Title: Technology Education and Women: Efforts Made at University of Colorado
1Technology Education and Women Efforts Made at
University of Colorado
Lecia Barker University of Colorado at Boulder
2Overview
- Statistics, why it matters
- Two or three research projects
- Middle school
- Undergraduate
- Graduate
- National Center for Women and IT
3Low 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
4Why 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
5Why 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
6Much research outreach,little progress
- Need unified effort
- Advocacy with single message
- Reason for founding National Center for Women and
Information Technology
7ATLAS Research atUniversity of Colorado
- Research of Middle School Girls
- Research of Undergraduate
- IT Programs
8Middle 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
9How do we persuade girls?
- Recruiting into a high school computer magnet
- Ethnographic research observing classrooms,
outreach program interviews - Survey research
10Typical 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
11Society 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)
12Use of computer at home
Latinas significantly less likely to use computer
at home
13What 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
14Implications (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)
15Research 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
16Comparing 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
17More 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
18What 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
19Introducing 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
20Goals 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
21Methods for succeeding
- Funding and research at all places in the
pipeline - Research-based best practices
- Ongoing measurements of success