This class was wonderful. I learned a lot of new ways to use the resources I have to make my discussion posts better and my blog more savvy. I also learned a lot about the impact that women have on the world of technology and how that impact is beginning to grow and flourish. The projects were fun and I enjoyed them. I hope that I have as much fun and learn as much in all of my other classes as I did in this one.
The Gender lens project was hard for me. I think that I picked a difficult product. Shampoo is not the easiest thing to find information on. I think that marketing can be improved as well as the ability to recycle the bottle. No only that but I think that there needs to be a more clearly defined expectation on how the bottle is marked for expiration.
In looking ahead at the Financial Analysis project my one dream is to just be debt free. I would like to have no mortgage payment, no student loan payments, none of that. That is my biggest financial dream.
I had a good time researching this project. One of the wall that I ran in to was that the product that I chose is so widely used and marketed that it took a lot of digging to get to the point that I was trying to find. I spoke to a couple of librarians and got some good information. I wasn’t able to make face to face contact with the librarian at Chemeketa though and I was hoping too. Saving my resources was pretty easy. I used the same tool as I did with the other project. I think that this project is going to be a little bit easier because I know what is expected since we have already done the cultural research project. I am excited to keep going on this project.
I did not use Lego’s much as a child. I was not much of a girly girl but I was blessed with a twin sister who was so we mainly got barbies and dollies. However now that I have children of my own, 3 of which are very into Lego’s, I have gotten a lot of practice playing with Lego’s. I absolutely love the expressive ability they have for anyone that is useing them. My family and I went to Lego Land this summer and it was really amazing. There is only one piece of advice that I would give anyone about Lego’s….don’t step on one in your bare feet, it is brutal!
I think that I was pretty successful when uploading my images. I was able to figure it out before we were told to upload images. After we began this week I realized there was a certain way to cite them so I went back and did that. I hope that I did them correctly. I think that I did. I like adding images to projects like this, I think that it really makes them pop and be more relevant to the subject.
This week was difficult for me. I struggled a little bit with figuring out the format and how to get it to work. In the end I think that the result was a success and now I look forward to being able to do this again a bit easier because now I have one under my belt. I worked to follow the instructions to the best of my ability. I also now look forward to input on how I can improve and move forward from here.
I did have a bit of a challenge finding a lot of information on Tan Le because she is relevant right now. I was very moved by her Ted talks and I am hoping that my paper did her justice.
When contacting librarians during this week I was surprised at the different formats that libraries use to store their data. There are so many things that you can find online with just Google, but there are also a ton of tools that you may not even know exist if you don’t speak with a librarian. You can learn a lot about how to search data per that specific library, where they may keep the actual paper document that may help you in your research project, how to use their database, and so much more.
The librarians I spoke with were very pleasant and helpful. They also made suggestions about how I could find a lot of really good information just in online resources. I was very glad for their input. There wasn’t really anything that I found not helpful about speaking with the librarians. I think that the tool that I found the most helpful was the OSU library database. It is easy to use and provides a lot of really good information. I have enjoyed using this tool in all of my classes. I use a lot of online tools because all of my classes are online.
The woman that I have chosen to research for my project is Tan Le. She is originally from Vietnam but migrated to Australia as a refugee in the early 1980’s. Tan Le started her impact on the technological society when she was a mere 16 years old. She won many awards and recognition for her work in telecommunications.
She is currently living in Australia and is the co founder of a company called Emotiv. They specialize in electroencephalography headsets which aid in mental and neurological conditions. Her culture differs from mine in many ways including her country of origin and residence.
The possibility of interviewing Tan Le is something that is tangible and could happen with persistence and a platform where travel was not a concern.
The resources I used to learn about Tan Le were:
I was able to set up the news feed rather easily. I added the news option to my google account. When that popped up there was a side bar on the right that listed the news topics that were being shown. I customized that the reflect women and technology. I then scrolled down to the bottom of the page and selected the CSS link. When that popped up I copied the URL in the bar at the top of the screen.
I then opened up my blog page and selected appearance, then widgets. I dragged the CSS widget up into the list of items I want to be shown on my blog site. Once that is entered there I clicked add new and copied the URL there. I named it to reflect the news that would appear in the feed.
I think that this tool will be great to help me find current information pertaining to what I will be blogging about. It helps a lot that you can customize it and will work in tandem with my blog posts. I learned that I can learn more about gender issues by utilizing this source.
As I was going through this week and fiddling with all of tools and different ways to customize my blog I was amazed at how much freedom that it is going to give me to be able to put my personality into my blog along with the required text.
I can really go through and make the blog my own. I was slightly confused by some of the instructions but I was able to figure it out. I am getting more and more excited about working with this blog and learning new technology along the way. This may be something that I continue to do even after this class is over.
I think that I was able to accomplish what was being asked of this week. Picking a theme was the hardest part for me because there were so many really great options.
Gender Technology News