Today I spoke with Margaret via Skype. She mentioned that I should access the AERA site and peruse the catalog for the latest research on my topic.

Today I spoke with Dr. Peggy Osbourn. Peggy is the Director of Counseling, Career and Disability Services. She did not offer much in the way of information but she was a networking bonanza. She gave me several contacts. I will be contacting those folks the rest of this week.

Today I started doing some of the leg work for my chapter 3. I had an appointment with the career services office of Lone Star College Cypress. The person I met with did not have any information for me but she was able to connect me with a student who had started to pursue engineering at the University of Houston who had returned back to the community college. She is going to get permission from the student. Hopefully I will hear back from the student soon and I will be able to setup a time to connect with him. She also put me in touch with others in the office who may be able to help. I am meeting with Peggie Osbourn on Tuesday. Also I will be attending their job fair on April 20th to have an opportunity to actually get contact information of actual companies and I may be able to speak with them. Today I also spoke with Wayne Hicks of BDPA in order to setup interviews during the conference in Chicago. The conference will take place in Chicago. I also met with Krystal Gordon. Krystal is a teacher at MacArthur High School in Houston. She gave me many insights and also connected me with another teacher who teaches math as well as her a hiring manager. I am also looking forward to meeting her brother. I have used her notes as a starting point from my chapter 3.

Today I continued to read articles for my chapter 2. I think I read 3 articles and summarized them. I also continued to think about the design of my study as I read other ideas popup. Doing a comparative study between African American IT Pros with White IT Pros would seem good. That is what most studies do around the digital divide. They compare low ses schools with high ses schools. Or they will compare white schools with black schools. Why not compare White men who have become IT Pros with Black Males who have become IT Pros, although that does not actually seem to answer the question of why Black males don't go into the career. If I am looking at what attracts African American males to IT then i could interview them.

survey 100
interview 15

Yesterday I finished reading Technology and Equity in Schooling: Deconstructing the Digital Divide. I still need to write it up. I also read the article on Gaming and closing the digital divide. After talking with Margaret on wednesday I was confused about why I should speak with a counselor in career services. After she explained it I got it. What she meant was that I am trying to find out why African American males don't go into IT. Her thought was that someone who might have ideas about this are career advisors. They talk to people all of the time and might have some insights. This information will help me to develop my own questionnaires. I immediately contacted the career counseling department at Lone Star College. I am meeting with them on Monday. This work is for my chapter 3. I also thought of other folks that I could speak with about this. So, I contacted Joyce Rivera of MacArthur High School and asked her who I could speak with. He suggested a teacher named Krystal Gordon who I have an appointment to meet with on Monday as well. I also sent a note to the department chair of the computer science department at Lone Star College-CyFair. I also sent a note to the head of the computer science department at UT to setup a meeting. I came up with a few other ideas but did not move on them.

I had my meeting with Margaret today. Here are the talking points from the conversation.

Speak to professors to find out why African Americans leave the major
Speak to the student she mentioned
Think about what it is I want to know. (I want to know why is it that African American males are going into the information technology field)
Start working on my chapter 3. Look at examples
Talk to a career placement office in order to decide how I will come up with what or who to ask
comparative case study (whites vs. black)
Talk to students who once majored, then changed. Pay attention to what comes up of any of these conversations.
Fred Erickson studies
Use her modules as a starting point for chapter 3
Speak to some white and some black IT professors

Take all of this in, keep on my path.

Today I did not get very much done, but the quality of what was accomplished was high. Today I summarized my reading of The Young and the Digital by S. Craig Watkins. Initially, I did not think there was much in the book that I could use, although I thought it was a brilliant book. But as I combed back through my highlights to do the summary, I found much that I could use as well as other nuggets that I had not seen the first time. It was a very good read. Now I can move on and add it to the consumed list. I still need to do the other work mentioned in the previous post and then I can get back to reading other studies and articles to summarize. I learned a lot today, so even though I did not get very much done, I did learn. And is that not the point of it all.

This is the response I received from my open records request from Texas A&M University. I also sent a similar request to Trinity University and Texas Southern University in Houston. I received good feedback from Margaret on my chapter 1. I need to clarify if she is suggesting that I interview both university students and African American IT pros.

