Women in STEM

Hey everyone! This week we talked about a subject that I am very passionate about: female representation in STEM fields. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, and these fields are usually dominated by males. We also watched a video called CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap. Check out the trailer to this awesome documentary:

Here is a small infographic that illustrates those statistics:

We had a guest speaker come to our class and talk to us about the large under-representation of women in computer science as compared to information technology. It turns out that a few more women graduate from IT than from CS. We were exploring possible reasons as to why that might be, but no one really knows for sure. In light of this topic, I would like to share my own experiences with being a female and a minority in the STEM field. I started out my college career as engineering major but quickly realized it wasn't for me and switched to math. I liked math just fine, but often found myself in classrooms filled with all men, and maybe a handful of women, and hardly any hispanics (my ethnicity). I often felt out of place, and almost never felt comfortable enough to create study groups with my peers. After a while, I decided to switch to Computer Science, and it was the same old song and dance. I was one of a few women in all my classes, and again one of a few hispanics. In fact, in one of my classes of about 40 people, I was the only hispanic woman. This can often be discouraging because you don't have other people to relate to. I even had this situation in one of my CS labs where I was paired with a white male, and he never took my suggestions seriously. I would try and help with our code, and he would brush me off and ask his male friends for advice instead. I knew what I was doing, but he never believed I was capable of coding at his level. After all that, I decided to finally settle in Information Technology, and I am the happiest I have ever been with my major. I feel like I am being taken seriously, and I am still in the STEM field. I hope that one day, this feeling will change, but for now it is our reality. Here is an encouraging photo for STEM women everywhere:

Be your own Rosie and pursue your dreams even if it means going against the odds. Have a great day everyone!

Check Out These Blogs!

This week had been crazy for us U of A students because of

For that reason, we have not really discussed any new material in our ESOC 211 class. So for this week's post, I will be sharing some of my classmates' blogs!

First up is Katie McCready's blog, a junior ISTA major at the UofA. In particular, I wanted to share her third post where she talks about the different types of groups that exist: primary, secondary, planned, emergent, self-organizing, concocted, founded, circumstantial, intimacy, and task groups, as well as weak associations. She provides a really great example for each type of group by using all the different groups that exist in the popular TV show Breaking Bad. So check out her post if you want to learn more about groups!

Next I decided to look at Ryan Sutton's blog; Ryan is a sophomore E-Society major. I especially enjoyed his fourth post about the ways that the internet has empowered different groups around the world. These are the examples he talked about:

Zapatistas used the internet as a "white flag" against the Mexican Government,
calling the public's attention to the issues they were facing.

People contemplating suicide can look to Reddit for help.

Gamers can join online gaming communities to discuss new games and tactics.

Check out Ryan's blog to learn more about our class!

Finally, I looked at Amanda Delgado's blog, a freshman studying Communications and E-Society, specifically her post on February 28. She talked about the website that she and her group members created on the "Free the Nipple" movement. They presented their website in class, and I found the movement very interesting because it really shows the continuing fight for women's equality. To learn more about this movement, check out their awesome website by clicking on the photo:

I hope you all enjoy these blogs as much as I did. I won't be posting next week because it's Spring Break, so have a great next week everyone!

Website Mania

These past couple of weeks have been very busy, filled with a number of fun projects that I have finally completed! The first was a website on an important, recent social movement: The Women's March on Washington! This event, which took place January 21, 2017, was the biggest social march in the history of the United States. If you would like to learn more about this event, check out my team's website by clicking on the image below:

This week I also worked on a blog about virtual reality. If anyone is interested in that topic, take a look at that blog as well:

Anyway, this week in class we talked about the Umbrella Movement of 2014, which began as a protest for fair elections in Hong Kong. The umbrellas were significant because they were often used as protection from tear gas used by law enforcement during their protests. The movement was organized through an online forum called HKGolden, and volunteers, with the help of donations, were able to organize medical care, clean up, and other basic necessities. To learn more about the Umbrella Movement, watch the video below:

I also wanted to comment that Zootopia, the movie I mentioned earlier in my blog, won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film of 2016! 

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the content in this week's post. Have a great rest of the week!

