I just wanted to let you all know (can't remember if anyone has linked these) that Stanford is offering some free online courses, like a CS101 by Nick Parlante that is starting April 23:
https://www.coursera.org/course/cs101 "CS101 teaches the essential ideas of Computer Science for a zero-prior-experience audience. Computers can appear very complicated, but in reality, computers work within just a few, simple patterns. CS101 demystifies and brings those patterns to life, which is useful for anyone using computers today." Best! Heather Designer at the Wikimedia Foundation On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 9:06 AM, Shlomi Fish <shlo...@shlomifish.org> wrote: > Hi Sarah (and all), > > On Tue, 03 Apr 2012 10:31:43 -0400 > Sarah Stierch <sarah.stie...@gmail.com> 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. > > > > The perpetuation of these stereotypes is often geographical, as in Israel, > for > example, many female high school students graduate with 5 points of maths, > 5 points of physics, and other such "Realistic Sciences"-oriented subjects, > and when my sister studied in the Technion ( http://www.technion.ac.il/ ), > which was close to when I graduated, there were 30% of female students > studying > Computer Science there. That put aside, I studied Electrical Engineering > (which > in the Technion can easily end up as something close to what Americans > know as > Computer Engineering[1]), where only 10% of the students were female, and > it's most likely due to a low percentage of female students who applied > there. > > In any case, there is no good reason to propagate these stereotypes, or for > girls and women to feel intimidated from studying maths. Like you, I also > feel > that you don't need too much mathematics for most of the daily work > involving > programming, but it does crop up in various contexts in computer science. I > wouldn't encourage completely getting rid of mathematics from the CS > curriculums (or even from software engineering ones) because then we end up > with a similar syndrome to what is described here: > > http://xkcd.com/547/ > > We can still teach programming to people without a good knowledge of > maths, and many children (or pre-teens or teenagers or whatever you wish to > call them) have been studying programming before they even studied Algebra. > > <footnotes> > [1] - one should note that in the Technion, Computer Engineering is a > combined > Electrical Engineering/Computer Science specialisation, which is more > demanding than either degree, so an Electrical Engineering proper graduate > is > not allowed to say he has a degree in Computer Engineering, but this is a > different (and somewhat sad) story. > </footnotes> > > > 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. > > > > Well, as a teenager, I planned on becoming a mathematician (I had somewhat > different interests as a younger child). Then after high school I got a few > jobs as a software developer, and decided to study something related. > After a > failed attempt at studying Mathematics and Computer Science in tau.ac.il(I > freaked out completely, due to silly misconceptions), I worked for a few > months in a different workplace and then started studying Electrical > Engineering (like I said, more like what Americans call "Computer > Engineering") there, while being more mentally prepared for that, and > after a > bumpy and eventful ride, graduated. Even in the Technion, there were > several > things I initially wanted to specialise in, which I didn't because they > seemed > too intimidating, counter-intuitive (at least for me) and/or difficult (I > still have a trauma from Maxwell’s Equations). > > I've contemplated getting a post-graduate degree, but I've been thinking of > getting one in Linguistics instead of in something more technical. However, > I'm a little afraid of needing to cram a lot of Latin and/or Greek > vocabulary. > > Regards, > > Mr. Shlomi Fish (sorry for the brain-dump). > > -- > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > Shlomi Fish http://www.shlomifish.org/ > Escape from GNU Autohell - > http://www.shlomifish.org/open-source/anti/autohell/ > > *shlomif:* hack, hack, hack ; save ; make ; make test; commit. And start > over. > > *mrjink:*hack, hack, hack; save; make; swear; fix typos; save; make; make > test; swear some more; hack some more; save; make; make test; cheer; > commit. > > *meep:* hack, make, test, segfault, oh noes, revert to previous revision > > Please reply to list if it's a mailing list post - http://shlom.in/reply . > > _______________________________________________ > Gendergap mailing list > Gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap >
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