Reflections

I am currently working on the methodology and literature review chapters, and have spent the last couple of days using 'still applicable' work from my colloquium and placing that within the new actual thesis. I have been very pleased to see the amount of learning and progress that has taken place in my outlook, maturity, writing, and understanding since the colloquium document was submitted. A lot happens in a year!

Gender Issues

Lack of coherency and sequencing is evident . . . .

RE: COMPUTER CLASSES AND GENDER
Interesting anecdote from Jake, regarding the computer classes: “Half the guys at college are useless, "Look, it's not working!" "Why won't it work?" And they start whacking it, and there's this little button that says 'on'. [laughs] Sorry, I'm just sick of people that don't know how to . . . I've had like half the computer room - and like the girls have sussed it out, no problem! The guys are sitting there - "this thing's not working", they're starting to whack the screen, getting really abusive. And I say, "there is an on button on the screen", "Oh really?"

Contrasting anecdote from Joe, regarding the computer classes: R – “would you say that the boys are better at using computers?” J – “Yeah I find that's true because in class, I frequently see the girls asking more questions when we're in the computer room and I don't know if that's wrong or right, but yeah, that's what I feel they are.” R – “So they're asking more for help.” J – “Yeah, more for help. I mean there are guys who are, but more of girls are which I see, ask for help, and yeah. Some girls find it really easy and get through but the majority don't, yep.” So do the boys not ask for help, and the girls do? Therefore, the boys don’t know what they’re doing, or they do know what they’re doing, so they don’t need help?

Male teachers
From Lisa: R – “So in your experience, people who you've thought were good on the computer, have they been males or females?” L – “Um, yeah, mainly males I guess. Yeah, cause they're mainly just male teachers, there's no female IT teachers or anything. Yeah, I've never thought of that [smiles].” R – “So why do you think that is? That most of the IT teachers are males?” L – “I think they have more interest in it really. Like getting right down into the hardware or something. Yeah.” R – “Does that interest you - hardware?” L – “Not really [laughs].”
Chris’ teachers at primary school were female expert computer users.

Numbers in computer classes
From Tom: R – “In your computer classes, are they mostly boys?” T – “Yeah, there's like one girl in my computer class.” Year 12
From Chris: “Girls are more interested in computers, cause in my computing class, you can do a tally of, and you'll find that the majority of people in there are actually girls.” Year 9

RE: GENDER AND INTEREST IN COMPUTERS
Interest/Motivation
From Tom: “Girls don't like computers I guess.”
From Tim: “If they [girls] wanted to [be experts at computers], they could.”
From Tim: “Probably more games out there that appeal to boys than girls as well, yeah.”
From Jake: “I don't think it can be done on sex. I think a girl could be awesome at computers, like, it's not really the sex thing, it's whatever happens, like it's if you pick it up or not.”
From Anne: R – “Well, some people think that boys are the usual computer experts, not girls. So what do you think about that?” A – “I think they're probably right because there are some jobs that . . . well girls are mostly fashion designers and boys are mostly builders, and that with computing, people seem to be guys, but there's more and more girls going into it.”

Age
Both Joe and Jake think that with girls, it is an age thing, i.e. that when girls get older, they will realize the importance of computer skills/literacy. Jake referred to the notion that girls think there will always be somebody else to do it so they do not bother to learn any of the fun or technical ‘stuff’.
From Joe: “I just feel that girls don't show as much interest towards computers as boys. Because like you see a guy just willingly wanting to use a computer and then, a girl, I've rarely seen them like willingly wanting to actually use a computer, and yeah, that's what I've seen. But at the end of schooling life, I think all girls and boys will be equal. And they can use computers and all that, but it's just the interest thing, they don't show the correct interest into using computers.” And later: “if they [girls] do show interest, I reckon they could be like guys as well.” Lastly, “the majority of girls . . . in three or four years, they'll start showing interest and they'll come up with the boys.”

Time
From Tim: “Probably is more boys than girls that play games and go on the internet.”