#NYPD? More like #FAIL

Last week in class we had a discussion about the uproar regarding the trend on Twitter, #myNYPD that was popular 2014. The hashtag was created by the New York Police Department in order to show that police had a kind side to them, and were not just about police brutality:

However, that idea backfired and it led to people using the hashtag to display police brutality. To learn more about the incident, watch these two videos by MSNBC and WSJ.

I collaborated with a few of my peers and we discussed the factors that contributed to their failed collaboration, and this is what we came up with:

"The NYPD was trying to release positive content on their Twitter page with the hashtag "#myNYPD". The purpose of this was to engage with the community and show people their positive side, but the citizens answered with negative photos that displayed police brutality instead. The NYPD did not achieve their goal of uniting the community with the police, which brought new issues to light and actually created a bigger divide between the two groups. According to MSNBC news correspondence, one of the main reasons for this failed collaboration is that the NYPD did not go through the "listening/research stage". The NYPD did not look at the community they were addressing or at the perception of the community toward them. It seems as though the NYPD was naïve about the negative stigma toward them, and they were not realistic about the kinds of responses they would get from this hashtag. The marketing strategist of the NYPD underestimated how powerful people's voices are on social media; they were under the false belief that since they are a government entity, their voices would be louder than the rest. They did not realize that their original intent would be drowned out by everyone else's responses."

Something that we did not touch on is that I believe they tried to do this in a time where there still strife with law-enforcement. It was too close to all the incidents of police brutality, so they quickly tried to recover by doing something they thought would help. I think the idea would have worked better if it were centered around a time when the police really helped people, such as during 9/11 or the Boston Marathon bombing, rather than as a distraction for the wrong they were doing. It was mostly a matter of bad timing, and what could have been a good idea turn into the backfire of the century.

On that note, I do just want to say that not all police officers are bad people. The ugly acts are always the ones that make it into the news, but the simple acts of kindness rarely do. I have had my share of good experiences with law enforcement, and after watching the recent movie Patriot's Day, I gained a new appreciation for law-enforcement. Try taking the time to thank an officer every once in a while. Some of them really do care for our well-being:

The Culture of Reddit vs Pinterest

Hey everyone! I'm sorry about the late post this week, but I have been very ill since Monday. :(

Last week in class, we talked about Reddit and Suicide Intervention, and how Reddit has provided a platform for people who are looking for help working through suicidal thoughts. I remember in class, one of my peers asked what Reddit was, and I explained to her that Reddit is like Pinterest but for guys. We then discussed how Reddit is usually preferred by males because there tends to be a fair amount of misogyny on this site. I just thought that was interesting because when I described Reddit to my classmate, I was basing it off of my own personal experiences with my male friends being Reddit users and with me being a Pinterest user; I had no idea that there was actually an explanation to this phenomena. For that reason, I would like to pick apart the design differences between the two websites that might explain why males and females prefer one over the other.

Log-In Page:

Pinterest

Reddit

Just by looking at the log-in page, right away we can see that Pinterest is much more colorful and lively. Its main focus is an artistic photo, while Reddit is simply provides a place to log-in/sign-up. Pinterest looks like a magazine, which might attract more women to it. It also has a "cuter" logo, with a cursive P, while Reddit has a robot logo which could be viewed as more masculine.

User Profile:

Pinterest

Reddit

Here we can see the user profile page, and again we can see huge differences between the two. The Pinterest page is more organized and has boards in which to save different categories of posts, which can be controlled by the user. It also has cute shapes like squares with rounded edges and a circle for the profile picture. With Reddit, there is no profile picture or any information about the user, but we can see any posts that the user has made and any Sub-Reddits they have saved. Again, I feel like the Pinterest page looks much more colorful and feminine, while the Reddit page is more straightforward and is not as customizable.

Homepage/The Fun Part:

Pinterest 

Reddit

This is where all user posts get displayed. With Pinterest, they are organized into columns and the comments on each post can be changed. On Reddit, posts are viewed as picture icons with text next to each one describing what is in that post. I personally believe that Pinterest is more visually appealing, which might attract more female users.

Culture:

Pinterest

Reddit

Here is where the gender divide between the two websites can be really seen. If you click on the explore option on Pinterest, you get different categories to choose from. Those categories range from food, DIY (do-it-yourself), and beauty to quotes, travel, and men's style. The content on Pinterest definitely seems to be more geared towards women, which explains why they may find themselves on that page. Reddit, on the other hand, has more general content. However, in class we talked about how Reddit users can often post misogynistic comments, which is what turns women away from the site.

