[EDEQUITY Technology] Girls games are problem solving in a hands-on

From: Donna Milgram (donnam@iwitts.com)
Date: Wed Jul 18 2001 - 09:59:35 EDT


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First let me start out by saying I have the greatest respect for my
colleague Judith Abrahami-Einat who wrote the first book on gender equity
in Israel in
Hebrew and is the leader of gender equity in education in her country.

I understand my colleague Judith's concern that things such as girl games
are an attempt to adjust to a male technology culture but I don't agree
with it. One of the skills that makes someone tech-savvy is, for example,
finding where to click on a web page to get to the next one or figuring
out yourself how to click through a software menu to find the little box
that will get the software to do just what you want it to. The more
practice you have doing things like this, the easier it is to do it the
next time. I'm
describing technology seeking and tinkering behavior -- problem solving
in a hands-on context. It's a schema and games teach these kind of skills.

Males often learn these skills via games because these games are
male-oriented and thus of interest to them. This puts females at a
disadvantage, they don't end up with this skill set. I think its important
for females to have these skills, it empowers them to
be able to install hardware and software and figure out what to do when
it doesn't work together properly, it empowers them to write computer
programs that enable them to meet their objectives, etc.
If we want females to be interested in games that will teach them these
skills and be fun we have to design games that will interest them, thus
we need girl games.

I don't want females to have to rely on males to fix the computer,
or write the computer program for the backend of their Web site,
I want females to be empowered to do these things themselves, to
build their skills and ultimately to expand their career options. Thus,
I am committed to assisting educators in figuring out how to engage
females in technology classes and programs and how to support them
to keep them there.

Donna Milgram
Executive Director
Institute for Women in Trades, Technology & Science
www.iwitts.com * donnam@iwitts.com
1150 Ballena Blvd, Suite 102
Alameda, CA 94501
510-749-0200 ext. 101 (phone) 510-749-0500 (fax)

Judith Abrahami-Einat(judith_@macam.ac.il) wrote:
What is required is no less than a paradigm shift: a change in mainstream,
i.e. male technology culture. An exposure of the anti-social fantasies it
creates & directions it encourages, as Cornelia demonstrated.As great an
effort as this requires, I'm not sure it exceeds our ongoing efforts to
train females to adjust to male culture, or to teach them the art of
adapting it to their own, special uses.



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