Empowering Girls in School, Work With Technology (VIDEO)
The technology world has long been labeled a boy’s club despite the growing number of women trying to break the digital ceiling. But the divide is starting at a young age as girls continued to trail boys in educational and career pursuits related to computers and technology. Susan Crown, chairman of the Susan Crown Exchange, hopes to change that by empowering girls in education through the use of technology. Watch:
WATCH: Mobile Technology – New Ways to Engage, Educate Kids
“Twenty-first century skills are very different than nineteenth and eighteenth and certainly twentieth-century skills,” Crown says. ”Our workforce is going to need to be able to process and curate information and handle it and create in a very different way.” “We’re a little bit out of step – our technology and our educational resources are actually quite out of step.”
Susan Crown
But the technologies available are “incredibly powerful tools” to bring the best quality education to the largest number of kids in the U.S., Crown explains. Increasing access to that technology and teaching them how to use digital media products will not only encourage innovation and enhance education for girls – and boys, for that matter – but will also enhance failing schools and better learning.
WATCH: Education: U.S. Still ‘Falling Prey’ to Sub-Par System
“We’re really at an inflection point right now,” Crown says. “A portion of sort of the traditional education field is increasing technology … and a portion is kind of rejecting it vociferously because … it’s not what they’ve been doing. But outside of school there are a lot of forces teaching kids – whether it’s Facebook or Instagram or World of Warcraft, kids are learning and just picking up massive skills in the technology field.”
genConnect was credentialed press at the 2012 Aspen Ideas Festival in Aspen, Colo., where we interviewed the premier speakers and attendees at the conference. For more of our video interviews and articles from the Ideas Festival, click here.
Follow us on:
- Twitter @genConnect, or @aifestival #AspenIdeas
- Google +
- genConnect.com
Category: 2012 Aspen Ideas Festival, Lifestyle, Technology, Videos, Views on the News
