[gender-it] Welcome & preliminary statement
- From: "Hoofd Ingrid Maria" <g0201759@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <gender-it@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2003 15:12:54 +0800
Dear all,
Welcome to the gender IT mailing list! I hope we can all have a
productive exchange here.
Please find below a preliminary statement on the purpose of this
particular list. If you know more people who are interested in joining,
please tell them to email me (the current list owner) with their
details, or simply email me with a list of email addresses up for
subscription request.
Cheers,
Ingrid.
------------------
September 21, 2003
Preliminary statement for discussing and planning a critical, feminist,
and=20
difference-based Tactical Handbook for IT education. (This is a really
awkward=20
title and we will of course come up with something way more juicy to
call it.)=20
Background: The idea for the Gender and IT Handbook workshop was
generated in=20
planning discussions on the editorial list for Next Five Minutes 4, in
2003.=20
(participants in these discussions included Arun Mehta, Faith Wilding,
Beatriz=20
da Costa, David Garcia, Terri Senft).=20
Many of us are involved in educating about New Media and IT in many
different=20
environments and teaching digital media to various populations with
great=20
differences in age, race, cultural milieu, gender, economic backgrounds,
geographic locations, language etc. Due to our experiences with dominant
assumptions=20
about teaching and using digital media in mainstream (western) culture,
we felt=20
the need to explore ways in which discourses of difference, and
especially=20
feminist and postcolonial analyses could be brought to bear on
generating=20
tactics and strategies for critical and differentiated approaches to
teaching and=20
learning and using digital media.=20
Accordingly, we conducted a first planning workshop at Next Five Minutes
Four=20
in Amsterdam on Sept. 14, 2003
Workshop: The workshop was attended by about 20 very interested and
vocal=20
people-women and men--and led by Arun Mehta and Faith Wilding. Everyone
introduced themselves and short introductory statements were made by=20
the workshop leaders. I summarize some points from everyone's statements
here: Many of us are involved in tactical and theoretical projects that
are=20
generating new knowledges, new ways of doing things. The territories of
digital=20
culture are expanding and many issues of difference are emerging and
becoming=20
increasingly visible. How are these knowledges being transmitted, made
available,=20
communicated, shared? How do we oppose specializations of knowledge and
the=20
curse of intellectual property laws and privatization of knowledge and
skills? How are values of difference transmitted by virtue of the ways
in which we=20
develop teaching around digital technologies?
It is important for us to begin to communicate with each other about our
experiences and tactics. We need to make our pedagogical experiences
available.
(Resource for background study:
A recent study of Women in Computing (based on an exended study of women
in=20
computer science at Carnegie Mellon) was issued by MIT Press: Jane
Margolis and Allan Fisher, Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing)
Suggested Approaches and Content for Handbook
1)Providing a critically and historically based understanding of the
history=20
of computers and computing, (white male) IT culture, and the conditions
of=20
technological production and labor. Towards a difference culture of IT.
2) Language: A critical discussion of language uses in IT.
3) Discussion of how issues of difference that are the basis for
interaction,=20
access to knowledge, and access to power (these include gender, class,
race,=20
cultural difference, economic difference, age, ethnic, and geographic)
impact=20
on the learning/teaching/practice environment. (Irina)
4) Importance of demystification of technological processes; Dismantling
the=20
computer and rebuilding it. Software and Programming basics?
(Genderchangers) 5)Feminist approaches to learning: collaboration and
team learning-horizontal=20
teaching rather than hierarchies; woman to woman teaching/networking;=20
learning through applied and tactical "real-life" projects and problems;
situated=20
theory/practice learning; empowerment "you can do it" , allowing
failure,=20
learning from experiment; team teaching and role models.
6) The importance of telling our stories and sharing experiences.
Helping=20
invisible populations articulate their voices in the world.
(Cybermohalla project)
7) Issues of high-tech, low-tech, access, using open source software,=20
shareware, technological commons. Expropriation, piracy, appropriation.
8) Using our teaching to give visibility to social and political issues
and=20
experience of women and minoritarian populations. Challenging the
dominant IT=20
culture.
9)Teach about privacy and anti-surveillance tactics. (tactical
gizmology)
10) Using tactical media to collaborate with projects that are
addressing=20
global and local issues of concern to women and minoritarian populations
and=20
bringing these issues into public discourse (Women on Waves, subRosa,
RAWA)=20
Include lots of information about social movements, links to women's
grass-roots=20
organizations, street works, grass-roots initiatives, in our teaching.
11) Using art as a way of learning-discursive projects that use images,=20
language, sounds, etc.=20
12) The training in technology is happening under new conditions and in
a new=20
society of control-it represents new cultural processes, but it is still
linked to all other aspects of education and production. What kinds of
spatial=20
environments and practical configurations best facilitate the kinds of
difference=20
and feminist learning we are interested in? How do people (geeks, for=20
example) learn to communicate better and what does it mean to
communicate better?=20
Does IT education have to be different for women than for men? (Arun)
13) Provide examples of projects and of actual learning and production=20
environments. What about funding? Resources?=20
14) Provide a descriptive list of "best practices." Things that have
worked.
15) Provide a self-inventory analysis of what we want. Challenging the=20
existing paradigms. Say what we don't want. Be attentive to girls'
curiosity.
This enumeration of contents is only preliminary and we'd like to hear
more=20
from all of you who attended the workshop about your concerns and
suggestions.=20
I apologize if I left out important points. We should begin to discuss
how=20
best to implement our ideas and make practical proposals about who can
contribute=20
what to the handbook. Irina Aristarkhova, Beatriz da Costa, Ingrid
Hoofd,=20
Arun Mehta, and Faith Wilding have volunteered to be compilers and
editors.
In solidarity, Faith Wilding
----------------------------
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