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 [email protected] 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
Slide