“Error messages are our friends”—that’s a key concept to engage young female students in computer science, FETC speaker Dora Palfi says. “Failing is a natural and necessary part of coding,” says Palfi, the CEO and co-founder of imagiLabs, a Swedish company that creates computer science curricula.
Encouraging more girls to study coding and other STEM subjects starts with making these subjects easier for teachers to integrate into their lessons, says Palfi, who will present “Engaging Girls in Coding and STEM Education” at the 2023 Future of Education Technology® Conference on Jan. 23-26 in New Orleans.
“Our goal isn’t for everyone to become a programmer,” Palfi says. “But everyone should have the chance to try coding and to confidently believe that coding could be a career path for them.”
Palfi previewed her FETC appearance by answering a few questions from District Administration:
1. Where are schools falling short in helping girls get into coding/computer science/STEM?
Three out of four jobs by 2030 will require advanced digital skills and computer science is the only STEM field that is projected to have more jobs than students. Recognizing the need, several European countries, including Estonia, Finland, Italy and the U.K., are already incorporating coding into classroom instruction.
However, current pedagogical systems are not working: Inequity in STEM courses leads to an eventual loss in tech talent. According to Google, at age 12, girls and boys are equally interested in computer science. But after that, a gap opens up—by 14, nearly half of boys are interested but only 12% of girls.
Given the volume of the need, teachers are ill-equipped for text-based coding There is a clear opportunity to bridge this gap by empowering teachers to help more students develop the skills and confidence to become tech innovators.
In Sweden, coding is often introduced as part of mathematics, which is a subject often stigmatized against girls. Talking with schools that follow Cambridge & IB curriculum, we often hear that while there is no mandatory programming in middle school—coding is more often offered in high school. However, at that point, very few girls decide to choose it.
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Several studies seem to indicate that girls’ interest needs to be sparked early and maintained consistently. Essentially, what is needed is to reach all students at an early age (ideally before 12) with coding and provide teachers with beginner-friendly resources and tools so they can bring engaging real coding lessons to the classroom.
2. How do you get girls engaged in coding and computer science?
Our work with imagiLabs started during my master’s degree when I conducted research in order to level the playing field for girls in technology. I was studying human-computer interaction at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, where we focused a lot on working together with our end users in a participatory design research process. This methodology is very popular in Scandinavia; it’s also how IKEA designs its furniture together with its customers.
Through this research, we created tools to make learning to code fun and inclusive both at home and in the classroom. We have chosen to focus on a real (script-)based programming language Python and build empowering tools for teachers to teach the language and creatively engage their students.
Our uniquely designed curriculum can turn every teacher into a computer science teacher for teaching coding in schools and solving the gaps in the system. Our engaging tools combine art with code and can often be used for after-school coding to help grow more curious and imaginative kids. Last but not least, our product is designed to be gender inclusive.
3. What skills do you focus on to get girls hooked on computer science?
Our goal isn’t for everyone to become a programmer. But everyone should have the chance to try coding and confidently believe that coding could be a career path for them.
With the imagi coding app and the imagiCharm we introduce coding in Python (a “real”, script-based coding language that is the fastest-growing coding language in the world) through art and self-expression. In the process, learners get to be creative and come up with designs that speak to their interests.
In addition, we also teach our students about how error messages are our friends and that failing is a natural and necessary part of coding. Finally, both our product and curriculum cater to collaboration and building a community around the interest in coding.
4. What most excites you about these topics?
Let’s start with a simple exercise in logic:
- If: technology = future
- And: women = technology
- Then: women = future
We believe technology is our most powerful tool to shape the future, but today women make up less than 20% of the tech workforce in the EU. In the US, 37% of computer scientists were women in 1995. Today? 24% Hence, today we do not have an equal chance to contribute to shaping our future.
Up until the age of 11, girls and boys today have a similar interest in technology as boys. But during our teenage years, the majority of girls drop this interest. In Sweden, for example, 86% of girls at age 11 are interested in technology but at age 16 this drops down to only 36%. We started imagi to break this trend and to create a solution that would equip and empower all children, regardless of their gender to shape the future with technology.
What excites me is a future where no child is left behind to gather the essential skills for the digital age simply due to a lack of access to tools and teachers who can help them to code.
5. What excites you about attending FETC 2023?
Meeting educators from across the US and learning from their classroom needs and experiences! This is going to be our first time attending FETC and we already work with educators across the US. Since we started imagi during the pandemic, I haven’t yet had the chance to connect with educators from the US in person.
I also took a look at the agenda and I found several really interesting talks. For example Dr. Anne-Marie Imafidon’s talk on “The Tech Landscape And Cultivating Leaders Of The Future.” We at imagi actually have worked with Stemettes, the organization Dr. Anne-Marie Imafidon founded, but I haven’t had the chance yet to listen to any of her talks before.