Habitus of boys (regarding ‘some people say that boys are the usual computer experts, not girls)
From Lisa: “guys probably just get more attention than girls do. Cause girls probably just stand back a bit while guys let their ego go [giggles], really. I dunno. They always seem to get the limelight.”
From Charli: “I think it's just because boys are like, they talk about it more, but like girls sort of go on and do more private things, like me, how I'll go on[line] and post a poem and stuff - it's not something that I want everyone to know about, but boys will be like geeks and talk about all their new games and all that sort of stuff. I think that it's just because boys talk about it more and so they're sort of notorious for it”.
From Anne: “girls may choose other things, some guys sit on their laptop every day 24/7, while girls like to do more, and get out more, that's what's different.”

Giving Help
From Chris: “once I'd learned all my skills, I was actually told to go out and teach a few people, and I mostly focused on girls because I knew that they weren't learning that much on computers.”

NB: Jake had seen many female technicians operating as computer experts.

Identity

I need some help here - what else to include?

I was thinking that I could possibly include identity in the initial ‘case study’ description. The questions didn’t lend themselves to anything startling, except perhaps Chris, Tim, and Tom’s thoughts about being called a ‘geek’.

Anne’s description of herself centred on ‘fun’, being sporty, and being friendly.
Charli’s description of herself centred on being unsure of who and what she was, trying to cope with humour, moroseness and further conflicting emotions. Others viewed her interactions with her ‘overseas friends’ as negative, but for her, the online interactions were a positive and important outlet.
Chris’ description of himself included how his constructed identity of being a computer expert was being misconstrued by his peers as negative, and that he had no voice about the space in which to operate in as a computer expert at school.
Jake’s identity was tied up in his technical ability and success, which gave him positive reinforcement in his friendships and various relationships.
Joe’s identity descriptions centred on his academic focus, and positive outlook on life. Demonstrates agency?
Lisa’s description of herself centred on being funny and friendly, though she did not want to be understood as boring or plain.
Tim’s identity description was debatable as he replied, “I dunno” to many of the questions. He used various adjectives including trustworthy, friendly, kind, reliable, and average.
Tom’s description of himself was also debatable as he did not know what experiences to draw on and included the adjectives cheeky, shy, mental, fair, forgiving, and normal.

Charli, Jake, and Chris emphasized the importance of their expertise in the construction of their identity and meaningfulness (personal value).

Chris, Tim, and Tom referred to being called a ‘geek’. Tom had only been called a geek from friends who “don’t play on computer” [sic]. Tim had jokingly been called a geek, and stated that it was neither positive or negative, especially as “everyone’s geeks and like all my friends [smiles]. So calling them a geek it’s not like, it’s not really, not offensive or anything, cause I’m a geek as well, so I’m saying it to them” [sic]. This points to a premise that the notion of being good on computers could be considered as a normal or standard occurrence, and that people are not surprised when youths display skill, evidenced in the following quote from Charli (regarding how her friends viewed her computer use): “Some of them just think I'm just normal cause like this generation is getting up with the computer technology, like with MSN and big things like that. But then others think that I'm kind of a computer whiz, if you like, and stuff.”

Chris had been subject to bullying at his school and the word ‘geek’ had been used in some of these instances. When I asked him if he considered ‘computer geek’ to be a positive or negative thing, Chris replied, “It gets on my nerves that people can describe me as a computer geek, but if I'm in the right mood I think of it as one of those good things that just show me, that almost stand me out as one of those people who can work with computers, and can do a wide range of things with them. And yet sometimes, it's - when I'm walking about - it's not that good because you get picked on, being able to do all those things. I normally ignore it though.”

Notions of learning

Learning techniques used by the participants included: trial-and-error (figure it out myself), ask someone (friend or parent), watching someone, researching on the Internet, asking questions on online forums or message boards. Often, the last resort was reading a book.

Jake, Charli, and Lisa stated they were visual learners.
Chris knew he had strong learning preferences for musical and intrapersonal multiple intelligences.
Joe was confident in his ability to figure things out himself, or alternatively he would ask his dad, or ask teachers during the time he was doing computers at school.
Tim was asked, “How do you think you learn best?” He replied, “Oh like hands on, practical sort of stuff like experiments and that. I probably understand it a lot better when I can like actually do it and see how everything works and that, instead of just reading about it or getting told about it, yeah.”
Tom’s first port of call to learn something was trial-and-error and figuring it out himself, or then he would ask somebody he knew, or ask on the Internet, or research on the Internet. These examples lend both Tim and Tom to be grouped as visual and/or kinesthetic learners.

Anne did not know about learning styles or preferences. I asked, “How do you think you learn best (when you’re in a classroom and there’s no computer)?” She replied, “Um, probably, oh it depends what sort of environment it is. But probably the teacher talking to us or involving us in a discussion, or reading interesting stories about it, not just textbook work, but interesting information.” This does not help one to categorize Anne’s learning preference, but this next quote does: “On the computer? Um, I learn, like [when] I have to do an essay, I think I learn more [by] looking on the internet, finding my own information then rewording it, rather than the teacher give me textbooks and telling us to write an essay [on] that information. Just because there's so much more information on the internet and so many different sites and I find it just a lot easier than flicking through a book.” This shows that Anne “makes do” with what is going on in a classroom, but she probably prefers to use a computer because of her visual learning tendency. When I asked her, about whether she was learning all the time when she was on the Internet, she said, “No. Not at all. There's a lot of times when I just go on to play games or have a, like look up celebrities or something. Very un-educational!” This points to Anne believing that learning can only take place contextually, and not incidentally.

Charli had some very mature notions of learning in terms of how aware she was of learning going on:
“So when you're on the Internet, do you think you are learning all the time?”
“I think you are always learning, no matter what you're doing, even if you're on [watching] the TV. I think you're always learning.”
“So what kind of things are you learning when you're on the Internet?”
“You're learning new things, like when you explore, like the Internet Explorer, like with properties of a computer, but when you, even when you do things that you've done before, it's still learning because it sticks with you. It's like you're memorizing it, sort of?”
“So you learn all the time on the Internet, are you learning all the time when you're at school?”
“Not always. I don't think so because when you're on the computer, you sort of choose to go on or not, but at school you have to go, so it's like you're not always in the mood, and if you don't wanna be taught, then you just, you don't let them. You're just disruptive and stubborn and stuff, so you've gotta be in the mood for it, that's why I think that computers are like more good. More people will learn from computers I think.”
“Cause they want to be on it.”
“Yeah, but then that goes both ways because sometimes like, they teach you like maths at school, but you don't like maths, but they teach you it anyway, and it's something that's probably really valuable in the future. But um, mmmm. They teach you it whether you like it or not.”

Chris believed he was learning all the time when he was on the Internet, and that he was always learning all the time at school. He pointed out that he probably was learning more slowly if there wasn’t music on or if it was in a noisy environment, or if there were lots of people around.

Jake learnt a lot from watching other people make mistakes.

Joe agreed that he was learning all the time when on the Internet: “As you read through the websites, you'll be learning something anyway, so y'know, it's um, if you go on the first page, it'll be current events, so you just quickly scan through it before you go on to something else, or if you're waiting for a website to open, yeah, you'll be reading something anyway, so you will be learning, yeah, of course.”

For Tim, it depended on what he was doing and the value that he deemed it had as to whether he was learning anything of value. When playing games, he was relaxing, and it was a form of entertainment, and he was learning how to play the game better when playing it, but he said he wasn’t “learning anything that you need in life”.

View of schooling

Chris and Joe both commented on how they had picked up new skills in their computer classes at school. They were the only two who linked how using the computer helped them in their schoolwork and homework, especially for research. Joe especially, used the Internet to help him study for exams. School and study were positive activities for Joe.

In contrast, the three girls all stated how they saw computing at school as irrelevant, and/or too basic for them to consider taking it as a subject. They were not interested in computing as a school subject. Charli and Lisa’s prior experience of school computing consisted of three years of learning to touch type – a compulsory aspect of their school’s programme. Lisa stated why it did not interest her to take computers as a school subject: “Because like, what I do here, I just do at my own free will really, and like at school, you have to have like set work, to what you have to do, and like what I do here at home, I wouldn't think that I'd be able to do at school, like cause it's into music or just read emails or something. It's not really about that in a class of like economics, no, it's not economics, in the computer room or something - IT.” Lisa believed the content was boring. Anne’s experience differed as in primary and intermediate school, she had had teachers who “quite liked computers”, and she had learnt to design websites, edit movies, and create animations. Her current school’s computing programme was too basic for her to consider it worthwhile, though she was also not allowed to advance through the programme and enroll in a level congruous with her ability, experience, and skill.

When Anne was asked how relevant school was in comparison to what she wished to do in the future, she replied, “That depends on the subject. Some subjects are just subjects - they are not important at all to me. But others are more important. I don't have an exact idea of what I want to do in the future, and so I basically know what subjects will help me or not. Maths, I probably will do something around maths, and so that is really important, and it's also about the subjects - which subjects I have to do well in to get into subjects next year. Like my drama, that's not gonna affect what subjects I get into next year, what marks I get and that, but in maths, it depends on what class I get in, well what grades I get this year, depends on what class I'm gonna be in next year, so that's quite important.”

Lisa had spent approximately two hours or more per week-day for the last three years on her home computer. She didn’t think there was any link between schoolwork helping her computer literacy or expertise, or vice versa, i.e. that her computer use helped her schooling. Lisa was unable to identify any aspect of her computer use that would help her schooling. This could also demonstrate that Lisa was unsure of the questions asked of her, which included, “How does your confidence in your computer skills affect your attitude towards school?” and “What do you think of your expertise in terms of how valuable schooling is?” She replied “I don’t know” and “I don’t think much of it” to the respective questions.

Chris had attended the same primary school for Years 0 – 8. He was in his first year of high school (year 9). At his primary school he had received much encouragement from teachers to learn software, was selected to operate as the resident expert in his classroom, and also chosen to be involved in extra activities to develop more computer skill. Chris said, “They [the teachers] did recognize that I had a bit of potential in computing. My classmates did - they helped motivate the teachers to put me up to higher levels and things like that.” His primary school experiences were in sharp contrast to his initial experiences at high school:
R – “How does your confidence in your computer skills affect your attitude towards school?”
Chris – “Again, my teachers really haven't noticed my skills. I really do want to shine and I really want to show them that, but sometimes you just have to hold back, because sometimes it's really not the right time to show all your skills to everyone at first. So when I go to my computing class - which unfortunately I've just ended cause it's term 2, I only do half options this year - but yeah, when I go to computing class, I find those skills to be quite useful, and with computing, with knowledge like picking up and understanding different things, it's helped me in schoolwork and things like that. Mmmm.” In regard to the lack of skill recognition and the lack of stimulus for younger high school students, Chris said, “I know there's more to learn out there but I'm looking for these opportunities and I can't find them, so I'm still searching really.”
I asked him, “So are you quite disappointed that you haven't got these opportunities like you did [in primary school]?”
Chris – “Yes! I'm sorely disappointed, cause I know that college is a place of opportunity, you're stepping up, you're moving on, learning about careers and all, but it's not just popping up. Where is it?”

At Jake’s school, they had made schooling relevant for him through the following examples:
• “The Principal at my school actually, decided and said 'since you're doing all this, we'll probably drop back your classes, to three classes, and we'll give you credits for it'.”
• “But they've basically rostered classes so its, in the computer room, so it's not when I've got classes. They've built they're roster around . . . they've moved my classes and rostered them around me.”
• Jake’s Principal was realistic that Jake was not going to end up being dux of the school and take six subjects, and go on to university, etc.
Jake was taking Geography, English, and Drama as his three subjects. He believed Drama was the only relevant subject as it enabled him to do production type activities and pass technical unit standards in this area. Some aspects of English such as film studies were of interest to him. About geography he said, “I don’t know why the hang I chose geography.” In regard to schooling in general he stated, “Some mornings it's a bit like 'oh school' [uninterested tone]. And other mornings I'm like, 'yeah, it's cool'. Like, days that I have all my classes in a row, 'oh a school day'. Cause yeah, I just get bored, I'll sit there, and half the time I'll just shut off and think about what I'm meant to be doing.” However, as Jake had been involved in sound and lighting activities since intermediate school (years 7 – 8), and due to the number of projects and responsibilities Jake had within the high school, his schooling experience has given him many opportunities for him to do things that he was interested in. Notwithstanding, Jake had had little or no experience with computers at his primary school.

Tim was not sure about how relevant school was for him. He reduced the curriculum to two important subjects – mathematics and English.
R - “So you don't really know what you want to do in the future, but how relevant do you think school is for your future?”
Tim - “Oh I guess some subjects are - maths and English. But they're like, cause if you've got maths and English you can do a lot more jobs, yeah. But I think sort of relevant, I guess [smiles], yeah, I dunno.”

Out of the subjects that Tom took, he said “Design and computers is probably the most relevant, maybe a bit of maths”. I asked him if he thought the business one might be helpful? He replied, “Yeah, if I wanna start my own business, I'll have the skills.” I asked him, “So are you taking any subjects because you have to?” He replied, “Yeah, just to fill the gaps.” Of the primary school he attended, Tom said, “They like to think they are a technological school but I didn't really use computers there". Both the primary school and intermediate school he went to used Macintosh computers, which he said, he didn't like. He only used computers in the computer class of the computer suite at intermediate, not in the classroom.

Tim and Tom did not think their confidence in computer skills affected their attitude towards school. Tim stated, “I don't think that it helps me, or improve my attitude or anything. Yeah, I don't think it does.” Tom said, “It doesn't affect it at all. Just school's boring and it's school [laughs].” Tim was similar in his thinking:
R – “Is school a positive place for you?”
Tim – “Yeah, some days. I don't not like going. Yeah, so, I guess. Yeah, I don't like want to wag or anything, so it's alright, yeah.”
R – “What makes it not positive?”
Tim – “Oh it just, some lessons are boring and that.”
R – “So would physics be like your most boring subject or just hard?”
Tim – “It's not boring, I just don't really understand it very well, cause it is quite hard subject to understand. There's a lot of people that aren't very good at it [laughs].”

As stated previously, Charli believed that she was learning all the time. But when asked whether she was learning all the time when she was at school, she replied, “Not always. I don't think so because when you're on the computer, you sort of choose to go on or not, but at school you have to go, so it's like you're not always in the mood, and if you don't wanna be taught, then you just, you don't let them. You're just disruptive and stubborn and stuff, so you've gotta be in the mood for it, that's why I think that computers are like more good. More people will learn from computers I think.”
R – “Cause they want to be on it.”
Charli – “Yeah, but then that goes both ways because sometimes like, they teach you like maths at school, but you don't like maths, but they teach you it anyway, and it's something that's probably really valuable in the future.” Charli discussed some other aspects regarding the environment of school:
R – “So is school a positive place for you?”
Charli – “No. Not this year, and not the year before, so no, and not the year before that either [we both laugh].”
R – “So why's that?”
Charli – “I think it's sort of my fault though, but then even people that are like normal, they say like they don't like school, but that's sort of their own choice. I dunno. It's just not. I think too much is forced on you. [pause] Teachers are dicks [laughs]. I really don't like them. I know they're being paid, but still.”
R – “So is school a positive place for you to learn?”
Charli – “In some ways I guess. [pause] I think it's personal and it's complicated, like, I think it gets easier and more positive as you get older because you can choose your own subjects and stuff. That gives you more variety and you're actually there, and you're doing stuff that you want to do.”