influence of technology exposure on female career interest
Open Access
Author:
Harshbarger, Nicole L
Area of Honors:
Information Sciences and Technology
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Mary Beth Rosson, Thesis Supervisor Xiaolong Zhang, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
technology
Abstract:
The study investigated the potential link between hands-on technology experiences (simple web development activities) with knowledge and career understanding and attitudes about computer-related careers, specifically in women. The study used a pre/post design in which young women from non-technology majors participated in workshops using specially designed tools that allow nonprogrammers to build data-centric web applications. We conducted five different workshops following the exact same procedures, but scheduled at differing times so as to accommodate participants’ schedules. In the workshop, the wProjects web development tool was demonstrated, then the women worked on their own to create a personal website; although each individual created and managed her own data, the queries (and resulting web pages) were addressed to the full set of data collected by each workshop group. A pre/post analysis of the participants’ understanding of computer-related careers, along with attitudes about the attractiveness of such careers, indicated that the web development workshops had a positive effect on this sample of female undergraduates.
