Re: [Gendergap] Giving Women the Access Code
Yes, a course for very, very unexperienced programers would be great. And just to continue on that thread about pursuing your passion, I trust you have seen Sir Ken Robinson talk at TED? http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html Med vänliga hälsningar, Lennart Lennart Guldbrandsson, Tfn: 031 - 12 50 48 Mobil: 070 - 207 80 05 Epost: l_guldbrands...@hotmail.com / lenn...@wikimedia.se Användarsida: http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anv%C3%A4ndare:Hannibal Blogg: http://mrchapel.wordpress.com/ Wikimedia Sverige http://wikimedia.se http://www.1av3.se Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2012 10:31:43 -0400 From: sarah.stie...@gmail.com To: gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Gendergap] Giving Women the Access Code Nice article, thanks for sharing Lennart! “She was consistently told by teachers in adolescence, then later by colleagues, that the things she was interested in were things women didn’t do, and that there were no good female mathematicians,” Dr. Pippenger said. It's reasoning like this, and the one that you quoted below about stereotypes, kept me from pursuing a degree in computer science. I remember looking into the school when I was a young undergrad and I felt so intimidated, and then was told that I'd have to take certain math classes. Which frustrated me, as I could do basic language coding and write html off the top of my head. I flunked the math classes I had to take, and 10 years later found out I had a math disability. (And it wasn't my parents who were telling me not to do it, it was professors, etc. Regardless of my poor math skills, almost every single person I know who codes jokes that you don't need to know math. Someday I'll take some classes in something (just for fun, I suppose)..or perhaps there will be a N00bs super simple MediaWiki fun day that even your grandma could learn to code at! event. I'm not disappointed with how my path curved and turned thus far, but, after reading Unlocking the Clubhouse[1] and every time I read an article like this, it just reminds me more and more of the experiences I had as a young person that kept me out of the lab. The odd thing, is that I ended up entering into a field that is upwards of 80% dominated by women. I wonder of computer science can take any cues from museum studies. On that note, I'm sure I'm not the only person on this mailing list that took a different path than the one they wanted due to popular and personal pressure. Sarah [1]http://www.amazon.com/Unlocking-Clubhouse-Computing-Jane-Margolis/dp/0262133989 On 4/3/12 3:36 AM, Lennart Guldbrandsson wrote: Hello, Via Mike Godwin: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/science/giving-women-the-access-code.html?pagewanted=1_r=1 snip “Most of the female students were unwilling to go on in computer science because of the stereotypes they had grown up with,” said Zachary Dodds, a computer scientist at Mudd. “We realized we were helping perpetuate that by teaching such a standard course.” To reduce the intimidation factor, the course was divided into two sections — “gold,” for those with no prior experience, and “black” for everyone else. Java, a notoriously opaque programming language, was replaced by a more accessible language called Python. And the focus of the course changed to computational approaches to solving problems across science. “We realized that we needed to show students computer science is not all about programming,” said Ran Libeskind-Hadas, chairman of the department. “It has intellectual depth and connections to other disciplines.” /snip Most of the article is about Dr Maria Klawe, who seems to be a very inspiring person. Best wishes, Lennart Lennart Guldbrandsson, Tfn: 031 - 12 50 48 Mobil: 070 - 207 80 05 Epost: l_guldbrands...@hotmail.com / lenn...@wikimedia.se Användarsida: http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anv%C3%A4ndare:Hannibal Blogg: http://mrchapel.wordpress.com/ Wikimedia Sverige http://wikimedia.se http://www.1av3.se ___ Gendergap mailing list Gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap -- Sarah Stierch Wikimedia Foundation Community Fellow Support the sharing of free knowledge around the world: donate today
Re: [Gendergap] Giving Women the Access Code
