Dr. Kimberly Scott, an associate professor in women and gender studies at Arizona State University, the digital divide is not just about “who has access to computers, but what happens during that access.”
Scott is the principal investigator and creator of a National Science Foundation-funded project called COMPUGIRLS, an innovative technology program designed to teach girls of color how to use technology to bring about social change.
“I was concerned with the low participation of young women from higher needs school districts in science, technology, engineering and math,” says Scott. “Excluded from the fastest growing technological fields, their economic prospects were grim; yet I knew the interest in technology was there. As a teacher, it’s important to empower my students and provide them the skills that will expand their opportunities.”
It was Scott’s own desire to make a difference that put her on the journey to ASU and COMPUGIRLS. The art history and French literature graduate from Smith College taught fourth grade in New Jersey, but was “appalled at how poorly the teachers treated the students.” Hoping to effect change, she returned to school, earning a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction/elementary education from Long Island University and a doctorate in education from Rutgers.
Scott developed COMPUGIRLS from a program she initiated at Hofstra University in New York. Targeting 13- to 18-year-old girls from under-resourced school districts in the Phoenix area, COMPUGIRLS combines digital technology training with social activism. Funded in part by a three-year, $853,000 grant from the NSF, it requires participants to attend mentor-led classes after school and in the summer. The girls choose a topic to study and then construct research around it, including a research paper and video documentaries. They even constructed virtual buildings via Second Life to help visualize solutions.
“Our intention is to close the gap, not only between girls and technology but between learning these skills and adapting them to real life, so that they become technologists,” Scott says.
