls work as a team / club and support their shared collaboration and networking with positive role models outside the school with video conference linkups etc. There are many other things I am doing but I should first salute the advice freely given by Donna Benjamin, Pia Waugh, Nicky Ringland and Therese Keane who have all helped me with this journey over the past few years.

http://ift.tt/1zdld9v  " .. a major international study released Thursday found Australian girls are more computer-literate than their male classmates.”

http://www.mprnews.org/story/2014/10/06/forgotten-female-programmers?WT.mc_id=_WT_AUTOGEN_VALUE_ “The forgotten female programmers who created modern tech | Minnesota Public Radio News @download"

—
Roland GESTHUIZEN
http://about.me/rgesthuizen

On 27 Nov 2014, at 10:46 am, Mark <mark at vceit.com<mailto:mark at vceit.com>> wrote:

Girls... in IT? Are you sure?

I haven't seen one in the wild for years.
Just the occasional documentary that suggested they might not be completely extinct.
There was a rumour of some girls in an IT class in either Tibet or Manangatang. Can't remember which.

I tried laying traps - like Scratch, and social website construction - but they're too wily to take that bait.

But wow.
First, the Higgs boson.
Now, actual sightings of girls in IT.

What a world we live in.


On 27 November 2014 at 10:30, Savage, John L <savage.john.l at edumail.vic.gov.au<mailto:savage.john.l at edumail.vic.gov.au>> wrote:
Hi Benjamin,

It’s funny you should mention Notepad++. We love it. My girls were sold on it for two reasons – Block Selection and Themes! Once they discovered Hello Kitty and the dark, brooding Twilight-ish themes that was it. Some of them even went so far as to turn off colour coding/matching just because they could. And the appalling fonts they chose! I have never seen HTML coded in 18pt Segoe Handwriting before; all in all it was a lovely way to lure them into coding, and quite unintentional.

Laurie

From: itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au> [mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au>] On Behalf Of Savage, John L
Sent: Thursday, 27 November 2014 8:46 AM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] Creating websites?

If we could use a CMS it’s not far from building the site in Google Sites is it?

Laurie Savage

From: itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au> [mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Baas, Benjamin B
Sent: Thursday, 27 November 2014 7:56 AM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] Creating websites?

It would be nice to be able to use a CMS, there are some good free ones available. At the moment I have limited software choice and most of students will be making sites using only notepad++.

Ben.
Alkira

From: itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au> [mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Mark
Sent: Wednesday, 26 November 2014 11:09 PM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] Creating websites?

An interesting question indeed. A decade ago, knowledge of HTML would have been required. Times change, CMS and click/drag site builders are now the norm. VCAA's list of required skills for websites may need a face lift, because its age is starting to show...

On Wednesday, November 26, 2014, Bill Oldham <0woldham8 at gmail.com<mailto:0woldham8 at gmail.com>> wrote:
Hi everyone,
Just home from an Adobe presentation of Adobe Muse for website creation on a visual basis. No knowledge of HTML, CSS seems to be needed.
Could a software program like this be used to meet the Year 12 ITA course requirements?

It is able to  create a website. But little more than point and click appears to be needed to create an online community.

Cheers,
Bill Oldham (retired from RMIT)


--

Mark Kelly
mark AT vceit DOT com
http://vceit.com<http://vceit.com/>


--

Mark Kelly
mark AT vceit DOT com
http://vceit.com<http://vceit.com/>

I enjoy non-sequiturs because... cows.

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