All in all, I think it is clear why certain genders prefer one website over the other. I am a die-hard Pinterest user, but I can appreciate the content that Reddit has to offer as well. Anyway, I hope everyone has a good rest of the week!

The Hidden Figures in Successful Groups

This week, I really wanted to focus on the article we read, "The Secret to Smart Groups: It's Women". The article was about some scientists from MIT who did a study on what makes a group smart, and believed that the "c factor" (or collective intelligence) was what makes a group successful. However, they found that the true identifier of a cohesive team is something they called "average social sensitivity". Basically what this means is that people who can read non-verbal cues tend to make better team members, and the scientists found that women are actually much better at this than men.

This article made me think about the recent movie that came out called Hidden Figures. Here is the trailer, in case you don't remember what it's about:

This film showed a number of teams that were successful because of the women that were involved with them. In particular, there was a scene where one of the women taught the rest of her team how to code because it was the upcoming advancement. Once the new computers were installed in NASA, her team was the only one who knew how to program those computers. I just really enjoyed this article because it talked about a special skill that women have that gives them the edge when it comes to being an effective team member. Hooray for women!

Pixar and Zootopia: Teamwork and Group Development

Last week we talked about Colvin's "What Really Makes a Team Work". I particularly enjoyed the example about Steve Job and how he designed the Pixar headquarters around a central atrium in order to optimize teamwork. The design forced employees to always pass each other when heading to different offices, and it encouraged interaction outside of the office. A large part of what makes a team work is how effectively that team communicates both in and out of the office. Here is an image of what the Pixar headquarters look like:

Click here for an additional article that expands more on how the central atrium encourages unplanned collaboration. My favorite story of unplanned collaboration is when the Andrew Stanton, John Lasseter, Pete Docter and joe Ranft met up at Hidden City Cafe and came up with the ideas that later became A Bug's Life, Monster's Inc., Finding Nemo and Wall-E. If they had not met, then we wouldn't have the movies we all know and love today!

Hidden City Café

We also talked about Tuckman's "5 Stages of Group Development" and looked at the Prezi that used Remember the Titans to illustrate those stages. I liked this project so much, that I decided to do my own illustration of the 5 stages of Group Development using one of my favorite movies, Zootopia (Warning: Spoilers ahead!).

Zootopia is about a bunny named Judy who dreams of becoming a cop in the big city named Zootopia, and she teams up with a fox named Nick in order to solve a case. Animals in the movie are separated between predators and prey, which is the underlying theme of the movie. Nick is a predator, and Judy is prey.

**Note: If video doesn't play, click on link that says "Watch this video on youtube".

Step 1: Forming

Forming is the stage where team members first come together to accomplish a still undetermined goal. The first instance of Judy and Nick working as a team is when she recruits his help for solving a missing mammals case. Judy blackmails Nick into helping her, and so he begrudgingly agrees to help her find clues for the case.

Step 2: Storming

This is usually the stage where conflict occurs because roles are still being established. Nick makes a couple of attempts to sabotage Judy's investigation because he does not want to be working as a cop. He does a number of things such as taking her to a Naturalist club and to the DMV, which takes up a lot of time (Judy must solve the case in 48 hours).

Step 3: Norming

This stage is when the roles are established and a common goal is achieved; team members start to contribute to meet that end game. The first instance of Nick starting to help Judy out with her investigation is after she is almost fired from the ZPD. He saves her job and then comes up with an idea that gets them closer to solving the case.

Step 4: Performing

The performing stage involves the team working effectively. All group members want to achieve their goal, they take care of each other and they solve disagreements in a positive way. Judy and Nick work as an effective team when they find the missing mammals, and also when they solve the bigger mystery close to the end.

Step 5: Adjourning

The adjourning stage involves the team members accomplishing their goals and moving on to other tasks. This stage is important for recognizing success and leaving the door open for future collaboration. The movie ends with Nick officially joining the ZPD and becoming Judy's work partner.

Well, that concludes my blog for this week, I hope you all enjoyed!