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Girls and computers: just three things

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Fri, 2007-10-05 22:04 — Jeni

One: My article in the Women in Technology series came out about a month ago. It was actually inspired by this comment on the post I wrote a while ago on women in computing, which asked about encouraging your daughters to take up computing. I found it easier to write about that than my own experiences, which have been rather mundane.

Two: Read OMG Girlz Don’t Exist on teh Intarweb!!!!. It’d be hilarious if it weren’t so dreadful.

Three: We’ve been looking at possible infant (ages 4-7) schools for our eldest. The two nearest both have interactive whiteboards in all the classrooms and regular IT lessons. In one school, the children are taught how to touch type; this at an age when they can hardly read and write. When I was in school, touch typing was on typewriters, for the girls who aspired to be secretaries. (I Mavis Beacon‘d myself during my year out of university; it’s the most frequently used skill I have next to the ability to read.)

Comments

Mon, 2008-02-18 05:52 — Sun

Re: Girls and computers: just three things

Great info, I think some cumputers need some setting for this, such as access control, lets parents control the days and times that their children can access the computer, I think it should be helpful.

Tue, 2007-10-09 13:43 — John Kemp (not verified)

Re: Girls and computers: just three things

Hi Jeni,

We just put our children into their first “real”school. One of the things I’ve been obsessing about, as someone who has been programming computers since I was 13, is on how much computer time to give my 4-year olds. Obviously, computers, and programming are important to me. But I’ve discovered that what I actually value in education is the ability to manage abstract thought - learning to be able to take a specific problem, and think about a general solution which addresses the specific problem, while not limiting absolutely the ability for the same solution to address a different, and perhaps unrelated problem.

Computers can be used to do that, but so can Lego, a blank page and a pencil, or perhaps one day a “Flytop” pen? The key seems (to me at least) in educating to stimulate a fertile mind, and providing the support to allow children to make mistakes when doing that without too much pain… whatever the technology.

More and more I’ve been realizing also that a good social group (children who mostly like each other, and are taught to respect each other) is very important in this kind of development. I’d like to think that my children will listen to me because I’m their dad, but, well, the truth is that when faced with listening to me, or listening to their peers… I’m sure you know the answer here ;) Now they’re at school from 8am -> 2pm every day, they see as much of their peers as they see of me.