Girls Creating Games Program: Strategies for Engaging Middle-School Girls in Information Technology, The

Frontiers, 2005 by Denner, Jill, Werner, Linda, Bean, Steve, Campe, Shannon

Another strategy we use to challenge stereotypes in GCG is to teach girls about the different ways to be involved in game production. In an activity called "Finding Out about Jobs and Skills," the girls identify personality "types" and link them to skills they are learning. For example, a girl who considers herself to be artistic might identify her skill in drawing or shape morphing, while a girl who considers herself to be investigative can link that type with skills in debugging or programming. Someone who sees herself as a manager might identify solving disagreements with her partner as a skill. Since most girls identify their strengths as artistic, the goal of this activity is to validate the range of different styles and skills necessary for the production of computer software.

IDENTITY-FORMING ACTIVITIES

The identity-formation strategy of GCG features an array of activities designed to increase the factors related to persistence with computer studies. Some activities target social identity, or the sense of having peer support for taking an active role in computing. Other activities target self-identity, which includes the belief that one is tech-sawy. Social identity activities allow for peer identification of each girl as tech-sawy. In one activity, girls write affirmations for their peers. Examples include: "Silvia did a cool animation" and "Kirn helped me figure out how to put sound on a button." One activity that targets selfidentity is the use of a lapel button that says "Ask me for help with ..." Each girl adds a phrase that completes the sentence, describing a skill related to using the Flash software or other aspects of game design and construction, such as organizing tasks or choosing music or sound effects. Examples of what girls have written include: "Ask me about creating music, buttons, and sound effects," "Ask me about computer equipment," and "Ask me about debugging and solving problems."

Another activity intended to reinforce a tech-sawy self-identity involves parents or other adult relatives. Program leaders maintain phone contact with parents of participants to inform them about something their daughter is doing well in GCG. We hope parents will pass this positive feedback on to their daughters, who will, in turn, experience a sense of success. This continuing contact with parents has increased retention of girls in the program.

CONCLUSIONS

This paper contributes to the small literature about increasing the active participation of women and girls in IT by engaging middle-school girls so they can become producers, not just users, of technology. We described four program strategies that build on research about the personal, social, and structural barriers to women's participation in information technology. These program strategies can be generalized to a range of learning environments to increase girls' participation in nontraditional careers.

The kinds of learning that are required for the twenty-first century entail the ability to think, solve problems, and become independent learners rather than simply acquiring new information. We promote these learning skills by guiding girls through a process of game design and production. Our preliminary data suggest the girls are developing some of the skills necessary to become fluent with computer technology, including problem-solving, teamwork, the logic of programming, and use of tool panels that include drawing and downloading sound and images.