debugging tech’s socioeconomic class issues [madison+ ruby conf 2014]

August 22, 2014

Debugging Tech's Class Issues

Carina C. Zona

@cczona

Detecting

• "What was it originally designed to do?"

• "Why didn't the design go as planned?"

• Home in on actual culprit

• Identify its cause

"Debugging: The 9 Indispensable Rules for Finding Even the Most Elusive Software and Hardware Problems" by David J. Agans

Debugging is

Debugging applies to technology. !

Also to tech's socioeconomic issues.

class.Understand the (Structural) System

class.system of ordering a society in which people are divided into sets based on perceived social or economic status

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/class

https://nonprofitquarterly.org/policysocial-context/23301-infographic-the-impact-of-stem-education-on-students.html

class + race

Regardless of child's individual class

!

• Majority-poor schools:82% students are black or Hispanic

• Majority-middle-class schools:76% are white

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-green/high-poverty-schools_b_862869.html

STEM in majority-poor schools

👎Course options 👎Instructors 👎Computer lab 👎Laptop 👎Broadband 👎CS AP

http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED494820.pdf & http://www.theguardian.com/money/us-money-blog/2014/jan/26/internet-luxury-low-income-americans & http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/school-segregation-sharply-increasing-studies-show/2012/09/22/5b34111a-04c6-11e2-91e7-2962c74e7738_blog.html

High schoolers' access to advanced math & science classes81% of Asian-Americans

71% of whites

67% of Hispanics

57% of African-Americans

47% of American Indians & Native Alaskanshttp://ocrdata.ed.gov/Downloads/CRDC-College-and-Career-Readiness-Snapshot.pdf See also: final slide.

Advance Placement

69% of high schools have AP courses

• earn college credits

• waive college prereqs

!

• 30,000 students take AP computer science exam

• no Hispanics in 6 states

• no African Americans in 11 states

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2014/01/girls_african_americans_and_hi.html

diversity.variety; differing

Current enrollment

Accenture "full-time student in at least 2 semesters"

Box "sophomore or junior year of 4-year post-secondary institution"

Xerox "full-time student enrolled in a 4-year institution to receive a BS, MS, or PhD"

diversity scholarships

http://www.boxdiversityscholarship.com/ & http://www.xerox.com/downloads/usa/en/q/qualifications_and_process_steps.pdf & http://careers.accenture.com/us-en/your-future/development/graduate/internships/Pages/scholarship-program-minorities.aspx

community colleges

• 45% of all undergrad students

• 44% of low-income students

• 50% of Hispanic students

• 31% of African American students

• 38% of students whose parents didn't graduate college

http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Community-College-FAQs.html

diversity scholarships.sometimes come with constraints that make underrepresented people least ineligible.

learn-to-code workshops & bootcamps.assume life can be temporarily rearranged to accommodate goals

https://twitter.com/jwoodum/status/227105668295954432://

UX Gentrification

"Old phone" by Ellison Leão https://www.flickr.com/photos/br4k/5155287404

Shiny!

http://www.pewinternet.org/data-trend/mobile/cell-phone-and-smartphone-ownership-demographics/

Own a mobile phone at all

$30,000

$50,000

$75,000

>$75,000 98%

99%

90%

84%

42% of US adults don't own a smartphone

Sept 2013 http://www.pewinternet.org/data-trend/internet-use/connection-type/

70% of adults have broadband at home

disruptive.

disruptive.•causing a disturbance or problem.

•drastically altering or destroying the structure of something.

disruptive technology.replaces old technology. scales by applying more technology.

disruptive business model.strategy isn't focused on making technologies that replace old

technologies.

!

strategy focuses on individual communities. !!!

disruptive startup business.individual physical communities. !convenience service for local people with disposable income. !scaling requires expanding to a new town or city !scaling requiring adding more people on the ground.

Disrupt via Technology Innovation

Disrupt via Local Service Enhancement

Twitter Uber

Facebook Instacart

Uber

benefits local consumers benefits uber undercuts local businesses

price war (future) price war

more options less regulation higher operating costs

(depends on consumer protections) lobbying for new laws unequal competition

Are systemic barriers

Thank you.

Carina C. Zona !

@cczona cczona@gmail.com http://cczona.com

More reading

• http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/rtn/10th-annual/10th-annual-ap-report-subject-supplement-computer-science-a.pdf

• http://diversity.berkeley.edu/the-new-age-segregation

• http://newamerica.net/sites/newamerica.net/files/policydocs/Merit_Aid%20Final.pdf

• http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/expansive-survey-americas-public-schools-reveals-troubling-racial-disparities

Intersectional: income + race

CORRECTION

In "High schoolers' access to advanced math & science classes", the figures I cited in the slides/presentation were incorrect. Corrected figures are:

+1% (81% total) for Asian-Americans

+1% (71% total) for whites

-3% (67% total) for Hispanics

The point stands; moreover, shows that their gap in access to advanced math & science courses is wider than presented.

http://ocrdata.ed.gov/Downloads/CRDC-College-and-Career-Readiness-Snapshot.pdf

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