Workshop 1
Gender, Education and New Technologies: Assessing the evidence
Led by Michael Peters
Workshop 2
Girls, Social Media & Social Networking: Harnessing the talent
Led by Tina Besley
TataKelola dan KamSiber Kecerdasan Buatan v022.pdf
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Gender, education & new technologies
1. Gender, Education & New
Technologies
UNIVERSITY OF THE AEGEAN 2008
POST-GRADUATE PROGRAM
"GENDER AND NEW EDUCATIONAL AND EMPLOYMENT
ENVIRONMENTS IN THE INFORMATION AGE"
Michael A Peters
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
2. Two Workshops
⢠Workshop 1
⢠Gender, Education and New Technologies:
Assessing the evidence
⢠Led by Michael Peters
⢠Workshop 2
⢠Girls, Social Media & Social Networking:
Harnessing the talent
⢠Led by Tina Besley
3. Outline of Workshop 1
1. Introducing the philosophical
issues
2. Developing a baseline
understanding
3. Investigating the research articles
4. Discussion of feminism,
technology and science
4. 1. Introducing the
philosophical issues
⢠Orientation â TechnÄ, Space and Subjectivity
⢠Is there a gender theory of technology?
⢠Plurality & complexity: The language of new media
⢠Informationalism
⢠Techno-political economy of openness
⢠Open 21st
century?
⢠Immaterial labor
⢠New Media, Knowledge Formations and Ubiquitous
Learning
⢠Freedom and control of media
15. TechnÄ
⢠Heidegger suggests that technÄ is a mode
of knowing that consists in aletheia, a
bringing forth of being out of
concealedness.
⢠He establishes a series of meaningful
relationships between technology,
subjectivity, dwelling (architecture) and
space
⢠Foucault coins the term âtechnologies of the
selfâ ď âgender technologies of the selfâ
16. Spatial Technologies
⢠Classical Greek society and the
invention of technologies of space
and new subjectivities: celestial
spaces; private spaces; public spaces;
space of theatre, of worship, of burial,
of democracy, of commerce.
⢠new spatialization of knowledge and
the self through pervasive networks,
including the Internet
18. Michael Foucault â âOf Other
Spacesâ (1967)
The present epoch will perhaps be above all
the epoch of space. We are in the epoch of
simultaneity: we are in the epoch of
juxtaposition, the epoch of the near and far,
of the side-by-side, of the dispersed. We are
at a moment. I believe, when our
experience of the world is less that of a long
life developing through time than that of a
network that connects points and intersects
with its own skein.
19. Edutopologies
1. Textual spaces/ spaces of representation (Literary Studies)
2. Embodied and gendered spaces â spaces of identity
(Philosophy; Feminism; Anthropology)
3. Institutional and dwelling spaces (Architecture)
4. The city, the region, the country (Geography; Urban Planning)
5. Globalization and transnational spaces (Economics; Cultural
Studies)
6. Spaces of history â colonial spaces (History)
7. Imaginary spaces (Utopian Studies)
8. Topological spaces (Discrete Mathematics)
9. The space of migrations, diasporas, flows (Migration studies)
10. The technologies of networked spaces (Information studies).
20. Is there a gender theory of
technology?
⢠Most philosophical theories of technology
ignore gender â Marx, Heidegger, Marcuse,
Feenberg
⢠Exception is Donna Harawayâs (1985)
âManifesto for Cyborgsâ written before the
invention and public use of the Internet, and
the recent emergence of social media
⢠Some new attempts that focus on questions
of subjectivity in relation to the question of
âaffective & immaterial laborâ (after Negri &
Hardt)
21. Plurality & Complexity
The language of new media
1. through numerical representation, a new object can be described
formally (mathematically) and subject to algorithmic manipulation:
"in short, media becomes programmable" (27).
2. new media objects have modularity at the level of representation
and at the level of code. Thus, new media objects such as a digital
film or a web page are composed from an assemblage of
elements--images, sounds, shapes, or behaviors--that sustain their
separate identity and can be operated upon separately, without
rendering the rest of the assemblage unusable.
