[Edu-sig] Acadmic gender gap (was Thoughts)

[ajsiegel at optonline.net]

Joseph writes -
> So before I buy into blaming video games for gender gaps, I would 
> like to see a whole lot  more study. 

Please no. Not more studies.

Either the playing of video games has an impact, or it does not.

You and John seem to agree that it does.

What that impact is, and whether is "good" or "bad", can only be a polticized conclusion - as there are no objective criteria for what is good and what is bad in this realm.

We are on our own.

Why is there such discomfort with that prospect? 

>We as students of computing 
> should be among the investigators. 

I think that students and practitioners of computing are among the least objective observers possible.

Is someone in the position of, say, Alan Kay, able to objectively contemplate fully the sanity of his devotion to the notion of the  children learning through the technology that computers have made available?

What one wishes, in all good faith (or bad) to be true, tends to be found to be in fact true, where no criteria for an objective study of  what is true, in truth, exists.

Art