News From ACM-W Chapters
Summer Report from ACM-W Uganda
This summer was a great period for ACM-W, Uganda Chapter, as we saw more Ugandan women join the chapter and more villages open up their doors to the chapter for activities in computer lessons. The summer also saw more streamlining of activities and prioritizing of objectives, both for rural and city outreaches, thereby making progress on our quest to meet the needs of women at different levels in Uganda.
During the summer months, ACM-W was able to work out a computer literacy program that addresses the needs of women living in impoverished urban areas, such as certain slums and very low income communities, thanks in part to Stawa University’s willingness to avail facilities and equipment for this vital mission establishing ACM-W Technology Center. As such, through this center, ACM-W is now addressing the need of women in urban areas who are computer illiterate. Slum dwelling women stand a great, daily chance of using computer skills to advance their livelihoods, for most of these are engaged in small business venture and or low level employments where computer skills come in handy, thereby securing jobs and or making their businesses more competitive, to say little of making themselves more desirable to, or sought after by, employers.
ACM-W Uganda Chapter views the proliferation of smart phones, the pocket computer, as a great call to leverage urban women’s skills so that they can take advantage of the social media in advancing their businesses and other needful activities in order to better their livelihood. In light of this reality, ACM-W is planning a series of workshops and short courses designed to highlight to the women the potential benefits of just not the computer, but also of the smart phone in light of the social media. In sum, ACM-W in Uganda is taking women from merely taking photos of themselves and posting them on Facebook to taking photos of their businesses and posting them on the internet for a worldwide clientele.
In one of the weekly reports filed with the ACM-W office this summer, Doris Nalubega, a student at Stawa University and a teacher in a local primary schools, in discussing a weekly rural outreach, said, “We carried on from the previous home work assignment, where the students were supposed to do the letters of the alphabet both in upper case and lower case. The assignment was marked and the feedback was provided.” In her lesson to the rural women, Doris said “No one can write what they can’t read and no one can read what they can’t write.” During the lesson she explained that “The alphabet is made up consonants and vowels, and that the importance of learning the alphabets is to be able to read.” During the lesson she had taught each letter’s name, its sound, and showed the printed form.
In a different weekly report filed with the ACM-W office, in regards to teaching computer skills to rural women, Harriet Onyinge, another student at Stawa University and ACM-W member, taught a computer package for the day. The report goes on to state:
“She skillfully guided the women through the significant steps when using a computer. She taught the students how to start a computer, and each student had a try at it. She showed them how to move the cursor, to open an application, to begin typing, how to minimize and to maximize, to save, and how to close or shut down the computer.”
Students at Stawa University do a weekly fundraising in order to purchase some household items which they freely donate to these often impoverished, rural women during each ACM-W outing to the villages. Among the items they donate, one choice item is soap. In one of the reports filed to ACM-W office during the past two months, students stated, “At the end of the lesson, each participant took home a piece of soap. What a nice way to crown the day!”
Project Rise Up 4 CS
ACM-W student chapters can implement the Rise Up program, designed to help students pass the Advanced Placement CS exam.
ACM-W’s friend, Barb Ericson at Georgia Tech, started “Project Rise Up 4 CS” 5 years ago to help more African-American students pass the Advanced Placement (AP) Computer Science (CS) A exam in Georgia. The number of African-Americans passing the exam in Georgia has been increasing since “Project Rise Up 4 CS” started. Two years ago she started “Sisters Rise Up 4 CS” to help more women pass the AP CS A exam. The number of women passing the exam in Georgia has been increasing as well. We don’t know how many participants would have passed anyway, but at least some of the participants have said that they wouldn’t have passed the exam without Rise UP.
Sisters Rise Up 4 CS” offers help sessions led by undergraduate students. There are two types of help sessions: twice-a-week one-hour Google hangouts on air and once-a-month, three-hour in-person sessions at a local college or university. The undergraduate students serve as near-peer role models to help increase the participants’ sense of belonging in computing. The hangouts are intended to encourage practice and address misconceptions. The in-person help sessions allow students to feel that they belong at their local college or university in computer science.
Barb wants to expand “Sisters Rise Up 4 CS” to more colleges and universities. The project provides a perfect ACM-W Chapters outreach project. Barb created a free e-book to help both the undergraduate students lead the webinars as well as the high school students prepare for the Java-based exam. Barb also created an ebook to help others start “Sisters Rise Up 4 CS“.
If your ACM-W Chapter decides to implement either Rise Up program, please let us know and also write to Barb at ericson@cc.gatech.edu.