Specific Technologies

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Harvard Computers
Photo credit Wikimedia

 

In this final blog post of the series I am looking at women in ed tech surrounding specific technologies. Ed tech is hard to define, in The Evolution of Educational Technology Paul Saettler states “It is difficult to draw precise boundaries for a historical interpretation of American educational technology because the past has generated such a heterogeneous or diverse collection of definitions…” This ambiguity is not found only in ed tech but also in its roots. The term technology itself is often used to refer to the latest new device or software package but the dictionary definition of technology is “The practical application of science to commerce or industry.”

We could take ed tech all the way back to the invention of language and numbers, or (if you prefer to have some kind of tool tied to the definition) the invention of paper or the printing press. However, in terms of this blog post I am going to focus on computing.  The history of women in computing is fairly well documented and this wikipedia article (at least at the time of this posting) seems to do a good job of listing out the accomplishments of women in computer history. The stories of Hedy Lamarr, Ada Lovelace, and Grace Hopper are inspiring and speak to the importance of women as pioneers in computer science.

The term computer was first employed to refer to a person who calculated mathematical problems and many times those people were women. For instance, the Harvard Computers were a group of women hired to compute astronomical data for Harvard’s observatory in the early 20th century and many of the wives of physicists at Los Alamos worked as computers on the Manhattan Project. World War II brought many advances in ed tech not just with human computers but also with advances in educational film and radio.

I found that searching for the history of women in computing to be fairly fruitful; a simple google search turned up many resources. Still, it is no secret that computer science is dominated by a masculine voices and history. Many times these stories of women in computing are related with tales of lower wages and a lack of recognition. The stories of these women in computer science history are often embedded into educational technology but I actually found it quite hard to find specifics around women in educational technology; for instance I am still searching for the first female CIO in higher education in the U.S. – please comment if you have info on her.

Out of the earlier interviews in this series I saved two responses for this particular post.  Both Nancy Verber and Raechelle Clemmons responded to the question, “Could you briefly describe your philosophy around the role of technology in education?” and I thought that the reflections of these two women would be a great way to wrap up this post and this series.

Nancy Verber On Her Philosophy of Technology in Education

I think the use of technology in education has to be from a creative point of view.  I don’t think that there is one model that, you know, this school system or that university is using that everybody else ought to use. People have to look very carefully at their own situation and determine what they want the technology to do before talking to the salesmen. Salesmen will tell you all kinds of different things that you can do with this program or that program or this hardware or this software.  You have to be open to suggestion but you also have to know where you are going…

Raechelle Clemmons On Her Philosophy of Technology in Education

I believe technology has the power to transform education in the same way that it has transformed our lives in so many other areas. But it’s important not to just implement technology for technology-sake, or to simply overlay technology on top of education as we’ve always delivered it. Technology can transform when we understand its unique properties and leverage them to engage students in ways never possible before. Imagine using 3D modeling and virtual reality to enable students to actually experience ancient Greece in a history class, rather than read or hear about it in the abstract. Or employing games to empower students to create their own societal structures and systems – and interact within them – for a sociology or political science course. Technology enables everyone to have an equal learning opportunity—whether a visual learner or someone with a learning disability, an introvert or a non-native English speaker, technology allows us to level the playing field and, taken even further, create personal learning environments to maximize student learning.

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I want to thank all of the women that I interviewed for this project for being so forthcoming and making themselves available for the interviews. Dr. Voithofer my professor in EDUTEC 6763 for being so encouraging about this project. And of course to Sehreen Norlie and Margaret Roth the editors of the EdTechWomen blog for their encouragement and for giving a public audience to this project.

 

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