Comment: After reading all of these very worthy topics, I fear my topic will perhaps leave some wagging their heads :-) Bear with me: this, too, has solid roots in Education! The idea that I, too, could enter the world of computers, math, and technology, was a brand new mindset back in 1995, when I returned to college to complete my BA (post-40-years-old, a legal form of suicide, please don't tell Dr. Kavorkian). I had jumped from a solid career in art/graphics, into the digital world of art and desktop, when I 'met a Mac' in 1988 ... and what a wonderful new ART medium it was! I took to it like the duck and water story. In 1995, I decided to return to complete a BA started in 1970, and ended in spring 1971 with spinal break in a diving accident in a competitive diving course at CSU, Fort Collins, CO. This time round, I decided to see what I could regroup in the way of lost scholarships, etc. ... and a successful route was planned, implemented and executed at Metropolitan State College of Denver. Gee, I even started talking like a geek, didja notice? I entered an alarming world of math, science and technology, because I kicked the Art major back to a minor, and took on: Technical Communications. Why? Still art-driven, this was the only area that gave the courses in things I'd developed PASSION for: multimedia, animation, and yes, authoring learning settings for (oh, jeeps!) ... EDUCATION. I was early on the block to see what was coming, jumped avidly aboard the Internet when the only 'gateway' was ... THE WWW GATEWAY ... a SORRY little software by AOL, who was, at the time, really the only way to be online, unless you knew what CompuServe was (which I didn't). The Gateway gave you SECONDS full of WWW glimpses before it constantly crashed. At $4.95 per hour. I was dedicated and poor. Well on my way to geekdom, sucked in by ... the ART of the medium. Scholarships, Dean's List, Summa Cum Laude later ... and one scholarship was the American Association of University Women (http://www.aauw.org) as well as two other Women's organizations who GAVE MONEY to women who braved the odds of children, displacement and a score of other negative strikes, and actually returned to create a second life ... I became aware of what was really happening to me. All of my life ... all of YOUR life ... and sadly, all of the lives of my two daughters, as well (24 and 14) ... females are given the message: "Math? Science? Technology? Oh, you can't do THAT! You are a GIRL!" And here I was, cranking out ART ... that was Science. It was computer science, highly skilled computer skills. Math-based. And definitely cutting edge Technology. Then I met AAUW in a scholarship search. You gotta "go there" (URL above). And I got mad. Real mad. Boulder High School, Boulder, Colorado. Graduated 1970. At the time, this school was in the top 10 in the nation. And still, the message, "Oh, you are a girl." And our SAT scores reflected that. OKAY. So one degree wasn't enough. I went on ... but now FIRED by the vision of global outreach, by the Internet. I took some of the first classes given anywhere, in HTML Web design, in 3D animation, in Technical Writing geared for the Internet ... all given, yes, by a local community college: Metro State. A college that gears much of its focus toward ... at-risk groups. And it has a wonderful Art department. And a wonderful Women's Studies department. All of this came slamming together over my head and in my soul. And I KNEW I had to go on. I had to get to the point, professionally, where I could reach ... young women. I had already proven in my career track as Media Specialist in Denver's largest high school — the one most crippled by the bad bad gangboys — that I had an affinity and an ability to reach those bad boys. They weren't all that bad! At least, after I got through with them, they were not. I persuaded them to trade in their spray paint cans ... and taught kids who didn't even have Hunt and Peck skills on a keyboard ... to animate on a Macintosh! With [caveman version 1.0] Macro MIND (early name of Macromedia) Director!! And to produce a flyer inviting people to the showing, on [also caveman version 1.0] QuarkXpress. But I remained worried about the message being given to ... my daughters. Your daughters. Bad boys' girlfriends, mostly Hispanic, in that area. But, I had an extra trick up my sleeve, which is what brought the teachers with the bad boys ... to me. Most people love art and creative projects ... a lot more fun for these kids than writing a paper in English class. So. I snagged them with the love of art ... and ended up tricking them into not only writing "a paper" but then to do so in a software with a brazen learning curve: XPress. And grinned through their entire presentation, at how easy the persuasion was. They never knew what hit them ... and to a ONE, they never returned to the spray paint can, or the gang. I was hooked. My Master's was at Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale. Capella competitor. MCTE/Master's in Computing Technology in Education. Again, sucked in by multimedia, animation, and now some hard core computer science (it's a CS degree) topics such as SQL and servers and databases and ... wait. Isn't this math, science and technology? THEY LIED TO ME. I was still mad. Maybe even more so. I became more determined to do something about this ... and the ONLY avenue where "THEY" WILL BELIEVE YOU ... is if you have the paperwork to support you. The degree. As a fledgling Boulder Hippie, and a later ex-Boulder Hippie ... I eschewed "that piece of paper." My first quest led to spinal injury, and who needs another go'round? Downsizing of 500 technical jobs in Denver Public Schools in 1994 changed my mind. My media specialist job would have been saved, if I'd had my BA. I determined that when I ever set foot in North High again, it would be with the Degree it would take to REALLY help these kids. And that is where I am, today. At Capella. In Instructional Design. My Master's Project was the birth of this passion for online learning settings ... the creation of PLACES AND SPACES that are OUTSIDE of the norm ... places where anyone can come to find answers, like-minds, and heal the effects of urban assault on young minds and spirits ... being told they cannot achieve by everything around them. But, my focus was still on young women. My project is at: campus/Novaweb/DCTE/OLEweb/final-pt-1.htm I transferred to Capella because, two years ago, Capella began to advertise their certification in eBusiness. My road led me to an early awakening to the indelible handshake between global [e]commerce and ... LEARNING. And here, is where I came. My dissertation topic will be something like this: "I Am GIRL, Hear Me Roar: Virtual Learning Communities Bringing Math, Science and Technology to Young Women At-Risk" But, I listened really deep and hard to the courses I took in Women's Studies. In fact, I almost changed my major again. One very important thing I learned in W.S. courses was (this was easy for a Boulder hippie wannabe) ... SHOCK VALUE. Sometimes, in the face of society heavily endowed with Western Civ mindset, you have to go to great lengths to get noticed. Once noticed, MAYBE someone will listen to your agenda. My research paper for this class (PC501) will center on the topic of Community. NOT a cyber/virtual community, although it could easily be taken online and still provide the refuge for women that it is intended to provide, in this on-the-ground setting. My research is in the area of building a retreat, a community, for women in the Arts, to provide a place for healing, nurturing, and for the exploration of the Artist within each of us. This concept is part of my concept for an outreach to underserved, urban women. Mostly young women, as far as a CyberSchool ... but first, as at North High ... catch them where they "live." In the artistic parts of their creative spirit. This research paper will show the plan, the target group, the setting, and the solutions. Finally, this paper will be the base for actually creating a refuge for women artists ... but, be prepared, because some of the ideas, concepts — and language — are likely to be a bit shocking! What else but shock therapy will get a society OFF the track of telling half of the population that they cannot DO something because of simply ... their gender?  I-CAN-do-math_banner.gif |
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