[EDEQUITY Technology]Tinkering, gender, etc.

From: Alice Ray (aray@rippleeffects.com)
Date: Wed Jul 25 2001 - 10:37:36 EDT


The following statement is part of the EdEquity Dialogue on Technology and
Equity, July 16-20, 2001.
Regarding tinkering, gender , etc.
I think it's important to recognize that "tinkering" may be more culturally
supported for boys and girls, but there is also a big learning styles issue
here. Some kids - boys and girls - learn by doing, they are tinkerers and
make up a big part of the engineering work force. Other kids, including
me, just don't learn by doing, but do learn by leaps of imagination, others
learn primarily by watching , etc. Because of my lack of propensity for
learning by doing, it took me years to learn to tie my shoes, there was
no analogy or concept I could connect with it. And if I were forced to
take apart a radio, let alone put it back together, I would have been long
since committed to the loony bin in frustration. I could say the answer to
an algebra problem, but not show my work in getting it. I don't put this
down to gender conditioning. I was raised with four brothers and no
sisters, and was a tom boy in many respect, but everything "hands on" was
beyond hard for me. I've managed to succeed, and do pretty well, not
because my round/intuitive self was forced to fit a square hole that
someone thought would be good for me. I have eight emmys, but I've never
figured out how to turn on a camera. It's not for lack of opportunity, but
lack of aptitude. On the other hand, having a conceptual mind and some
strong soft skills, has helped me figure out how to envision a project and
excite other people, many of them tinkerers, into realizing it.

I worry that as long as we talk about of technology in terms of the
tinkering/ technical side, we will miss the chance to involve the many
girls who could be great designers of technology. Maybe a worthwhile goal
is to present to girls - and boys- the wide range of ways they can use
their gifts to leverage technology on behalf of the human community.

PS. I run a software company, but my co-founding partner, a person who
learns by doing, brought that piece to the business.

Alice Ray
President & CEO
Ripple Effects
333 Bryant Street, Suite 110
San Francisco, CA 94107
phone 415-227-1669 ext 311
fax 415-227-4998

Cornelia Brunner wrote:
Donna wrote about tinkering - a very important issue. We have been trying
to invite girls to tinker virtually (not the same thing, of course). It
became
clear to us in the course of some research that one of the benefits of
tinkering is that you learn to understand something about the relationship
between parts and wholes, form and function. You learn to think
systematically, even if the conceptual system you use is not anything like
the labels and concepts you would learn in school. So we did a project
called "Imagination Place!" (http://www.edc.org/CCT/imagination_place/)
where we invited girls to invent futuristic, fantastic, whimsical
technology>by composing it with graphic stamps we made for them - and then
animating
their invention.............................

Donna Milgram at donnam@iwitts.com wrote:
..........Aha, this is what I was talking about in my earlier e-mail, these
tinkering skills. Shireen, it sounds like the interest came naturally to
you and that
you just jumped in there and pursued these interests and competed with the
boys because you felt comfortable doing so.....

Shireen Mitchell <director@digital-sistas.org> wrote:
..........Technology today is developed in the very same frame of mind and
I agree 100% it needs to include diverse frames of mind, not just the need
for
speed or the largest capacity but how it enables us to connect to our
society. This division of gender is purely a social issue. If every girl
was given
the same radio (boys are given) to take apart and to put back together
instead of the Barbie doll then we wouldn't be having this discussion. I
also say this in lieu of the fact that I never had a Barbie doll and
never wanted one................................



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