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Miranda Valkenburg
April 16 2012
Bridging the digital divide
Topics
The impact of ICT on educationTrendsChallenges in (ict) education
Digital literacy and diversityResearch on gender and ictProject Ict-STER
Introduction
Rotterdam
Gateway to Europe, one of the largest ports in the world
Multicultural home of over 160 nationalities
Rotterdam University
28.000 students11 institutesMotto: outside in - inside out
strong relationships with companies and organizations in the area
Institute for Communication, Media and Information Technology (CMI)
Who am I?
Programme Director Bachelor of Informatics at Hogeschool Rotterdam
Have been working in higher education - technological and ict - from 1993 until now
Proud mother of a son (21) and a daughter (17)
Topics
The impact of ICT on educationTrendsChallenges in (ict) education
Digital literacy and diversityResearch on gender and ictProject Ict-STER
The impact of ICT on education
New technologies have great impact on our lives
ICT changes the way we communicate, access information, and connect with peers and colleagues
This leads to challenges that have a significant impact on teaching and learning
Trends
Increasing globalization availability of tools to connect worldwide
Collective intelligence today’s learners want to be active
participants in the learning process – not mere listeners easy access to content and knowledge
Games as learning toolsactive participation and interaction current educational methods are not
engaging students enough
Challenges 1/2
Students are digital natives, but are taught by digital immigrants
Education needs to adapt to current student needs and skills
Students need to be technologically adept, to be able to collaborate with peers all over the world
Students need to become information and technological literacy
Challenges 2/2
Students are different, but schools are still using materials developed decades ago
Content is almost as easy to access on a mobile as on a computer
Education must make use of - and deliver - services, content and media to (applications for) mobile devices
Bridging the digital divide
Access to computers and the internet and the ability to effectively use ict is necessary for full participation
It’s important to make children AND teachers digital literate
Topics
The impact of ICT on educationTrendsChallenges in (ict) education
Digital literacy and diversityResearch on gender and ictProject Ict-STER
Gender and ICT
In NL – like many western countries – the participation of women in ict professions is very low (10%)
Enrolment of women students in ict education is even lower (6%)
Without encouraging measurements these percentages will not increase
Why is it important?
Economic reasonsIndustry benefits from diversityIncreasing demand for highly educated ict
professionalsThe number of young people is decreasing
Ethical reasonsTechnology designs the future: women
must play a partEqual opportunities for girls and boys
What causes the gender gap?
Confidence gap: differences in how students (f/m) assess their own performance
The scarcity of female role models
Ict programmes ‘made by men, made for boys’
The lack of a sufficient critical mass to sustain supportive peer communities
What to do?
Increase the enrolment of female students in ict programmes
Transfer female ict students to ict positions on the labour market
Recruitment and retention of female ict professionals
Project Ict-STER 2005-2007
Joint actionEducation, industry, professionals, experts
Integral approachRaising awareness among teachers, parents, policy makers,..Supporting and influencing actions for girls
Comprehensive approachFrom primary education to the labour market
Combined strategiesSpecific policy for girlsGender mainstreaming
Examples
• Gender inclusive information• Database role models• Developing new ICT programmes,
combined with health, art, etc• Workshadowing• Empowerment: students participate
in research, advisory panels, etc. • Videos: ICT in various work settings• Girls days
Results• Nowadays, more girls choose STEM in
secondary education• Stabilized enrolment female students in
higher education ICT (but… still no increase)
• Interventions are still necessary• Many universities benefit from the
experiences in Ict-STER• Ict-STER continues
Bridging the digital divide
•Our children define the future
•Make sure that girls AND boys have equal opportunities to use and produce ICT
Q & A