Insight into Attitudes to Computing

Abstract

At³ Dundee Institute of Technology we have been running an “Insight into Computing” course for several years. The course is our contribution to Scottish efforts to attract more girls into courses and careers in computing. In the first year all secondary schools in Tayside and Fife were invited to send the names of 2 to 4 girls aged about 15 and the 60 places were allotted on a first-come-first-served basis. Many schools sent extra names in case there were spare places and some schools missed the opportunity by not replying fast enough. Subsequently places have been limited to 2 per school and first options have gone to schools missed out on the previous course. The girls are selected by the schools and usually we are not told how the selection is made. However, there is evidence of keen competition for places and some schools have organised essay competitions for them or used them as rewards for good behaviour. About half of the girls have already studied computing at school. Our aims are to give the girls a very enjoyable encounter with a wide variety of computing experiences and send them back to their schools talking enthusiastically about it to their friends. We provide 6 different laboratories and demonstrations, incorporating plenty of opportunity for successful hands-on experience, and they tour these in groups of 10, spending about 1.5 hours in each on 2 consecutive days. We also invite 4 or 5 women from a variety of computing careers to give short talks to the girls about their education and jobs. At the end of the course, we ask the girls if we should do it again next year and each time we have been asked to make it a week long and residential (many of them make long journeys from quite remote rural areas).