A study of eight to 15-year-olds for National Family Week found 40% of girls identified Facebook as one of the most important things in their lives – compared with 6% of boys. Parents were found to underestimate the significance of technology. The role of social networking was particularly important in families with a single mother as parent. The survey, carried out last month and based on 3,000 parents and 1,000 children across the UK, looked at the perceptions of children and parents of family life. Read more.
Archive for the ‘Media & Technology’ Category
Carnegie Science Center Wins Grant Aimed at Engaging Girls with Science & Technology
In Education, Girls, Media & Technology, Uncategorized on May 18, 2010 at 9:40 amThe Carnegie Science Center has won $200,000 in the MacArthur Digital Media and Learning Competition for a new project designed to get more girls engaged in science and gaming technology.
The project, Click!Online, will be a Web-based game for girls featuring a fictional “spy school” called the Click! Agency. Through the agency, girls will network to solve mysteries in biomedical science, environmental protection and expressive technology. Meanwhile, online “senior agents” will mentor the players, emphasizing critical thinking, problem solving, group sourcing and social action to solve real-world challenges. Spy girls can share results with each other around the world.
The Science Center’s award was one of 10 announced Monday, chosen from a pool of 800 applicants from 32 countries. They will share $1.7 million to use on games, mobile phone applications, virtual worlds and social networks.
Dream it. Design it. Build it.
In Conferences, Education, Media & Technology, Uncategorized on May 17, 2010 at 8:11 amOn Saturday, May 22, 2010 D.C. FIRST Robotics – Washington DC-Area in partnership with Archbishop Carroll High School and DCRobotics presents Scratch Day!
Scratch is open source animation software from MIT great for age 7 (or early readers) through adult. It is a free computer programming resource that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art — and share your creations on the web. At this event, everyone is welcome to try out Scratch and learn about the on-line exchange. You can join Scratch enthusiasts in the Washington DC-area to meet and learn from each other! All interested students, parents and teachers are invited.
More information is available at www.dc-first.org.
SciGirls Shows Girls Doing Science-y Things
In Girls, Media & Technology, Uncategorized on May 9, 2010 at 6:39 pmSciGirls, a new PBS KIDS weekly series and website, is out to change how millions of tween girls think about science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM!
The show aims to portray girls engaged in projects that make physics, math, biology and other subjects seem fun. The New York Times says that “it succeeds admirably, primarily because it uses real kids in all their awkward, giggly glory, not the Stepford-like youths seen in Disney shows.”
SciGirls is generously funded by The National Science Foundation with additional support from ExxonMobil.
White House to Host Math & Science Fair
In Education, Girls, Government, Media & Technology, Uncategorized on May 5, 2010 at 6:59 amFirst Lady Michelle Obama said the White House is going to host its first ever Science Fair–doing for math and science stars what the White House does for the NCAA champs. While attending the National Science Bowl on Monday, Mrs. Obama said that the science fair would include students from all over the country, mentioning that she and President Obama think that “budding inventors, scientists and mathematicians should be at the White House, too.”
Among the First Lady’s goals are to cultivate more hands-on learning opportunities for students by modernizing science labs and supporting project-based learning, and expanding advanced courses in schools throughout the country.
Mrs. Obama continued by saying:
We want to create more opportunities for under-represented groups as well, particularly women and girls. We want them to have the confidence . We want all our young women to have the confidence and the support to take on the study and to succeed in the study of science, math, engineering and technology.
A date for the White House math and science fair has not been announced.
Identifying the Top Tech Companies for Women
In Girls, Leadership, Media & Technology, Uncategorized on April 30, 2010 at 9:08 amResearch has shown that women add to innovation in technology. Tech companies are catching on, and some are actively looking to hire women for their IT positions. Recently the San Francisco Chronicle profiled the top tech companies hiring women. The list includes IBM, Google, Cisco and Microsoft, among others.
Companies that work to make make women a priority, often offer specific programs or groups fostering growth among their female employees. As well, companies may provide mentorship opportunities for exceptional female employees.
Program Spotlight: TechGYRLS of North Dakota
In Camp, Education, Girls, Leadership, Media & Technology, Uncategorized on April 27, 2010 at 8:31 amIn North Dakota, the TechGYRLS program encourages young girls in the Fargo area to get involved in the science, technology, engineering and math fields.
The collaborative effort of the YWCA Cass Clay, NDSU Society of Women Engineers and Microsoft Fargo has offered girls in grades four through seven a chance to explore technology. Student mentors from the North Dakota State University Society of Women Engineers work with the girls on projects such as building robots, catapults and contraptions to protect a dropped egg.
The goal of TechGYRLS is to help girls develop the confidence to use technology and discover links between science and math. The program was developed by the YWCA USA in 1997 after seeing the need to strengthen girls’ interest and competency in computer literacy as it has become a key job skill in nearly every profession today. In 2008, the YWCA was awarded a grant from Microsoft to expand the program, including a summer camp, Saturday session in Spring and Fall, and providing opportunities in the areas of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).
Top 10 Videos of Women in Tech
In Education, Girls, Media & Technology on April 23, 2010 at 7:23 amReadWriteWeb recently posted the Top 10 YouTube Videos for Women in Tech.
From guest panels about the challenges women face in the technology sector, to interviews about the challenges they face in a male dominated work environment, this collection of videos shines a light on women in tech.
The list includes Caterina Fake explaining how she became co-founder of Hunch and Flickr, as well as Dianne Marsh speaking about the under representation of women in computer sciences. See the entire list.
OMG! 100 Texts/day 4 Girls!
In Girls, Media & Technology on April 20, 2010 at 11:30 amU.S. high-school girls typically send and receive 100 text messages a day, according to a study, which found that cheaper mobile-phone plans have boosted the technology’s popularity among young people.
According to the BusinessWeek article:
The surging use of text messages bodes well for mobile- phone makers because teenagers tend to become reliant on their wireless devices without realizing it, said Scott Campbell, one of the study’s co-authors. Texting teens are 42 percent more likely to leave their phones on or near their beds when they go to sleep than those that don’t send texts, the study found.
A Healthy Media for Youth
In Girls, Government, Media & Technology, Uncategorized on April 20, 2010 at 11:21 amTammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) have introduced “the Healthy Media for Youth Act to “authorize grants to promote media literacy and youth empowerment programs, to authorize research on the role and impact of depictions of girls and women in the media, to provide for the establishment of a National Task Force on Girls and Women in the Media…” Read more.
