[Edu-sig] Girls, women and Programming (- and Python)

[Kirby Urner]

>
>so possibly your opinions, experiences and hints
>could help me to adress this problem in my work.
>I would really wish to make programming more interesting,
>enjoying and challenging to female students.
>
>Thanks in advance for your replies
>
>Gregor Lingl

I used to teach math in an all-girls high school.  Certainly
there was no lack of talent or aptitude.

Young people, not just girls, are working a lot with self
image, and it makes a difference to hear oneself talking
about something, telling others.

In math class, I would often pause and let girls who "got it"
explain what they understood to others who still seemed lost
or less clear (it could be different students at different
times).

Having students teach other students helps them formulate their
thoughts, make themselves understood, and they hear themselves
talking about math, which changes or impacts the self image
somewhat.

When I was a consultant in a large text book company, we
paid a lot of attention to pictures.  A standard thing you
often find is the guy sitting at a computer, staring at
something on screen (we don't usually see what it is), while
the woman stands behind him, gazing over his shoulder.  He's
in the active role, she's the appreciative audience, perhaps
admiring his ability.

http://www.computertrainingschools.com/img/picture2.jpg
http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/smd/CRC/Image23.gif
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/dwa/images/trainingpic.jpg

So we'd go out of our way to reverse this sometimes -- make the
guy stand behind the woman, and put the woman in the driver's seat

http://www.winthrop.org/gme/media/22-radio.jpg
http://www.thephoenician.com/meeting_fac/assets/mf_bus_p1.jpg
http://www.girlguides.ca/clipart/clipart_images/guidercomp01.jpg

(actually, it's hard to find a picture where the guy is watching
passively -- usually he's the instructor or is actively pointing
to something on screen):

http://www.theitpros.net/images/training.gif
http://www.freedomscientific.com/images/custjaws.jpg

You've got at least a couple stories about women making key contributions
to the early evolution of computers.  Ada Byron helped get parlour room
conversations among the literati tracked into early debates about artificial
(machine) intelligence (she was an earnest student of the Babbage engine):
http://www.grunch.net/synergetics/adaessay.html

and Rear Admiral Grace Hopper got the first compiler off the ground.

You *might* find some ideas at
http://www.girltech.com/index.html (seems a bit superficial --
mainly geared to selling products).

Kirby

PS:  my 8 year old girl is really into playing chess.  She
teaches it to her girl friends so they can play with her.
Having a CDROM or two helped (they made no assumptions about
her gender), as did my encouragement and willingness to play.