3. numerical coding and modularity "allow for the automation of
many operations involved in media creation, manipulation, and
access" (32). Automation achieves speed that is the fulcrum of
computer "power."
22. Lev Manvich (2000)
4. while old media depended upon an original construction of
an object that could then be exactly reproduced (for
example, as a printed book or photograph), new media are
characterized by variability. Thus, browsers and word
processors allow users to define parameters; databases allow
selective search-sensitive views; web pages can be
customized to the user. The variability of new media allows for
branching-type interactivity, periodic updates, and scalability
as to size or detail (37-38).
5. new media find themselves at the center of the "transcoding"
between the layers of the computer and the layers of culture
(46). In new-media lingo, to "transcode something is to
translate it into another format" (47).
23. Informationalism
⢠Informational capitalism: Manuel Castells on the ânetworked
society.â informationalism as a new technological paradigm
and mode of development characterized by âinformation
generation, processing, and transmissionâ that have become
âthe fundamental sources of productivity and powerâ
⢠Other descriptions:
- Harveyâs The Condition of Postmodernity
- Diigital capitalism (Dan Schiller & Robert McChesney)
- New culture of capitalism (Sennett; Thrift)
- Fast capitalism (Agger)
- Virtual capitalism (John Bellamy Foster)
- High-tech capitalism (Haug 2003)
⢠What they share is the idea that Informationalism is a mode of
development structured and based on knowledge, science,
expertise and communication technologies
24. Techno-political economy of
openness
⢠Politics of Openness
- Bergson, Popper, Soros; open government
⢠Technologies of Openness
- Open systems, cybernetics, Macy group, Shanon
- PC, Internet (1992), shift to Net as platform, Web 2.0
- Social media-social networking; New architectures of
participation and collaboration
⢠Economics of Openness
- Economics of file-sharing; Mass customization; Personalization
of services; Co-production & co-design of goods & services
- Knowledge as a global public good
- âHow Social Production Transforms Freedom and Marketsâ â
Yochai Benkler (2006)
- Freedom, justice, and the organization of information
production on nonproprietary principles
25. Open Cultures/Open Education
- MIT adopts OpenCourseWare (2001)
- Budapest OA statement
-Harvard mandates open archiving
(Feb 14, 2008)
26. Open 21st
Century?
⢠The present decade can be called the âopenâ decade (open
source, open systems, open standards, open archives, open
everything) just as the 1990s were called the âelectronicâ
decade (e-text, e-learning, e-commerce, e-governance).
Materu, 2004.
⢠It is more than just a âdecadeâ that follows the electronic
innovations of the 1990s; it is a change of philosophy and
ethos, a set of interrelated and complex changes that
transforms markets and the mode of production, ushering in a
new collection of values based on openness, the ethic of
participation and peer-to-peer collaboration.
⢠a shift from an underlying metaphysics of productionâa
âproductionistâ metaphysicsâto a metaphysics of
prosumption creating new forms of creativity and freedom
⢠Dangers of openness: the end of unregulated neoliberalism?
27. Immaterial labor
⢠Negri & Hardt (2000: 290) argue that
contemporary society is an Empire that is
characterized by a singular global logic of
capitalist domination that is based on immaterial
labor âthat creates immaterial products, such as
knowledge, information, communication, a
relationship, or an emotional responseâ or
services, cultural products, knowledge
⢠MySpace - a place in which young adults âlearnâ
to immaterial labor â developing and maintaining
networks an d fashioning a flexible âself-brandâ
that functions as the digital interface of an
individualâs subjectivity â pointing to affect as the
binding force that makes immaterial production
cohere.
28. New Media, Knowledge Formations and
Ubiquitous Learning
⢠We now live in a socially networked universe in which the
material conditions for the formation, circulation, and
utilization of knowledge and learning are rapidly changing
from an industrial to information and media-based economy.
⢠Increasingly the emphasis has fallen on the âlearning
economyâ and on improving learning systems and networks,
and the acquisition of new literacies as a central aspect of
development considered in personal, community, regional,
national and global contexts.
