I attended the Promising Practices workshop for my social
justice event. This event was very enlightening and overall enjoyable.
The first workshop I attended was called “Girls Gone Wired.”
This was a presentation given by a female coder who owned her own web design
studio. It was all about the ways that women could be involved in the
technology field, all the ways we are oppressed, and things that we could do to
solve the problems. Much of this I was not very aware of, as I myself am not a
technically inclined sort of person. I really enjoyed the 3 rules that she had
to offer to help make women equal in this specific field because I felt that
they could really be applied to any situation or occupation:
1)
HUMANIZE: The point of this rule was to always
address people as a whole. Do not address men, or women, or “techies”. Always
talk to the group equally, and do not call out specific groups or genders.
2)
EQUALIZE: The object of this rule was to
equalize opportunities, but not sheltering women from the truth of the field.
The truth is that it is very male dominated. It is unrealistic to tell women
that there will always be lots of women around and that women will always be
equal to men. But it important to emphasis that there can be some equality,
with proactive change.
3)
CREATIVE-IZE: This rule was to help bring more
women into the field. To emphasize the creative parts and not just focus on the
math or tech sides. There is a much more creative side to web design and coding
that lots of people don’t know about. Emphasizing the more creative side will
help bring more kinds of people into the technology field.
I found a website online for a program called
girlswhocode.com. (http://girlswhocode.com/
)This is a group of girls dedicated to bringing about change in the technology
field. The vision of the program is: “Girls
Who Code’s vision is to reach gender parity in computing fields. We believe
this is paramount to ensure the economic prosperity of women, families, and
communities across the globe, and to equip citizens with the 21st century tools
for innovation and social change. We believe that more girls exposed to
computer science at a young age will lead to more women working in the
technology and engineering fields.” When researching women in technology and
coding, there were many websites and programs like these dedicated to bringing
change in this industry. I never knew that this was such an issue, but
listening to this workshop, and doing my own research, I learned that there is
a fast amount of inequality and stereotypical injustice between men and women
coders. Websites and programs such as Girls who Code are striving to bring
about positive change, while sticking to the 3 main rules described above.
The second workshop that I attended was
about Technology in the Early Childhood classroom. This was all about the new
and innovative ways to incorporate computers and all sorts of new technology
into grades Pre-K-2. I really liked the presenters of this workshop, two teachers
from the Barnard school, however I did not really like the presentation itself.
To me, it seems like technology is being used too much in the classroom. I
agree that it is an important learning tool, and that the world is changing and
becoming even more important. However, it seems to be replacing things that I
don’t feel should be replaced. Things like reading real books and learning math
facts on paper. Almost all of the websites and programs that we were shown had
some way for the child to be lazy with the assignment, or to do it quickly
without learning. I also felt that the teacher was being replaced by some of
the technology, which leaves socialization to a minimum, which I think is a
very important part of schooling, especially at such a young age. The
Huffington Post said, in an article entitled “The Most Powerful Tool in the
Classroom”, “As we progress in this technologically charged world, we face a
very important question. What is to become of the role of teachers? Will they
become obsolete?” (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-wike-loyola/the-most-powerful-tool-in_b_6012136.html)Although
this was not the intention of this workshop, this is what I took away from it.
The technological options available to teachers nowadays are taking over. There
seems to be very little room for teachers. Although right now using these types
of things are only an option and an enhancer, it seems that complete technological
takeover in the classroom is on its way very soon.
The last portion of the day was the
keynote speaker, Christopher Emdin. Emdin spoke on cultural learning and ways
to teach to the students. I really thought that Emdin had a lot of really great
messages and was a very engaging speaker. I related the speech to “An Indian
Father’s Plea.” In this reading, a father was concerned that his son was being labeled
“slow” or “stupid” because of his cultural differences. It was not that his son
was not able to learn what the teachers were teaching him, it was the way it
was being presented to him. Both the reading and Emdin spoke about the way
teachers present information in a “my way is the only way” manner. Both talked
about ways that teachers can teach in a culturally correct way, in a way the
student will understand and connect with, while still getting across the points
that they need to. Emdin spoke about ways to present the information in a way
that kids will relate to, but also teaches them how they can later present this
information in a scholarly way. Although Emdin spoke about Hip Hop Culture and
the reading was about a Native American in a white classroom, the message was
very much the same.
I also connected this presentation with
Delpit’s article, “The Silenced Dialogue.” In the article, it says that “all of
the white respondents, except one, have wished to talk more about the question
of skills versus process approaches….All of the nonwhite respondents have
spoken passionately on being left out of the dialogue about how best to educate
children of color.” The white educators are very set in teaching the way they
think students should be taught, rather than really thinking about the approach
that their specific students need to learn. Emdin was speaking on Hip Hop
culture, and how kids can memorize rap lyrics in a second, but information in a
textbook is a whole different story. He is a strong believer that by teaching
these kids in a hip hop way, they will learn more effectively in the classroom,
and be able to retain and use that real knowledge in their lives, instead of
barely remembering it long enough to get through an exam. Emdin also spoke
strongly about the culture of power being the white educators, as was also the
case in this reading.
I was also reminded of the piece “Hunger
of Memory,” by Richard Rodriguez, while Emdin was speaking. In this
autobiographical piece, Rodrigues speaks about when his Hispanic culture was
stripped from him when his catholic nun teachers visited his house. They
insisted that Rodriguez’s parents only speak English in their household so that
their children could succeed at school. These educators had no regard for
another culture other than that they were teaching. Instead of working together
to make it work, and learning from each other, they demanded that Rodriguez,
and his entire family, abandon their own cultural identity. This is exactly
what Emdin is trying to avoid. He sees a world in which culture of power is
gone, and culture and education can combine to produce real learning and
knowledge, with more real life application and experience. Emdin wants the
education system to work together with different cultures, like hip hop, to
create a world where everyone is free to learn in their own style in order to
produce the best results. On his website, www.chrisemdin.com,
Emdin is quoted “Education should not be a way out of your neighborhood. It
should be a tool to improve it.” Christopher Emdin does not think that
education is only for the elites, and that it should be a way to get to the
elite level and keep things the way they are. He wants culture and education to
mix together in a way to better everyone and to improve the world.
