I should put it out there that I am a Gender and Sexuality studies student, so every once in a while my critique of gender in the tech world will most likely creep into this blog. Which brings me to the post at hand...
A recent article on OLPC News (a very well-written blog) discusses the Brazilian OLPC Game Jam. This is this excellent proof that children and youth who use the laptop are using it to learn how to code their own programs. That alone makes me happy. What makes me happier is the picture that accompanies the article: two young girls, hunched over a laptop, presumably coding away. That's right, girls coding. Who woulda thunk it? Of course, if you go to the original blog post about the event (written in Portuguese), most of the participants were teenage men. But there were girls there!
I only hope that more young girls will utilize the XO laptop to break into the male-dominated world that is computer technology. Code on, sisters!
P.S. Also of note is that the game the children voted the best was a two-player (community) game, while the older participants focused on complexity of code when choosing their favorite. Already there is a disconnect between the values of the younger users and the older users.
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