Journal #4: After learning how to blog….

I am so grateful to Erin for this new skill! It’s amazing, being able to explore my thoughts and express myself and post it online for everyone to see. Someone from Germany and Japan looked at our blog! So cool. And anyone can do it, you can learn how to blog in minutes and make your voice heard. I love this, and I think everyone who wants to learn should be allowed the space, especially girls.

Member Meeting

What we have been up to....

Nathalie learning how to start a blog, and mastering it in minutes!

Last night we all met to work on our project! The goal was to introduce the girl to the world of blogging. I feel this was an important experience for us all- girls learning from girls!

Timeline

5pm -7pm: We took pictures and edited them, made facebook interview questions, wrote a reflection response, made an email address for our group-which is the first step of creating a blog

Then we ate dinner all together!

7:30-10:30: We brainstormed interviewquestions, created the blog, learned how to post and how to design ablog, shared our research, discussed what we found in the readings to apply to our project, planned our next meeting and set out tasks to be completed

Goals-

We will have interview questions to email to our 5 participants by Sunday

Nat will write the introduction to explain what our blog/project is about

We will post our reflections

Whitneyresearches blogs to link to

Erin uses quotes from readings for posts that each member then can comment on

Narrow our subject by defining technology further

Fill out our individual contributor profiles

Meet on Monday!

Words of Wisdom from Li'l Azúcar, 13

"It's important for girls to learn how to DJ because it's a fun hobby and it's fun to learn. It also proves girls can do the same things guys do. I learned how to skip beats, set up the turntables, and mix music together. I learned that old music can sound better than new music. My friends are proud and they all want to try. Plus they want me to do parties. DJing is harder than I thought it would be because I have to set it up just right or it won't sound good. I would tell girls do not give up on it (DJing) even if it's not something you want to do, because in the end, you're going to have fun."--Li'l Azúcar, Gemini, 13 years old

http://www.girlsdj.com/participants.html

Research Study on Girls and Technology

Kekelis et al. conducted a research study to engage a group of 126 girls aged 11 to 19 from a range of ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds to investigate why girls interested in technology do not choose to go on in a career in advanced technology. They designed an after-school program, called “Techbridge”, which taught and engaged girls in software engineering, robot making and other avenues of technology, and they formed focus groups to give the girls a space to discuss their relationships with technology. The researchers found three main hurdles girls face when considered pursuing a career in technology:

1) Negative Stereotypes about Computing Jobs

2) A Disconnect between Dreams and Plans

3) Lack of Career Guidance and Support from Family

Application to Girl Power:

Many girls are told by their parents and schools to graduate, go to college or university and to keep their options open and try many things in post-secondary education. Girls are told they can be anything, do anything, and as a result change the world, hence giving them a false sense of power. However, this open-minded guidance has made it hard for girls to focus in on a career, especially technology careers, and it leaves them unaware of the future challenges, barriers, and work required by the careers. Many girls set their minds on a dream career, singing, acting, web designer, or world class D.J., but have no idea of the high school courses, resources and skills needed to get into these vocations. How then, do we get girls to harness the true power of engaging technology and participate in positive prosumption?

Kekelis, L.S., Ancheta, R.W.. & Heber, E. (2005). Hurdles in the pipeline:

girls and technology careers. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 26(1) p.p. 99-109.