17.564 women in computer science?

From: Humanist Discussion Group (by way of Willard McCarty willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk)
Date: Fri Jan 23 2004 - 01:53:22 EST


<x-flowed>
               Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 17, No. 564.
       Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
                   www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
                        www.princeton.edu/humanist/
                     Submit to: humanist@princeton.edu

         Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 06:42:43 +0000
         From: Susan Hesemeier <s.hesemeier@utoronto.ca>
         Subject: Re: 17.555 cybernetics conference; seminar on women and
non-majors in CS

> To address the high rates of failure among women and non-majors in
> introductory computer science classes,

I am interested in whether there are studies that verify the claim stated
below (i.e. that women have a high rate of failure in introductory computer
science classes).

Susan

--

Susan Hesemeier, PhD Student Faculty of Information Studies University of Toronto http://individual.utoronto.ca/hesemeier/

Quoting "Humanist Discussion Group (by way of Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk>)" <willard@LISTS.VILLAGE.VIRGINIA.EDU>:

> Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 17, No. 555. > Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London > www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/ > www.princeton.edu/humanist/ > Submit to: humanist@princeton.edu > > > --[2]------------------------------------------------------------------ > Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2004 08:54:15 +0000 > From: "W.N. Martin" <martin@virginia.edu> > > > Seminar announcement: > > Title: Constructing Media as a Context for Teaching Computing and > Motivating > Women and Non-Majors > > Speaker: Mark Guzdial > College of Computing/GVU > Georgia Tech > > Day: Monday, February 2, 2004 > Time: 3:30pm > Room: Olsson Hall 009 > > Abstract: > > To address the high rates of failure among women and non-majors in > introductory computer science classes, we developed a CS1 course centered > around media and communications. Introduction to Media Computation > introduces programming and computing ideas through students programming > image filters, splicing and reversing sounds, implementing digital video > special effects, building Web searching tools, and writing programs that > generate text. We support the course with a textbook (available now through > Pearson), a programming environment (for Python), and a collaborative > website on which students can share their media creations. In the two > semesters that the course has been offered, over 400 students have taken > the course, 2/3 of whom were female, with a WDF rate of 12%. Students > report that they find the course relevant and creative, with a rich social > context. The course and components of it are currently being tested in two > and four year schools outside of Georgia Tech. In this talk, I describe the > course, our evaluation, and our future directions, including a second > course, a CS minor, and a pathway into the CS major through media > computation. > > Bio:Dr. Mark Guzdial is an Associate Professor in the College of > Computing/GVU at Georgia Institute of Technology and Director of the > Collaborative Software Laboratory. His research focuses on the creation > and evaluation of collaborative Dynabooks: Learning through exploring and > constructing multimedia in a collaborative setting. His lab developed and > supports CoWeb/Swiki, one of the most popular of the WikiWikiWeb > implementations. He is the author and co-editor of two books on Squeak, a > language designed for multimedia and learning. He is just completing a > book on introducing programming in a media context with collaborative > infrastructure. He is on the editorial boards of "Interactive Learning > Environments" and "Journal of the Learning Sciences." > </x-flowed>



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