⢠These mega-trends signal both changes in the production
and consumption of symbolic goods and also associated
changes in their contexts of use.
⢠They accent the âlearnerâsâ co-production and active
production of meaning in a variety of networked public and
private spaces, where knowledge and learning emerge as
new principles of social stratification, social mobility and
identity formation.
29. Freedom & Control
⢠Communications and information technologies not only diminish the
effect of distance they also thereby conflate the local and the
global, the private and the public, âworkâ and âhomeâ.
⢠Digitalization of learning systems increases the speed, circulation and
exchange of knowledge highlighting the importance of the digital
archive, digital representations of all symbolic and cultural resources,
and new literacies and models of text management.
⢠At the same time the radical concordance of image, text and
sound, and development of new information/knowledge
infrastructures have created new learning opportunities in formal and
informal areas, while encouraging the emergence of a global
media network linked with a communications network together with
the emergence a universal Euro-American consumer culture and the
rise of edutainment media & information conglomerates.
⢠The question, therefore, of who owns and designs learning systems is
of paramount political and philosophical importance for âHow a
system is designed will affect the freedoms and control the system
enablesâ (Lessig, 2002: 35).
30. 2. Developing a baseline
understanding
⢠âHow do we educate girls to become
tech-savvy women?â
⢠Findings of the Commission
⢠Recommendations of the Commission
⢠Design characteristics
⢠âGirl friendlyâ features
31. Gender, Education and New Technologies:
Assessing the evidence
The question âHow do we educate girls to become
tech-savvy women?â was the main concern of the
AAUW Educational Foundation Commission on
Technology, Gender, and Teacher Education in its
major report Tech-Savy: Educating Girls in the New
Computer Age (2000). These two workshops begin
with a discussion of Tech-Savy based on allocated
readings to participants (Chapters 1-5) as a base-
line of understanding.
32. Tech-Savy: Educating Girls in the
New Computer Age (2000)
⢠Chapter 1: âWE CAN, BUT I DONâT WANT TOâ:
Girlsâ Perspectives on the Computer Culture
⢠Chapter 2: IN THE SCHOOL: Teacher
Perspectives and Classroom Dynamics
⢠Chapter 3: EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE AND
GAMES: Rethinking the âGirlsâ Gameâ
⢠Chapter 4: THE COMPUTER SCIENCE
CLASSROOM: Call It âOceanographyâ and
They Will Come
⢠Chapter 5: THE SCHOOL IN CONTEXT: Home,
Community, and Work
33. 1. Girls have reservations about the computer
cultureâand with good reason.
⢠girls are concerned about the passivity of their
interactions with the computer as a âtoolâ
⢠they reject the violence, redundancy, and tedium
of computer games;
⢠they dislike narrowly and technically focused
programming classes.
⢠Too often, these concerns are dismissed as
symptoms of anxiety or incompetence that will
diminish once girls âcatch upâ with the technology.
⢠girls are pointing to important deficits in the
technology and the culture in which it is embedded
that need to be integrated into our general thinking
about computers and education.
34. 2. Teachers in grades K-12 have
concernsâand with good reason.
⢠Teachers, three-fourths of whom are women, critique the
quality of educational software;
⢠the âdisconnectâ between the worlds of the curriculum,
classroom needs, and school district expectations;
⢠and the dearth of adequate professional development and
timely technical assistance.
⢠criticisms of the ways that computer technology has come
into the classroom, and of the ways that they are instructed
and encouraged to use it.
⢠Often, teachersâ concerns are met with teacher bashing:
âTeachers are not measuring upâ to the new technology
⢠teachers need opportunities to design instruction that takes
advantage of technology across all disciplines.
⢠Computing ought to be infused into the curriculum and
subject areas that teachers care about in ways that promote
critical thinking and lifelong learning.
35. 3. Statistics on girlsâ participation in the culture of
computing are of increasing concern, from the point
of view of education, economics, and culture.
⢠Girls are not well-represented in computer
laboratories and clubs, and have taken
dramatically fewer programming and
computer science courses at the high
school and postsecondary level. Therefore,
girls and women have been labeled as
computer-phobic.
