Design-Based Learning and the Participation of Women in IT
Elizabeth R. Jessup, Tamara Sumner · Frontiers A Journal of Women Studies · 2005
Design-Based Learning and the Participation of Women in IT Elizabeth Jessup (bio) and Tamara Sumner (bio) Introduction Technology for Community is an undergraduate computer science course taught at the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU–Boulder). In the course, students develop computational products designed to serve the needs of local community service organizations. The course was established in 2001 with the goals of promoting the participation of women in technology design and development as well as in computer science courses.1 The course pedagogy is rooted in design-based learning, emphasizing learning while working and multidisciplinary teamwork. The course is run in conjunction with the Virtual Development Center (VDC) of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (2003). The VDC is a nationwide network of universities pledging to offer technical courses in a style promoting the participation of women. Here, we consider whether the Technology for Community course has been effective at meeting its goals. We draw on course enrollment data, results from an NSF-funded Information Technology (IT) Workforce study examining course effectiveness, and student responses to open-ended questionnaires collected at the end of every course offering. The IT Workforce study was conducted by CU–Boulder's Alliance for Technology, Learning, and Society (ATLAS) Institute. Design-Based Learning Given the course content's emphasis on design methodologies, we decided that an appropriate pedagogical approach was design-based learning. In design-based learning, working and learning are inherently intertwined.2 In his seminal book on design practice and design education, Donald Schön describes an action-breakdown-reflection cycle that underlies professional practice.3 In this cycle, designers construct design representations until their expectations are not met, and they experience a breakdown in the current work situation. [End Page 141] Breakdowns trigger the designer to explore new ideas, fix problems, seek new information, or consider alternatives. In this way, they present opportunities for learning and for the construction of new knowledge. It is when breakdowns occur that the motivation and need to learn are most apparent to the designer. Thus in design-based learning, skill and knowledge development activities are all situated within an authentic problem-solving context where success is measured by the ability to produce a useful and usable artifact. The IT Workforce study identifies classroom practices that promote collaboration and knowledge sharing as supporting the retention of women in technical disciplines.4 Knowledge sharing is defined as formal and informal classroom practices that encourage faculty and students to present their ideas to each other as works in progress for joint discussion and elaboration. Barker, Garvin-Doxas, and Sieber argue that males often use discourse that func-tions to overrepresent their knowledge and that such behavior can reinforce women's perceptions that they are underperforming relative to their male colleagues.5 Knowledge-sharing interactions help to counteract these perceptions. Collaborative assessment and knowledge sharing are readily incorporated in design-based learning through the inclusion of standard studio practices such as critiquing works in progress. In Technology for Community, a design-based pedagogy is instantiated in three major activities: (1) a technology innovation workshop, (2) a short skills-development practicum, and (3) a semester-long project. Project ideas for the course are generated in the technology innovation workshops. In these workshops, technical and nontechnical women from the Boulder community at large, representatives of local community-service organizations, and the students enrolled in the course brainstorm about ways in which technology can aid the community. During the skills-development practicum, each student creates a dynamic Web site where users can enter or retrieve information stored in a database. This assignment gives all of the students a common experience and vocabulary and some degree of proficiency with a common set of computational tools. The remaining weeks are devoted to completing projects in collaboration with local community-service agencies. Representatives of the agencies meet with the students to refine the project ideas generated at the workshop, and they later work with the students to test and evaluate prototypes. Examples of projects developed to date include 1 an introductory tutorial about computers and the Internet for Boulder Senior Services, 2 games targeting fourth- and eighth-graders for simulating the ecology...