The White House Champions for Change event

Aspirations in Computing Award-winners @ the White House

NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing Winners Visit the White House

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Did You Know?

Did You Know? is a brief round-up of information and news that crossed NCWIT's radar this week that we think might be of interest to you. Practices or content of the news presented are not vetted or endorsed by NCWIT.

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Did you know that LEGO is spending $40 million to market its new product line for girls? In an op-ed column for The New York Times writer Peggy Orenstein looks at LEGO's new "Friends" collection, "… where girls can build, create, remodel and redecorate!" and feels a little sick about it.  The company has taken a beating from many bloggers and pundits for designing LEGOs that seem to adhere to every  stereotype about girls and toys (the Friends collection has softer edges, comes in pastel hues, and features characters with "bios"). However, LEGO defends itself by pointing out that it conducted years of "cultural anthropology" research to find out what girls want, and with this product line is only giving them what they want.

Knowing what we know about the powerful influence of "tinkering" and building things on girls' interests and career choices, what do you think of LEGO's approach?

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Did you know who just celebrated a birthday? That's right: NCLB, or No Child Left Behind. In recognition of the law turning 10 years old, The Nation took a look at how NCLB has changed the education system. One of its conclusions is that NCLB has caused an increase in standardized testing. With the forced focus on English and math standards, many schools have been forced to cut topics such as the arts, social studies, and computing out of their curriculum.

Although some have proposed additional standards for these subjects to keep them on the radar — the Computer Science Education Act suggests state standards for computing education, for example — others wonder if federal intervention would "over-standardize" and "hinder creative teaching of what can be a dynamic and diverse subject." What do you think?

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Some of us are familiar with data analytics as a tool to evaluate a website, a business endeavor, or a program's efficacy; but did you know that data analytics are being used in classrooms, too? The Chronicle of Higher Education takes a fascinating look at how vast amounts of data about students can be used to identify which ones are struggling, who should be paired with whom in classroom labs, even which majors are a good fit for which students. Do you use analytics, anonymous or otherwise, in the classroom? What do you think about this approach?

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Did you know that only 7% of Generation Y works for a Fortune 500 company? CIO has two interesting articles this week about young people and the IT workforce: one looks at the hiring forecast and the growth in employee turnover, while the other looks at trends in how young people view the workplace and their careers.

With hiring on the rise and demand for technology workers outstripping supply, companies can ill afford increased turnover costs. Yet Generation Y employees are described as seeking a more "entrepreneurial environment" than what's traditional in many technology groups at large companies, and with that "more aggressive career development opportunities and the ability to learn new things quicker." Does your company have a strategy for attracting and retaining Gen Y talent? If so, we want to hear about it.

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Lucy Sanders and the U.S. Innovation Advisory Board

Last year, NCWIT CEO and Co-founder Lucy Sanders was appointed to the U.S. Department of Commerce Innovation Advisory Board. This board was formally established as part of the 2010 America COMPETES Act, to guide a study of U.S. innovation and competitiveness that would help inform job creation and global economic and technological success. 

Today the Innovation Advisory Board delivered the results of its study, The Competitive and Innovation Capacity of the United States, to Congress. The report makes three important findings:

• Federal investments in research, education and infrastructure were critical building blocks for American economic competitiveness, business expansion and job creation in the last century;
• Failures to properly invest in, and have comprehensive strategies for, those areas eroded America’s competitive position; and,
• In a constrained budgetary environment, prioritizing support for these pillars are imperative for America’s economic future and provide a strong return on investment for the U.S. taxpayer.

Additionally, the report underscores the importance of education in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields, or STEM fields. For instance, women with STEM jobs earned 33 percent more than comparable women in non-STEM jobs. As a result, the gender wage gap is smaller in STEM jobs than in non-STEM jobs. Ongoing and new administration initiatives are addressing these challenges by making college more affordable, spurring classroom innovation at all levels and expanding the size and quality of STEM teacher ranks. To succeed in the global economy, government must encourage students and workers to pursue STEM education.

Read the full report, here (PDF.)

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Flickr photo courtesy of superstrikertwo

Apple Scholarship for Select Students and Alumna!

Apple is pleased to offer an iPhone Scholarship of $10,000, coupled with a summer internship, to five computer science students and alumna from a select list of universities and to winners of the NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing! 

To be eligible, you must be a junior or graduate student at Cal Poly, Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech, Harvey Mudd, MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley, University of Michigan, or UT Austin, or you must be a past winner of the NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing. 

Scholarship Details:

• Scholarship winners will be awarded $10,000 and a summer internship at Apple.
• Winners must accept the summer internship to receive the scholarship money.
• Juniors and advanced-degree students are eligible to apply.
• The deadline to apply is January 31.
• Winners will be notified by February 29, 2012.
• Questions should be directed to iphonescholarship@apple.com.

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