⢠We need a more inclusive computer culture
that embraces multiple interests and
backgrounds and that reflects the current
ubiquity of technology in all aspects of life.
36. 4. Girlsâ current ways of participating in the
computer culture are a cause for concern.
⢠Criticisms of computer courses as point of entry based on
review of tools;
⢠mastery of these tools may be useful, it is not the same thing
as true technological literacy.
⢠To be âtechnologically literateâ requires a set of critical skills,
concepts, and problemsolving abilities that permit full
citizenship in contemporary e-culture.
⢠The new standard of âfluencyâ assumes an ability to use
abstract reasoning; to apply information technology in
sophisticated, innovative ways to solve problems across
disciplines and subject areas; to interpret vast amounts of
information with analytic skill; to understand basic principles of
programming and other computer science fundamentals;
and to continually adapt and learn new technologies as they
emerge in the future.
37. Commission's Key
Recommendations
⢠Compute across the curriculum.
⢠Redefine computer literacy.
⢠Respect multiple points of entry.
⢠Change the public face of computing.
⢠Prepare tech-savvy teachers.
⢠Begin a discussion on equity for educational
stakeholders.
⢠Educate students about technology and the future
of work.
⢠Rethink educational software and computer
games.
⢠Support efforts that give girls and women a boost
⢠into the pipeline.
38. The following 10 design characteristics are conducive
to engaging a broader array of learners, boys and
girls, with computer environments:
1. software that is personalizable and customizable. This type of
software allows students to create their own characters,
scenarios, and endings, and allows them to work
independently or collaboratively.
2. games with challenge
3. games involving more strategy and skill
4. games with many levels, intricacies, and complexities
5. flexibility to support multiple narratives
6. constructionist designâone that allows students to create their
own objects through the software
7. designs that support collaborative or group work, and
encourage social interaction
8. coherent, nonviolent narratives
9. âpuzzle connections,â such as rich mysteries with multiple
resolutions
10. goal-focused rather than open-ended games
39. The following four content features have
been found to be âgirl friendlyâ:
1. âidentity gamesâ that enable girls to experiment
with characters and real-life scenarios. Some of
these games enable girls to invent online
personalities, identities, and worlds. Some of these
games enable girls to experiment with choices
about peer pressure, smoking, sexual relationships,
etc., and âplay outâ the consequences of their
action.
2. software that has realistic as well as fantastical
content; games that function as simulations of
authentic contexts and situations
3. software structured around a conflict with potential
resolution
4. games that have themes of mystery and adventure
40. 3. Investigating the Research
Articles
⢠Reexamining the evidence in terms of
5 recent research articles (1997-2007)
⢠Methods and approaches
⢠Some checklists
41. The Research Articles
⢠Abbiss, J (2008) Rethinking the âproblemâ of gender and IT
schooling: discourses in literature, Gender and Education, 20, (
2): 153â165.
⢠Marwick, K (2006) Under The Feminist Post-Structuralist Lens:
Women in Computing Education, Journal of Educational
Computing Research, 34 (3): 257-279.
⢠Papastergiou, M & Solomonidou, C (2005) Gender issues in
Internet access and favourite Internet activities among Greek
high school pupils inside and outside school, Computers &
Education 44: 377â393.
⢠Volman, M, van Eck E, Heemskerk, I, & Kuiper, E (2005) New
technologies, new differences. Gender and ethnic
differences in pupilsâ use of ICT in primary and secondary
education, Computers & Education 45: 35â55.
⢠Durndell, A & Thomson, K. (1997) Gender and Computing: A
Decade of Change? Computer Education, 28, (1) 1-9.
42. Gender and Computing: A
Decade of Change? (1997)
Targetted 16-18 year olds in 1995 were compared to similar
groups in 1992, 1989 and 1986. Reported use of computers,
knowledge about IT and reasons for not studying computing
were assessed. Reported use of computers in school had risen
to a non gender differentiated high level. However, reported
domestic use of computers remained highly gendered, with
males retaining a higher level of reported use both of their
own computer and of a friend's computer. Knowledge about
IT concepts had increased over time, with the male
advantage over females being retained but declining very
gradually in absolute size. Analysis, both open ended and
statistical, of responses to questions about choosing not to
study computing indicated a considerable stability over time
of a rather negative stereotype of the computer specialist. It is
concluded that gender related changes over time in the U.K.
are occurring, but at a slow rate.