Tangentially related story: http://raganwald.posterous.com/a-womans-story Tom On 3 April 2012 15:34, Lennart Guldbrandsson l_guldbrands...@hotmail.comwrote: Yes, a course for very, very unexperienced programers would be great. And just to continue on that thread about pursuing your passion, I trust you have seen Sir Ken Robinson talk at TED? http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html Med vänliga hälsningar, Lennart Lennart Guldbrandsson, Tfn: 031 - 12 50 48 Mobil: 070 - 207 80 05 Epost: l_guldbrands...@hotmail.com / lenn...@wikimedia.se Användarsida: http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anv%C3%A4ndare:Hannibal Blogg: http://mrchapel.wordpress.com/ Wikimedia Sverige http://wikimedia.se http://www.1av3.se -- Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2012 10:31:43 -0400 From: sarah.stie...@gmail.com To: gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Gendergap] Giving Women the Access Code Nice article, thanks for sharing Lennart! “She was consistently told by teachers in adolescencehttp://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/specialtopic/puberty-and-adolescence/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier, then later by colleagues, that the things she was interested in were things women didn’t do, and that there were no good female mathematicians,” Dr. Pippenger said. It's reasoning like this, and the one that you quoted below about stereotypes, kept me from pursuing a degree in computer science. I remember looking into the school when I was a young undergrad and I felt so intimidated, and then was told that I'd have to take certain math classes. Which frustrated me, as I could do basic language coding and write html off the top of my head. I flunked the math classes I had to take, and 10 years later found out I had a math disability. (And it wasn't my parents who were telling me not to do it, it was professors, etc. Regardless of my poor math skills, almost every single person I know who codes jokes that you don't *need* to know math. Someday I'll take some classes in something (just for fun, I suppose)..or perhaps there will be a N00bs super simple MediaWiki fun day that even your grandma could learn to code at! event. I'm not disappointed with how my path curved and turned thus far, but, after reading *Unlocking the Clubhouse*[1] and every time I read an article like this, it just reminds me more and more of the experiences I had as a young person that kept me out of the lab. The odd thing, is that I ended up entering into a field that is upwards of 80% dominated by women. I wonder of computer science can take any cues from museum studies. On that note, I'm sure I'm not the only person on this mailing list that took a different path than the one they wanted due to popular and personal pressure. Sarah [1] http://www.amazon.com/Unlocking-Clubhouse-Computing-Jane-Margolis/dp/0262133989 On 4/3/12 3:36 AM, Lennart Guldbrandsson wrote: Hello, Via Mike Godwin: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/science/giving-women-the-access-code.html?pagewanted=1_r=1 snip “Most of the female students were unwilling to go on in computer science because of the stereotypes they had grown up with,” said Zachary Dodds, a computer scientist at Mudd. “We realized we were helping perpetuate that by teaching such a standard course.” To reduce the intimidation factor, the course was divided into two sections — “gold,” for those with no prior experience, and “black” for everyone else. Java, a notoriously opaque programming language, was replaced by a more accessible language called Python. And the focus of the course changed to computational approaches to solving problems across science. “We realized that we needed to show students computer science is not all about programming,” said Ran Libeskind-Hadas, chairman of the department. “It has intellectual depth and connections to other disciplines.” /snip Most of the article is about Dr Maria Klawe, who seems to be a very inspiring person. Best wishes, Lennart Lennart Guldbrandsson, Tfn: 031 - 12 50 48 Mobil: 070 - 207 80 05 Epost: l_guldbrands...@hotmail.com / lenn...@wikimedia.se Användarsida: http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anv%C3%A4ndare:Hannibalhttp://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anv%C3%A4ndare%3aHannibal Blogg: http://mrchapel.wordpress.com/ Wikimedia Sverige http://wikimedia.se http://www.1av3.se ___ Gendergap mailing listGendergap@lists.wikimedia.orghttps://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap -- *Sarah Stierch* *Wikimedia Foundation Community Fellow* Support the sharing of free knowledge around the world: donate todayhttps://donate.wikimedia.org/ ___ Gendergap mailing list Gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap ___ Gendergap mailing list Gendergap
Re: [Gendergap] Giving Women the Access Code
