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Opportunities for
learning
This section examines the kinds of opportunities for women's
learning offered by new learning technologies. Among the many enthusiastic
reports about using new technologies for learning, we sought out those that
demonstrate genuine, sustainable improvements in accessible learning for women.
Many promotional writings about new technologies speculate about future
potential. Instead of taking this approach, we look at actual experiences of
using new learning technologies to support women's learning. These examples
have been provided directly by individuals, and/or from reports prepared by
people directly involved in the programs, and they appear to demonstrate
particular situations in which technology makes a significant contribution to
supporting women's learning.
Direct observation and/or continuing evaluation are some of the
best ways of confirming the effectiveness of a particular program or approach,
or of determining how well a good example will transplant to another situation.
This section includes sample questions that can be used to assess cases
presented as good examples and to consider their potential as models for use in
other contexts.
Tools and strategies
This section complements each of the previous sections, and can
serve as a link between the paper and subsequent discussion and activities. It
presents some ideas for strategies that can be used to examine decision making
about education, public policy and technical developments, at a variety of
levels, as they relate to technology and women's learning. This section's
compendium of basic questions about access, cost, and equality and quality of
learning can be further developed and modified to address specific situations.
A practical Canadian perspective
There are many possible ways of looking at the issue of women
and technology. The research uncovered a spectrum of viewpoints, from those
that considered technology as a tool of the dominant sector of society to those
that regarded technology as one of the best outcomes of humanity's driving
force to change and improve. For us, the approach that seemed most sensible was
to consider technology in context, in its habitat, so to speak, of social,
cultural, economic and political life and decisions. This is the approach
expressed by Ursula Franklin in The Real World of Technology, as she
describes what it means to define "technology in its various aspects within the
context in which they occur":
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...technology is a multi-faceted entity. It includes
activities as well as a body of knowledge, structures as well as the act of
structuring. Our language itself is poorly suited to describe the complexity of
technological interactions. The interconnectedness of many of those processes,
the fact that they are so complexly interrelated, defies our normal
push-me-pull-you, cause and consequence metaphors. How does one speak about
something that is both fish and water, means as well as end? That's why I think
it is better to examine limited settings where one puts technology in context,
because context is what matters most.4
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Many layers of context form the backdrop for this study. The
Canadian context is pervasive and influences our perspective. Its elements
include challenging weather, great distances spanned by innovative
communications, traditions of educational accessibility, respect for diversity,
and the struggle to maintain a distinct identity. This paper brings a Canadian
perspective to the issue of women and learning technologies, although the
research includes women's experience of learning within and outside Canada.
We hope that our exploration of technology in contexts ranging
from ABE classrooms to streambeds to boardrooms, and the questions that we
present, will prompt readers to consider technologies in their context, and to
reflect on how the opportunities presented by new learning technologies can
become a reality for women.
Endnotes for Section One
- Terry Evans and Darryl Nation, Distance
Education Futures, Selected papers from the 11th Biennial Forum of the
Australian and South Pacific External Studies Association, 1993.
- Ursula Franklin, The Real World of
Technology, CBC Massey Lectures, Anansi/CBC, Toronto, 1990, p. 12
- Josée Normand, Education of Women In
Canada, Canadian Social Trends, Winter 1995, p. 20
- Ursula Franklin, The Real World of
Technology, CBC Massey Lectures, Anansi /CBC, Toronto, 1990
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