43. New technologies, new differences
(2005)
This paper investigates the accessibility and attractiveness of different types of
ICT applications in education for girls and boys and for pupils from families
with an ethnic minority background and from the majority population in the
Netherlands. A study was conducted in seven schools (primary and
secondary). Data were collected on participation, ICT skills and learning
results, ICT attitudes and the learning approach of pupils. A total of 213 pupils
completed a questionnaire and interviews were held with 48 pupils and 12
teachers. Gender differences, especially in primary education, appeared to
be small. In secondary education, the computer attitude of girls seems to be
less positive than that of boys, girls and boys take on different tasks when
working together on the computer and they tackle ICT tasks differently. Pupils
from an ethnic-minority background in both primary and secondary
education appear to consider themselves to be less skilled ICT users than
pupils from the majority population. We found ethnic differences in
participation in ICT activities at school in both educational sectors. Pupils from
an ethnic-minority background use the computer at school less for gathering
information and preparing talks and papers and more for drill and practice.
Differences between pupils from an ethnic-minority background and from the
majority population in access to certain forms of ICT use out of school are
confirmed at school instead of being compensated for. The paper concludes
with some recommendations on a diversity-oriented ICT policy at school level.
44. Computers at School
⢠Learning words, sums or
topography
(primary)/practising skills
(secondary)
⢠Drawing (primary)/ working
with pictures or photos
(secondary)
⢠Gathering information for a
talk or paper
⢠Preparing a talk (primary)
⢠Giving a talk or presentation
(secondary)
⢠Writing a letter or story
(primary)/report
(secondary)
⢠Writing a paper
⢠Doing an experiment, e.g.,
in physics (secondary)
⢠Writing and reading e-mail
messages
⢠Surfing on the Internet
⢠Chatting
⢠Building a website
⢠Programming
⢠Playing computer games
⢠Other activities
45. Command of computer skills
⢠Starting the computer
⢠Starting a computer game
⢠Playing a computer game
⢠Writing a text on the computer
⢠Saving a text
⢠Bold print
⢠Moving sentences around in a story
⢠Entering letters with accents (e.g.,
âŹe, e, e) and punctuation marks
⢠Using the spell check
⢠Inserting an existing picture in a
story
⢠Drawing a square and a circle on
the computer
⢠Changing the colour of the letters
⢠Turning an illustration upside down
⢠Sending an e-mail
⢠Answering an e-mail
⢠Forwarding an e-mail
⢠Sending a file (attachment) with an
e-mail
⢠Surfing the Internet
⢠Printing an Internet page
⢠Bookmarks/favourites
⢠Using search engines on the
Internet
⢠Downloading a file from the
Internet
⢠Chatting
⢠Building a website
46. Ways of Working
⢠I prefer to work on the computer with others at school
⢠I prefer computer games in which I can beat someone else
⢠I prefer computer games in which you can make or build something, or in
which you have to achieve something yourself
⢠When I am working with others I prefer to sit in the âmouse positionâ
⢠When I can do something well on the computer, I enjoy explaining it to others
⢠I prefer playing computer games in which people experience things that really
could happen
⢠I prefer to try things out for myself on the computer rather than be given an
explanation first
⢠I prefer computer games in which I can imagine that I am one of the main
characters
⢠I prefer explanations on the computer to be in pictures rather than words
⢠I really prefer computer programs or games to tell you whether you are doing it
well
⢠I prefer to play computer games with someone else
⢠I prefer someone to explain to me what I have to do on the computer rather
than working it out for myself
⢠I prefer computer games and programs in which you can make something
pretty or amusing
47. Gender issues in Internet access and favourite
Internet activities among Greek high school
pupils inside and outside school
This study investigates gender differences in Internet use by
Greek high school pupils within school and out of school
environments. A sample of 340 pupils (170 boys and 170 girls),
aged 12â16 years, completed a written questionnaire on their
attainability, location, frequency and purposes of Internet
access. The data analysis showed that more pupils use the
Internet outside school (at home, in Internet cafes) than
within school and that boys have more opportunities to
access the Internet. Both inside and outside school, pupilsâ
favourite Internet activities relate to information gathering for
personal purposes and to entertainment. Boys use the
Internet for entertainment and Web page creation more
than girls do, whereas no other significant gender differences
were noted regarding pupilsâ other Internet activities, such as
communication via e-mail, chat or videoconferencing, Web
surfing and information search for personal or school
purposes.