As someone who has worked as a computer programmer for 20 years and took several Calculus classes, I would like to vouch for the fact that in order to have a successful career in computer programming, it is necessary to have at least 4 years of math education - in elementary school. I find it strange that biology, which is actually a fairly math intensive field, requires virtually no mathematics in college, while computer science requires absurd levels of math that have no relevance to the field. And yet classes that are extremely relevant, like How to Use UNIX, are optional. I think it has far more to do with the academic computer science culture than what is actually useful to teach people. On a related note, I noticed recently that the English Wikipedia only has 2 paragraphs about women in mathematics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematician#Women_in_mathematics. Compare with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_engineering (which was recently expanded). Ryan Kaldari On 4/3/12 7:31 AM, Sarah Stierch wrote: Nice article, thanks for sharing Lennart! She was consistently told by teachers in adolescence http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/specialtopic/puberty-and-adolescence/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier, then later by colleagues, that the things she was interested in were things women didn't do, and that there were no good female mathematicians, Dr. Pippenger said. It's reasoning like this, and the one that you quoted below about stereotypes, kept me from pursuing a degree in computer science. I remember looking into the school when I was a young undergrad and I felt so intimidated, and then was told that I'd have to take certain math classes. Which frustrated me, as I could do basic language coding and write html off the top of my head. I flunked the math classes I had to take, and 10 years later found out I had a math disability. (And it wasn't my parents who were telling me not to do it, it was professors, etc. Regardless of my poor math skills, almost every single person I know who codes jokes that you don't /need/ to know math. Someday I'll take some classes in something (just for fun, I suppose)..or perhaps there will be a N00bs super simple MediaWiki fun day that even your grandma could learn to code at! event. I'm not disappointed with how my path curved and turned thus far, but, after reading /Unlocking the Clubhouse/[1] and every time I read an article like this, it just reminds me more and more of the experiences I had as a young person that kept me out of the lab. The odd thing, is that I ended up entering into a field that is upwards of 80% dominated by women. I wonder of computer science can take any cues from museum studies. On that note, I'm sure I'm not the only person on this mailing list that took a different path than the one they wanted due to popular and personal pressure. Sarah [1]http://www.amazon.com/Unlocking-Clubhouse-Computing-Jane-Margolis/dp/0262133989 On 4/3/12 3:36 AM, Lennart Guldbrandsson wrote: Hello, Via Mike Godwin: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/science/giving-women-the-access-code.html?pagewanted=1_r=1 snip Most of the female students were unwilling to go on in computer science because of the stereotypes they had grown up with, said Zachary Dodds, a computer scientist at Mudd. We realized we were helping perpetuate that by teaching such a standard course. To reduce the intimidation factor, the course was divided into two sections --- gold, for those with no prior experience, and black for everyone else. Java, a notoriously opaque programming language, was replaced by a more accessible language called Python. And the focus of the course changed to computational approaches to solving problems across science. We realized that we needed to show students computer science is not all about programming, said Ran Libeskind-Hadas, chairman of the department. It has intellectual depth and connections to other disciplines. /snip Most of the article is about Dr Maria Klawe, who seems to be a very inspiring person. Best wishes, Lennart Lennart Guldbrandsson, Tfn: 031 - 12 50 48 Mobil: 070 - 207 80 05 Epost: l_guldbrands...@hotmail.com / lenn...@wikimedia.se Användarsida: http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anv%C3%A4ndare:Hannibal Blogg: http://mrchapel.wordpress.com/ Wikimedia Sverige http://wikimedia.se http://www.1av3.se ___ Gendergap mailing list Gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap -- *Sarah Stierch* */Wikimedia Foundation Community Fellow/* Support the sharing of free knowledge around the world: donate today https://donate.wikimedia.org/ ___ Gendergap mailing list Gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap
