[Edu-sig] BBC NEWS UK Education GCSE 'gender gap' sparksconcern

[Jason Cunliffe]

> We should also be clear that learning to program, having programming
> skills, may not translate into a career in IT per se.  What the
> 'Computer Programming for Everybody' initiative was about (DARPA
> funding for Python) was giving entre to the skills and shoptalk for
> people in *any* walk of life, not just career ITers of any kind.

Yes exactly. I hope they present the vast scope of "IT".

> The fact that many girls/women are still going into health care is,
> by this reasoning, not mutually exclusive from having computer skills.
> Indeed, the health care industry is a primary consumer of computer
> services, and many of its staff positions require computer skills.
> The entertainment and graphic design industries are others.

This morning's new York Times has little article about handheld devices in
hospitals. Smart-computing for patient data gathering and processing is set for
huge changes/improvements.

The most fascinating new periodical I read these days is "BioITWorld". It's a
brilliant monthly which started in February. Somehow a free sub tumbled into
mailbox. It is well written and accessible. A portal with an urgent unholy
aliance between cuting edge tech, creative collaboration, greed and business. A
lucid front row seat at the swirling theater of science, sequencing,
visualization, simulation, programmimg, database, politics, software, money,
hardware...
http://www.bio-itworld.com

> Classroom teacher is another position sterotypically more open to
> women, and here too programming skills may be extremely relevant.
> In my neck of the woods, the teacher training colleges are all
> about teaching future teachers how to use computer projectors
> and use programming in the classroom.

That's good news. I wonder what teacher trainging will be 25 years from now?

./Jason