Schools have implemented the high-impact practice of first-year experience (FYE) courses to assist students with the transition to college. These courses help connect new students to the school with the goal of improving retention. While students in computing majors face the same challenges as other new college students, they also face some…

Information systems courses must adapt to meet the unprecedented demand for well-trained information security (InfoSec) professionals, but they cannot competently fill this gap without also ensuring that students are fluent and confident in foundational skills, both technical and behavioral. How to teach behavioral topics in InfoSec management is…

With the increasing demand for STEM professionals, together with many of the current STEM professionals approaching or already gone over retiring age, there is a current shortfall which is now an urgent requirement to be addressed by Western countries as so much of activities and life in general is increasingly technology dependent. Actions that…

"Co-design"--including youth development staff along with curriculum designers--is the key to developing an effective program that is both scalable and sustainable. This article describes Build IT, a two-year afterschool and summer curriculum designed to help middle school girls develop fluency in information technology (IT), interest in…

There have been many efforts in recent years to draw more women into STEM fields. While women have made gains, they are still far less likely than men to major in such fields, especially engineering and computer science. Why? This article presents the responses and the thoughts of a group of scholars and experts.

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of adolescent career plans reported in PISA 2006. Its main focus is on the differences in the status and area of employment expected by girls and boys in high school. In almost all countries, girls lead boys in their interest in non-manual, high status professional occupations. This can be seen as a…

Engineering programs suffer a high attrition rate, which causes the nation to graduate much less engineers. A survey of the literature reveals that the high attrition rate is due mainly to the fact that the first year of an engineering program is all fundamental theory and students don't see the connection to their future engineering careers. To…

Economic conditions over the past year have brought most nations in the world to a state of flux. What once appeared to be a thriving economy has now been in one of the steepest recessions in decades. To get our economy back on track, organizations will need to seek IT investments and solutions that increase productivity, improve security and…

The need for colleges to graduate students who understand computer security is growing. The Internet Crime Complaint Center, a partnership of the FBI; the National White Collar Crime Center; and the Bureau of Justice Assistance, in the Department of Justice, reported more than 90,000 crimes in 2007, with reported financial losses of almost…

The Computing Research Association revealed that the percentage of American women in computer science and related fields remains low and stagnant, while other fields, like mathematics, science, and chemistry are seeing growing enrollment of women. Some researchers suggest computer-science programs are stacked women and the way they learn, but…

The PipeLINK program seeks to attract and retain women and girls in computer science careers. Aimed at girls and women from the high school through the Ph.D. levels, the program suggests activities to aid participants at each level, connect students with role models and mentors, and provides an introduction to a wide variety of computer science…

Much has been written about the challenges faced by women in technical and scientific study and professional life. A literature search on women in technology or computing shows, however, that the rate at which articles and research reports are published has declined dramatically in recent years. Does this mean that the challenges have disappeared…

Presents four teaching activities (suitable for high school students) which focus on: use of LOGO paddles; a database of student interests (to use in career-oriented units/projects); probability related to two or more students having the same birthday; and reading of print statements on the monitor. (JN)

Some women have various misconceptions about technology careers. Some of them think that one has to be a geek in order to become a computer scientist. When the Women in Computing Group at Indiana University (WIC@IU) was looking for ideas on how to increase the number of women in computing majors at IU, the authors realized that women were turning…

Addresses the status of engineering education for women. Discusses the changes related to both the image of women and the engineering profession over the past 15 years. Assesses how computer-aided engineering has made engineering attractive to women today. (TW)