Technology Education and Women: Efforts Made at University of Colorado

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Technology Education and Women Efforts Made at
University of Colorado
Lecia Barker University of Colorado at Boulder
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Overview

• Statistics, why it matters
• Two or three research projects
• Middle school
• Undergraduate
• Graduate
• National Center for Women and IT

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Low participation in the US

• Girls/women comprise
• 13 of advanced placement computer science test
  takers in secondary school
• 28 of all CS bachelors degrees
• 18 of all CS doctoral degrees
• 20-25 of CS professionals

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Why should we care? Social issues

• Pervasiveness of IT
• Innovation and creativity requires diverse ideas
• High attrition of women from CS
• Research across many studies shows that womens
  performance equals mens in CS, math, when
  experience factored out
• Difficulty fitting into social context, in spite
  of apparent interest

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Why should we care? Economic Issues

• IT jobs are 3 of the 10 fastest growing Projected
  
• IT job growth far exceeds production of qualified
  workers
• US women earn on the average 77 of salaries
  earned by men doing the same work

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Much research outreach,little progress

• Need unified effort
• Advocacy with single message
• Reason for founding National Center for Women and
  Information Technology

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ATLAS Research atUniversity of Colorado

• Research of Middle School Girls
• Research of Undergraduate
• IT Programs

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Middle school an age of intense peer pressure

• Lifetime of experience tells them that computers
  are in the male domain
• Beginning to see themselves as heterosexual
  beings
• Election only or one of few girls, path
  breakers
• Career aspirations

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How do we persuade girls?

• Recruiting into a high school computer magnet
• Ethnographic research observing classrooms,
  outreach program interviews
• Survey research

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Typical recruiting practice v. what kids are
attracted to

• Cool equipment, software, projects
• If you like computers
• Fail to recruit girls and non-techy boys
• Both boys and girls attracted to
• Able to be with friends
• Social acceptance, mutual support
• Technology for freedom of expression
• Lots of physical movement
• Enduring relationships with teachers

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Society of Women Engineers recruiting event

• 717 girls, mixed race/ethnicity
• 84 of the girls like computers (no differences
  across groups, age)
• 81 believe everyone needs to know how to use
  them (no differences across groups, age)

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Use of computer at home
Latinas significantly less likely to use computer
at home
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What do you want to do when you grown up?
Latinas significantly more likely to indicate
traditional role Youngest girls more likely to
report I dont know
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Implications (need more research)

• Latinas fewer opportunities for informal
  learning, (confidence and attitude issues)
• Recruit the younger girls
• Recruiting messages should align girls interests
  with computing (e.g., technology in veterinary
  medicine)

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Research at undergraduate level

• Study compared classroom climates of CS, IT
  certificate program
• gt600 hours classroom observation
• Interviews with gt170 students
• Defensive climate in intro/mid courses
• Impersonal, competition
• Intimidation for less experienced students (I.e.,
  most of the women)
• Women feel conspicuous, isolated, and different

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Comparing teaching, assessment across programs

• CS lecture, lab
• Looking to teacher as fountain of knowledge,
  expert
• CS concepts abstracted from world of experience
• Rarely hear other students talk about CS
• Lab a non-talkative environment
• CS assessment individualized, secret
• Difficult to gauge ones progress relative to
  other students

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More open learning in TAM

• All teaching in labs
• Mini-lectures followed by hands-on
• Requests for help frequent both students and
  professors can be experts, novices
• Public assessment of assignments
• Required to present, provide critique
• Heard each other talk in their own terms (not
  professors disciplinary jargon)
• Could gauge where they stood

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What does that have to do with women?

• Research shows women prefer collaborative
  learning environments
• Women come into CS with less experience
• Perform as well as their male peers
• Lose confidence easily because they cannot
  accurately judge their progress (in addition to
  the more difficult environment)
• Change of pedagogy/learning environment may both
  attract and retain women

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Introducing the National Center for Women and IT

• Core at University of Colorado-Boulder
• Hubs at U California-Irvine and -Berkeley,
  Georgia Tech, U Oregon, Girl Scouts of the USA,
  Anita Borg Institute, ACM, CRA and CRA-W
• Academic Alliance
• Industry Alliance
• Social Science Network

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Goals Processes

• Equal participation of women and men in academic
  and industrial careers within 20 years
• Equal participation at all levels of the
  education and talent pipeline, from K-12 and
  undergraduate and graduate study to professional
  careers
• Improved communication
• Social change movement

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Methods for succeeding

• Funding and research at all places in the
  pipeline
• Research-based best practices
• Ongoing measurements of success