Women on the Web : A Journey in Cyberspace

Sylvia Gibbs, of the University of Huddersfield describes her innovative programme

Many of the students starting the on the Women into Technology and Science programme feel alienated by technology. One of my major tasks as tutor on the WITS programme is to try to allay some of these fears and try to develop confidence in its place (Gibbs, 1996). Introducing electronic communication into the curriculum has been a definite bonus in this task. (Gibbs and Tizard, 1996, 1997). The essential skills of using e-mail and the Internet can be learnt very quickly. On WITS we achieve this in a single week of intensive access and training which we called Internet Week. Once in place these skills can be applied to purposeful activities with positive and impressive outcomes for students. By the end of Internet Week students with no prior experience, have e-mailed students in other European countries, produced a questionnaire which they distributed by e-mail to their new contacts, learnt how to use search engines for research purposes, produced a newsletter on-line with scanned in photographs and designed a world wide web page.

A new approach
Follow up to Internet Week on WITS includes taking a longer module in Multi-media Technology where students learn how to produce screen based presentations using Powerpoint and Toolbook packages. The sophistication of these packages enables students to produce work of high quality for identified purposes without the need for spending long periods of time learning programming or information systems. These can be picked up later when their confidence and interest has been aroused. My colleague, Jenny Tizard calls this "the black box approach" (Tizard, 1993).

Positive feed-back
Student and staff evaluations are very positive. Despite some initial technical frustrations, both groups find it both useful and exciting. Students most appreciate the opportunities it opens up for direct communication and work experience on a European scale and for being creative, both aspects not normally associated with traditional technology training programmes.

Confidence levels are high with many students commenting on the sense of achievement they gain from technology that they conceive to be advanced and at the forefront of technological change. For once they felt ahead in the technological stakes as opposed to slowly catching up and deficient relative to their male peers or their children.

Staff report that assessed work in other subject areas provides evidence of independent learning and the transferability of the skills learnt by students in the dedicated Internet sessions. These include problem solving, project research skills and the ability to distinguish between relevant and unsound source material. Searching through all the dross on the Internet in order to find some quality material obviously has some benefit.

Problems to resolve
On the down side, access to the technology still remains a major problem as computer lab space is scarce and many students do not have a PC at home or the money to run the relevant software. However, the students felt that their new skills had improved their chances of employment and of obtaining places on degree level courses, both important reasons for their attending the programme in the first place. Evidence from student destination data collected during the two year period demonstrates this to be the case although the sample size is very small (only 25 students per year). It is too early to say whether or not the students utilizing their skills in employment will meet discriminatory practices in terms of pay and conditions or career progression.

The Web also served another useful function, that of keeping the teaching team in touch with other teachers, trainers and projects who were working along similar lines within the field of computing and the Internet. They offered further contacts, ongoing support, inspiration and encouragement.

Confidence-building
All in all, members of the programme team, myself included, feel confident that we had identified a useful area of study for our target group of women students and that we had developed some innovative methods of delivering the learning in ways that were exciting and empowering.

Personally, using the technology has given me direct access to information and global networks of women. This combination of modes of communication suits me fine. I recommend it to other women.

The Women into Technology and Science programme CD-ROM is described in The Chronicle, New Media section, and mentioned in Blacks Lead Quest for Digital Equality in the Information Age.

Contact: Sylvia Gibbs, Division of Management, University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield, England HD1 3DH e-mail: s.gibbs@hud.ac.uk Tel.: 01484 472132

Relevant bibliographical works for Women on the Web include: Carter, R., G. Kirkup. (1990) Women In Engineering, London: Macmillan Cherny, L., and E.R. Weise (eds) (1996), Wired Women, Gender and New Realities in Cyberspace, Seattle: Seal.

Cockburn, C. (1985) Machinery of Dominance. London: Pluto Press European Journal of Women's Studies, Special Issue on Technology Volume 2 Issue 3 August 1995, London: Sage.

Gibbs, S., (1996) 'Confidence - the key to success: A case study based on the Women into Science and Technology course at the University of Huddersfield', Topics: Emancipatie Magazine voor het Hoger Technisch Onderwijs, March 1996, pp 30-33.

Gibbs, S., and J. Tizard, Conference Paper on Developing an Innovative Curriculum for Access Students, at the 6th Annual Convention of the European Access Network: Cork - June 1997.

Gibbs, S., and J. Tizard, Conference Paper on Training Women who are returning to work - New Approaches and New Technologies, Towards the Diversity of Training and Working Life Conference, September 1997, Helsinki.

Office of Science and Technology, (1995) Destination Cyberspace? Bridging the Gender Gap on the Information Superhighway, Conference Report.

Shearman, C., (1997) The Importance of Offline Networking for an Online Voice. Copyright reserved.

Spender, D., (1995) Nattering on the Net, Women, Power and Cyberspace, North Melbourne: Spinifex Press Ltd.

Tizard, J., (1993) Curriculum Design for a Technology Access Course in International Journal of Electrical Engineering Education 30/1 pp 42-43.

Turkle, S., (1984) The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit, Granada.

University of Huddersfield, (1997) Abstracts from the Women on the Web Conference, July 1997.

Wajcman, J., (1991) Feminism Confronts Technology, Cambridge and Oxford: Polity Press.