48. Internet in Greek schools
According to official data released by the Greek Ministry of
Education in November 2002, 100% of Greek secondary
schools and 46% of Greek primary schools had access to the
Internet through the Greek Schools Network (GSN, Web site),
which began to function in 1999â2000. In recent years, an
effort has been made to gradually integrate ICT as a learning
tool into the various curricular subjects in both primary and
secondary school. But still the majority of Greek pupils first
have contact with computers and the Internet at high school
level within the school environment, during the computer
literacy course. This course is taught one hour per week at the
school computer laboratory, in each high school grade, and
one of its objectives is the acquisition of basic knowledge and
skills concerning the Internet, and the productive use of it for
various activities and projects.
49. Aims of Research
The aim of the present survey was to identify gender
differences in the following issues:
(a) The extent of Internet use among boys and girls
inside school and outside school.
(b) The type of Internet use among boys and girls
inside school (structured use for course activities or
free use).
(c) The location (e.g., home, Internet cafes) and
frequency of out of school Internet use for boys and
girls.
(d) Purposes for which boys and girls use the Internet
inside and outside school (e.g., navigationand
information search on the Web, communication via
e-mail, etc.).
50. Method
⢠2.2.1. Participants
The survey was conducted in 1 randomly selected
public high schools pertaining to Trikala, a typical
Greek prefecture (six schools in urban areas and
five schools in semi-rural and rural areas).
⢠2.2.2. Instrument
a self-report questionnaire, which comprised 41
multiple choice and Likert-type items and two
open items.
⢠2.2.3. Procedure
The survey was conducted during October-November
2001.
⢠2.2.4. Data analysis
51. Results
Although the proportions of boys and girls who use the
Internet inside school do not differ significantly, Greek high
school boys are more likely to use the Internet outside school
than girls are. Furthermore, both inside and outside school,
Greek boys use the Internet for recreational activities and for
Web page creation more than girls do, although no other
significant gender differences were detected regarding
Internet use for communication (via e-mail, chat or
videoconferencing), Web surfing and information search
activities.
Greek high school girls thus still have lesser opportunities to
access the Internet in the extrascholastic environment than
boys do. But the gender gap detected in this study is likely to
close, as Internet penetration further advances in Greek
society, and as social and cultural transformations change the
traditional sex role stereotypes regarding the use of ICT, which
seem to actually affect pupils, and most importantly, their
parents.
52. Under The Feminist Post-structuralist Lens:
Women In Computing Education (2006)
Despite various reform efforts, a persistent concern remains within
education regarding the under-representation of women in non-
traditional subject areas, such as science and engineering. As society
is becoming increasingly technocratic, this article examines this issue
in relation to Information Technology (IT), as a relatively new
educational area. In doing so, I review some of the literature
surrounding the gendering of this site and draw upon empirical
findings from a study exploring the experiences of women in
university computing courses. The aim of this article is to consider and
critique the dominant paradigms that have been adopted, drawing
upon constructions and understandings of subjectivity of educational
theorists who offer alternative ways of approaching this issue. In this
article I argue that to move forward we must disrupt and dismantle
the gender binary that is so insidiously embedded in the discursive
repertoire of the dominant paradigm of educational research and
reform. A feminist post-structuralist approach, as employed by
several educational theorists, offers opportunities for transcending
such duality, while engaging more effectively with the lived
experiences of individual women.
