Bringing More Women Into Tech

One of the biggest goals of the VISTA Code Corps program is to give kids who would be less likely to participate in computer science, including girls, a chance to start working with CS. In my time as a VISTA, I've had the privilege of attending a few different trainings on including girls in computer science as well as STEM. Here is some of what I've learned.

Let Kids Lead: CS First Members as Advocates and Program Assistants

The Goal: Kids as Leaders

One of the primary goals of the Boys & Girls Club movement is to foster leadership skills and self-confidence in our members. Each of our programs is targeted at one or more of our five Core Program Areas: The Arts; Character and Leadership; Sports, Fitness and Recreation; Health and Life Skills; and Education and Career. Our experience with CS First has been exciting because, in running the program, we have found that kids are sharing with each other and finding the confidence to become leaders in the group.

"Can I Talk About the Program?"

I was at our Blazers Boys & Girls Club in Northeast Portland to do one of our new monthly check-ins with the staff there, when something very cool happened at Club Meeting prior to the program. We had a new CS First module starting up and one of the staff members was standing at the front of Club Meeting telling the kids about CS First. This staff member was fairly new at the Club, and had not had the opportunity to run CS First yet, so it wasn't the most compelling introduction. So, one of our kids raised his hand and asked to come up and tell the group about the program instead.

Now, this is not a usual occurrence, at least in Portland. Before I came on board with Code Corps, I spent two and a half years working directly with kids delivering programs, and I can count on one hand the number of times kids were so excited about a program that they wanted to get up in front of their peers and try to convince them all to join. This is what has been so awesome about CS First: it has inspired kids to talk to other kids and let them know that they can learn about technology, and it's great.

Collaborative Problem Solving

One of the core ideas of CS First is that in technology, as in many things, you don't always succeed the first time you try. One of the great things about CS First and Scratch is that kids are encouraged to help their neighbors solve problems, and in the process they gain confidence in their own ability as leaders. In July, I ran CS First at two different Clubhouses and in each case we found children who excelled at solving problems they came across. In each case, these kids (one boy and one girl, both of demographics that are underrepresented in the tech community at large) were excited to help their peers solve problems, and in both cases we were able to have these kids become helpers for the whole group. CS First further supports this process by asking kids to put up sticky notes thanking those who helped them solve problems during the program. It is an enormous confidence booster to know that your peers are looking to you for guidance, and to see yourself as a knowledgeable leader who knows about computer science.

Building on the Foundation

We've already seen that CS First builds a strong foundation of kids helping other kids and naturally developing their leadership skills. The task for us as facilitators, then, is to help nurture this process and provide opportunities for these kids to keep building on the foundation of leadership we've established. In the very near future, I'll be speaking to our Club Directors about establishing a process for these kids to become official helpers for CS First. The perception of what kind of person succeeds in computer science is a huge determining factor in what kind of kid chooses to pursue it. As kids from backgrounds that are underrepresented in IT practice leadership in the field, and others see people like them succeeding, we can change that perception and allow kids to succeed where they would have struggled before.

First Experience with CS First in Club Setting

A First Look

So, yesterday was the first time I had an opportunity to see CS First being run in the Club environment. It was the second day of the Inukai Club's first module. I had recently been contacted by the Program Director at the Inukai Club, asking if we could use CS First as part of their Game Makers summer camp for teens. As this was a natural fit for our program, I agreed, and took steps to ensure that we got supplies as quickly as possible to facilitate the program. This was exciting, as evidence that even before the summer program schedule has gotten underway, Staff members are beginning to see CS First as a really valuable tool. We decided to run the camp with a similar structure to others we've planned, with 2 "days" of the camp per day for a week.

We were scrambling to deliver the program, because a shipment of Chromebooks from Boys & Girls Clubs of America had arrived Monday after the first day of the program had already happened, and Inukai's technical capabilities were very poor. Additionally, we had not yet received the headphones we requested from CS First, due to a change in schedule, and the computers there were not equipped to provide sound. With that in mind, the first day of CS First (before my observation) was not a success. One child had completed most of the tasks available, including the extension activities, but the rest had not completed much at all. Much of that was due to technical issues, but some was due to the method of delivery. I'll reflect more on that in a moment.

The Positive

 

The kids were engaged, and were having fun. The passport system worked well, and the kids used it as a reference for their login information as intended. They were excited to show each other their work, and frequently wanted to continue with what they were doing rather than move on to the next step in the program. The Staff member in charge had not known about the pre-evaluation for the program, so we administered it and the kids did not seem to mind at all.

The shout-out system was not in place ahead of time, and we set it up during the program. The kids were hesitant about it at first but seemed to warm to the idea by the end of the day.

Areas to Improve

 

Our tech was just not in place ahead of time, and it really bogged the program down. We essentially lost an entire day of program and had to start over to get everyone up to speed, which was a waste of the first day and boring for the child who had already completed the tasks.

The "summer camp" structure that Inukai was using called for the kids to have a bit of free time on the computers before beginning CS First, and that seemed to be a big mistake. At that point, expectations were lax, and it was an uphill battle to move kids' attention away from YouTube and Tangerine Tycoon, and on to CS First.

The Staff member in charge (it was his last day) was not entirely invested in following the plan in the handbook, and the kids were essentially running through the program at their own speed. This meant that often they would skip the videos or close them halfway through, then be confused about what to do after the fact.

A lack of headphones was a big detriment to the program's smooth operation. Kids would make sounds to annoy/impress the rest of the group, and many were constantly distracted by the sounds others were making.

The unique structure of our schedule produced an unexpected problem. Kids logged in to CS First during the time allocated to Activity 1, and were put on Activity 2. I suspect that since both activities were scheduled for the same day, this moved the kids to the latter of the two. If this is the case, we are going to see this problem for every Club that runs more than one CS First "day" on the same day. Once the kids navigated to the correct activity, it may not have recorded their behavior correctly as many of the participants were shown on the Dashboard to have not watched any videos.

In an environment where multiple CS First activities are delivered consecutively, some of the time allotments in the timer/schedule are unnecessary. The time to wrap up headphones and turn off computers before another activity as well as the time to get on the computers and navigate to CS First were skippable, but we opted to use them as a break time for kids to stand up and move around.

The Takeaway (Or, What to Do Next Time)

• Make sure all tech is in place before the club starts. Headphones especially are essential.
• Likewise, make sure the Guru(s) review the material beforehand. If they understand the structure of the day and know what each segment means, they will be more committed to delivering the program as intended.
• Start with CS First, as soon as you enter the room. If you have kids transitioning to CS First from a less structured activity, there will be a lot of resistance that's hard to overcome.
• Set clear expectations. Kids should only have two windows open at any given time: CS First, and Scratch. YouTube and other distractions should be watched for as Gurus move around the room.
• Respect the timer. Having kids stay on one activity at a time, and move on at an orderly pace, means kids (hopefully) won't feel the need to skip the videos to get to the next part.
• If the program is running multiple "days" consecutively, make sure kids know how to get to/are on the correct one.
• With older kids at least, and with a small sample size, the opening assessment does not seem to be a big obstacle. They don't seem to need the fun activities between questions.

Overall, I think yesterday was a qualified success and I'm very excited to see how CS First will work once we get the ball rolling in earnest!

Have any other observations or suggestions about how to better the in-Club experience? Let me know in the comments!