Implications for Classroom Practice
A delineation of classroom
strategies that will ensure that both girls and boys use computers in
ways that enhance learning and growth is a topic of increasing interest.
The first step, however, is raising teachers’ consciousness about
the inherent disadvantage girls have in the computer domain. Helping
teachers become more aware of issues surrounding girls and computers
can make a difference. A group of 240 teachers attending the Carnegie
Mellon Summer Institute from 1997 to 1999 were trained in “gender
equity instruction that would increase the numbers of girls taking high
school computer science” (Margolis & Fisher, 2002, p. 109).
These teachers reported the following changes as a result of the institute:
• Teachers were more
aware of their own behavior that disadvantaged girls;
• Teachers made a greater effort to call on everyone in the
classroom, not just the boys;
• Teachers personally made greater efforts to recruit girls
into high school computer science classes;
• Teachers had a better idea of how to work with girls;
• Teachers worked harder to retain girls in their classes;
• Teachers encouraged girls; and
• Teachers considered issues of gender equity more (Margolis
& Fisher, 2002).
I believe it is imperative
that we welcome girls into the computer clubhouse (Margolis & Fisher,
2002) starting when they are infants in the home, then in pre-school,
then in elementary school, and so on. If we wait until girls are in
high school, we are too late. By then, they may have chosen not to take
the courses necessary to become inventors and developers of the emerging
computer culture. By then, their natural curiosity about how and why
things work may have been destroyed. By then, gender stereotypes may
be too deeply engrained for girls to feel comfortable moving into a
male-dominated culture. We, as parents, teachers, and school administrators
can make a difference in how the computer culture emerges during the
next decade if we employ any or all of strategies and classroom practices
described below (AAUW, 2000).
Parents, teachers, and school
administrators can insure that both girls and boys are using computers
in ways that facilitate learning and that honor each gender’s
way of viewing and existing within the new and emerging computer culture,
by using any number of the following suggestions.
How parents and teachers
can help:
• Establish same-gender
classes in math and science;
• Establish girls-only computer clubs, summer camps, science
fairs, discussion groups, online meeting places, or similar opportunities;
• Simultaneously, create environments where boys and girls can
work comfortably together with computers;
• Establish mechanisms within your home or school to allow for
equitable access to computers by both boys and girls;
• Place computers in homes and schools in central locations
that discourage inappropriate uses and encourage collaboration among
all family members or classmates;
• Provide numerous female role models who not only use computers
in meaningful ways, but who are designers, leaders, and shapers of
the computer culture;
• Use technology in the home and classroom to accomplish real-life,
meaningful objective and goals (i.e. when you need to process or analyze
data you’ve collected, use a spreadsheet and discuss ways in
which spreadsheets are helpful tools, so that all students see the
computer as something other than a word processor);
• Establish a mentor program where female engineers and computer
scientists interact on a regular basis with elementary, middle, and
high school girls;
• Provide all students with information of the courses and types
and levels of education needed to pursue careers in computer science,
engineering, and other computer-related fields;
• Choose software that does not alienate girls, is not violent
or overly competitive, and does not promote gender stereotypes;
• Expand your definition of computer literacy to that of information
literacy;
• Understand that students learn by doing, so that the more
opportunities they have for using computers in multiple context to
accomplish a variety of goals, the more computer-savvy they will become;
and
• Work collaboratively with other teachers in your grade level,
your building, or your district to create computer-based materials
(i.e. WebQuests) that honor multiple ways of viewing and understanding
important concepts in each curricular area and at each grade level.
How administrators can help:
• Support parents
and teachers using any of the strategies or practices listed above;
• Provide numerous opportunities for in-depth and long-term
staff development for your teachers that go beyond the how-to and
focus on ways to integrate technology in classrooms to engage students
in critical thinking, problem solving, and higher-order thinking skills;
• Allow teachers (the majority of whom are female at the elementary
school level) to take computers home over the summer, so that they
are comfortable using computers to accomplish personal goals. Only
then will they feel comfortable using technology as an integral tool
in their classrooms;
• Create site-based technology integration specialists (teachers
who use technology especially well in their classrooms) to mentor
and support other teachers striving to use technology more effectively
in their classrooms; and
• Create school- and district-wide policies and standards that
disallow the use of technology to put down, harass, or malign fellow
students.
When parents, teachers, and
administrators become more aware of the issues discussed in this paper,
when they use computers in their own lives, when they have in-depth
technology integration training, and when they use some of the strategies
and practices outlined above; then, and only then, will we make a substantial
difference by enlarging the computer culture to embrace both boys AND
girls.
Implications for
Future Research
Turkle and Papert (1990) called for a new social construction of the
computer as well as feminist scholarship to contribute to our understanding
of the ways males and females think about and use computers. In this
study a micro-culture emerged that encouraged new social constructions
of the computer and the computer culture by both boys and girls. By
closely examining the interface of girls and computers, and boys and
computers, I was able to gain insights into how each gender views and
uses computers.
This study breaks ground
for future studies to create, and simultaneously study, computer cultures
that honor female and male ways of knowing and that allow the research
community to begin to break down gender stereotypes and the idea of
one privileged (usually male) way of thinking about computers.
About
the Author
Alice A. Christie,
Ph.D.is an Associate Professor of Technology and Education and Graduate
Studies Department Chair at Arizona State University West.
alice.christie@asu.edu
Send correspondence
to:
College of Education
Arizona State University West
PO Box 37100 - MC 3151
Phoenix, Arizona 85069-7100
http://www.west.asu.edu/achristie/