53. Introduction
Information Technology (IT) has become a global discourse of
power. Womenâs under-representation is therefore a political
issue. This article is not simply about the quantitative concerns
associated with women in IT, but is fundamentally interested
in the emancipatory implications of such under-
representation. These are associated with womenâs restricted
involvement in the production of such knowledge and male
dominated control over technological developments from
the personal to the global and the implications of this in the
current political climate. However, I argue that women are
both active in their resistance of, and complicity in, the social
and political practices that lead to their exclusion. Gender
reforms within education must therefore take into account
girlsâ and womenâs investments in the discourses surrounding
gender and technology.
54. Gender reform practices
⢠changing girlsâ choices;
⢠changing girls themselves;
⢠changing the curriculum; or
⢠changing the learning environment.
55. Different approaches
⢠Bryson and de Castell describe four paradigms of
research and reform, which they categorize as
⢠technicist, constructivist, critical, and postmodern.
Technicist and constructivist approaches
understand the problem in quantitative and
qualitative terms respectively.
⢠The critical approach challenges the existing
educational structures and practices, however
tends to construct women as victims and neglect
female agencyâ complicity and resistance.
However, the postmodern paradigm begins to
deconstruct hegemonic discourses of both
technology and gender
56. Rethinking the 'problem' of gender and IT
schooling: discourses in literature (2007)
A review of the international research literature pertaining to
gender and information technology (IT) schooling reveals
changing ideas about what constitutes a gender problem.
Much of the literature is concerned with gender differences in
computer uses and interests and perceived disadvantages
accruing to females as a result of these differences. This
reflects and contributes to a dominant liberal equity
discourse. Growing awareness of the limitations of earlier
research, the changing nature of IT schooling, contradictions
in studentsâ computer interests and dissatisfaction with
simplistic explanations has led, however, to post-structural
rethinking and the emergence of a critical discourse.
Assumptions of essential differences and deficit ways of
thinking are challenged. Persistent gender differences in IT use
are explored in their social complexity and the very notion
that there is a gender problem is problematised. This presents
a different and ultimately more satisfying way of thinking
about the problem of gender and IT schooling.
57. 4. Feminism, technology and
science
Interview
Feminism, Politics, Theories and Science
Which New Link?
Edited by Marina Calloni
UNIVERSITY OF MILANO-BICOCCA
The European Journal of Womenâs Studies,2003
58. Abstract
Are womenâs movement and feminist theories still connected to
radical politics and the interest in changing social inequalities, when
feminism has been âinstitutionalizedâ, for instance in the academia,
and has become a mainstreaming issue in social policies? This main
question was put to eminent feminist scholars, with the aim of
investigating the renewed critical role of international feminism and
womenâs/gender studies in society, science, information, education
and research. A reconstruction of the main changes which have
occurred to womenâs movements and feminist theories in the last
decades were the core of the interview, stressing differences and
disagreement, also in relation to the new sociopolitical claims,
supported by younger generations. The conclusion was that feminism
has not lost its historical political mission, even though the world
scenario and ideologies have dramatically changed. Indeed,
feminism has become transcultural and âglocalâ, facing new
socioeconomic inequities induced by globalization both in western
societies and countries in development, confronting with the
transformation of collective/gender identities and questioning the
increasing importance of (bio)technologies.
59. Participants
⢠Rosi Braidotti, director of the Research School of
Womenâs Studies at Utrecht University in the
Netherlands;
⢠Donna Haraway, professor at the University of Santa
Cruz;
⢠Juliet Mitchell, professor at Jesus College, University
of Cambridge, UK;
⢠Joan Scott, professor at the Institute for Advanced
Studies, Princeton University; and
⢠Annamaria Tagliavini, director of the Biblioteca e
Centro di Documentazione delle Donne in Bologna.
60. New Info-Feminisms
⢠What new subjectivities are constituted
through social media for girls and women?
⢠What new possibilities do they afford girls for
educational success and progress?
⢠What distinctive forms of female immaterial
labor and affect do social media create?
⢠What are the transformational potential of
social media that link feminism to its
historical mission?