From: rjaya3@eq.edu.au
Sent: Wednesday, 3 September 2003 1:31 AM
To: STIELER, Colleen
Subject: From Robie.
Colleen, this bounced. I am sending it again via the MIS. By the way, category A is best for the grant. If you have time to read it, the Girls in IT event is spelled out below.

Robie

Ok Team... here is the plan for the student/parent activity spelt out in more detail....

Venue: Kirwan SHS
Date:10 September, 2003
Time 6 pm - 8 pm

Assumptions: 6 guest speakers.
Groups: 6 groups (Hopefully no more than 10 students per group)
Parents and Other Teachers: This group will be moved to SSE1 after the initial instruction session. (See below for parent activity)

The Student Activity
Students will rotate to a series of stations. At each station they will collect information about their client and leave a footprint on a live PowerPoint presentation. This will all happen within the library. I need a small amount of time at the beginning to divide students up into teams and brief them on their task. Parents can be there for the instruction session. Each client (female guest) will be placed at a workstation. The computer will be logged in and ready to go. The PowerPoint will already have a slide set up with these questions:
Why do you think it is so difficult getting girls into IT?
Do you see your job as a "people" job?
What made you select an IT based occupation?
Do you think the recent collapse of the IT Boom has made the study of IT Based subjects less attractive?
Why should we be considering an IT based occupation? (Guest can talk about their occupation or about IT in general)
Are there specific qualities one could bring to an IT based occupation that would be advantageous? (Guest can talk about their occupation or about IT in general)
Do you have any suggestions for schools? Is there something they should be doing differently to attract girls to this industry?
If you had your chance over, what would you choose as your occupation?
Describe a typical day in your working life.
If you had $10000 to invest in IT, which aspect of IT do you feel will be the 'best bet'?
The guest need not interact with the computer. That is up to the students. Students may choose to ask other questions.


Each student group will rotate to three different guests. They will have 12 minutes for each of the first two guests. The final guest will be a 20minute session. This is the guest the girls have to present to the whole group. They can present this person in any way they wish - an interview... drama....a multimedia production. (No more than 5 minutes) They will have the following resources at their disposal:
- the PowerPoint footprint left by previous two groups with answers to the questions above;
- a digital camera (These are $30 cameras we picked up at Crazy Clarks)

They will be working directly in a Web space on our server. That means when it comes time to do the presentations, they can access their work directly from the computer attached to the data projector (We will be there to make sure these things work and are ready to go). The Web space also means students can access the same stuff when they go home via http://extranet.dyndns.org/studentwebs/Girls_In_It. This will open a Web page with a suitable title having a photo of each guest with their name and email details below their photo. The photo will be hyperlinked so that it takes the visitor to the PowerPoint Presentation generated on the night. The opening page will also have a link that takes the visitor to the discussion board activity describes in the parent section below. We will have a number of IT students compiling this page on the fly as the event unfolds. Whilst presentations are underway, a student/teacher will be set up to add Photos, email addresses and a short descri ption of each guest to a brochure, and then send the brochure to print so that every student leaves with this concrete record of the event. Most of this will be set up prior to the night. Maree, is there anything specific you want us to add to the Web page and brochure? eg ... Contact details... What Title...etc? Allan, do you want to add a short speal about IPT? Is there a QSA link that takes students to more info? Committee members, is there anything else we should have on the Web site or the brochure?

In the second hour, the parents come back to the library and students have 6-9 minutes to tell us about their guest.

(Ben and Tim, before I forget, we need to line up Mia Beckett, Melissa, Mhia Ghodossi to do the Web and the brochure on the fly.....Gary, it will be great if you are on hand to help with the digital photos and other technical issues. What about Peter Godwin? He'd be a great support at any point in this activity.... Ben/Tim can you get on to this today????? )


Parent Activity
Parents are guided to Social Science building. (Ben and Mark will lead the way)
A) Agree/Disagree (Maree and/or Noreena, you'd be the ideal facilitators of this)
Parents will be broken into groups of 5 or 6 ( If numbers are small, this will be run as a whole group activity)
Each group will have a cardboard sheet with a continuum - Strongly agree to strongly Disagree....
Questions will be flashed up on an OHT and each group member has to place a marker along the continuum.

Groups get to discuss their decisions.

Sample Questions:
It is difficult getting girls into IT because IT is seen as an occupation that is more to do with 'things' than it is to do with people.
Girls prefer "people" jobs.
The collapse of the IT Boom has made the study of IT Based subjects less attractive.
Subjects like IPT are for people who want to work in the computer industry.
B) Ben and Mark will now take parents through an activity where they log into the Learning Place ( as a guest) and take part in an online forum.
The forum will be setup with the questions above. (Mark, have you got time to get Gary Francis to set this up for us???? Dane can create a button on the Web that will take us straight there. )

When the hour is up (ie 7pm), parents return to the library to hear their students present.

Constructing Meaning
I know it all sounds rather complicated but I know we can pull it off on the night. What makes it exciting is that everyone who comes will be constructing their own meanings. It is almost impossible to be a passive onlooker... We will be showcasing ICTs as tools to engage... to network and to enhance communication...

Maree, when you close the session, you can present each participant with a brochure that includes:
Web address
access to message board discussion from home
a photo of each client with their name, occupation and email address below.
Do you think we should have gifts for each guest speaker?

Robie