This article reminded me of an NPR piece I saw a few days ago about "When Women Stopped Coding"[1]. The theory goes that without having prior knowledge of working with computers, people cannot compete in many introductory computer science classes. Computers had been marketed like toys, to one gender: boys. Because of this, it was rare for women to have prior computer experience, and so struggled and dropped out of CS.
It made me reconsider what "technical privilege" really means and why I think it's a valid thing. Exposure to computers and technology outside of the classroom is definitely becoming more common, but not the kind of hobbyist interest that this article talks about.
It made me reconsider what "technical privilege" really means and why I think it's a valid thing. Exposure to computers and technology outside of the classroom is definitely becoming more common, but not the kind of hobbyist interest that this article talks about.
[1] http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/10/21/357629765/when-wom...