Computers in school

Cees de Groot cg at cdegroot.com
Tue Aug 7 18:45:00 UTC 2001


Rosemary Michelle Simpson <rms at cs.brown.edu> said:
>
>Part of my work on ConceptLab involves reflection on what different
>mindsets will need and want to work with in a toolkit/playground such as
>it will be.  My personal experience as a 61-year-old woman, who was a
>history major, taught Chemistry, and who has spent 30+ years in a variety
>of computing environments is:  I don't care about logical puzzles, games,
>or problem solving.  Win/lose situations turn me off.  I care about
>patterns, exploring, creating, and playing.  I'm kinesthetic and spatial
>in my approach to cognitive tasks. In short, a very different list from
>most of the males I've asked. Does this help?
>
In short: Tetris (I once heard a story that Gameboys were selling like
crazy with women because of that game) ;-)

Indeed my little experience (two kids, one boy, one girl) that we should
get away from the PC "men/boys and women/girls are the same". There's a
big difference between granting equal opportunities and trying to mold
women into men's mindsets (or the other way around, but somehow that
never seems to happen...).

-- 
Cees de Groot               http://www.cdegroot.com     <cg at cdegroot.com>
GnuPG 1024D/E0989E8B 0016 F679 F38D 5946 4ECD  1986 F303 937F E098 9E8B
Building software is like quantum mechanics: you can predict what it
will do, or when it will be ready -- but not both.




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