That is precisely what Jerlando Jackson did. I should check their report for an interview instrument. Today I also finished my reading of The Young and the Digital. It was a great book but it does not offer much for my chapter 2. There is one chapter on digital divide that is very general.

I will write the summary for it on Saturday and use what I can for my chapter 2. However, the afterword offered good information on methods. For example, he mentioned how the students or participants help to design the surveys, interview questions and design of the study. I am thinking of how to come up with interview questions now. There was also mention of a great book on qualitative interviewing which I ordered. Right now it seems my study will involve speaking to university students as well as IT professionals to understand their experiences around computer science in college as well as in corporate america. So, I am thinking about how to come at the interview questions. Also, I want to do a mix methods study and I am not sure about the quantitative aspect. That is a good question to talk with Margaret about on Wednesday. I also contacted Texas Southern University regarding data.

Next Steps:
Write summary of The Young and the Digital
Send new TurnItIn report for chapter 1 to Margaret
Think about quantitative aspect
Look for examples of interview question


Mr. Dupe,

Here is our response to your request for public information, our number
2011014.
In the 5 year period between 2005-2010, there were 149 black males in
Computer Science. In May of 2010, 15 of those graduated with a different
degree and 25 graduated with a degree in CS. 109 either have not
graduated yet or did not graduate at all.

The last few days I have been reading S. Craig Watkins' book The Young and the Digital. After reading about half of it I probably won't be able to include it in my literature review. I learned quite a bit but I don't think it is really related to my topic. I should finish it this week, and by the weekend should be ready to add a few more studies to my list of summaries.

Yesterday I settled on my research design being Grounded Theory. I think it makes more sense than the others and it makes more sense for the question I am seeking to answer. Also, I settled on a design. I will contact several universities and junior colleges. I will find African American males who have switched majors and contact them to interview them to find out what led them to changing their major. I do think I wish to use mixed methods although I am not sure what kind of quantitative data would help me answer the question or be part of the design. Maybe I can survey the African American males who have dropped computer science as a major and quantify the data that way in terms of their attitude or experiences around their computer science experience. I also sent my chapter 1 to Margaret. She needed to read it again since it had been awhile. Yesterday I compiled a list of schools that I have access. Today I continued to think about my design, summarized reports, and contact schools.

1. Huston-Tillotson, Austin Texas
2. Austin Community College
3. Houston Community College
4. The University of Texas
5. Prairie View
6. Rice
7. University of Houston
8. Texas Southern University
9. Trinity University
10. University of Texas at San Antonio
11. Morehouse University
12. Texas A&M Commerce
13. San Antonio College
14. St. Phillips College
15. St. Mary's University

This morning I read an article by Paul Gorski titled Education Equity and the Digital Divide that set me on fire. The article validated many of my thoughts for when I first embarked on the journey to earn my phd and situated me in the fight for digital equity. This is what I am all about. Digital Equity and Math Literacy are the civil rights issue of the 21st century. He also made me consider Multicultural Education as a theoretical framework. I will discuss with Margaret and search for my book on the topic by Banks. I also became aware of this organization The National Telecommunications and Information Administration as a huge resource of information. Here is their link: http://www.ntia.doc.gov/
I also uncovered several sources that I will need to read and review for my chapter 2. But Paul Gorski is definitely a player. I learned much and got a lot out of this article even if it was the only one I was able to do in today's session. It was worth it. In Thursday's session which will be in the afternoon as I am pitching the radio show in the morning, I will go over the new sources and summarize those before reading and summarizing the other article I have that was written by Gorski. I also had a productive Skype session with Margaret this afternoon where she gave me several ideas for design and also validated that I could use Grounded Theory or Comparative Case Study.


1. AAM who go in IT
2. Whites who go into IT
3. African American Males who do not


High school kids who had an apptitude, where are they now


African American males who came in majoring in computer science but now 2 years later are not
in the major

just interviewing of African American males

Today I read several more articles and wrote several more summaries. I also became better organized and did more general reading around my methdology. I am also considering adding The Diffusion of Innovations as a source. I should continue to get more organized around what I have in terms of articles and have most of them documented by the end of next week. I also have a meeting with Margaret at 1pm on Wednesday. I am looking forward to touching base and discussing my progress and getting some direction. My goal is to have done my prelim before my birthday on May 31, 2011.

1. Articles on Box.net
2. Articles in Gmail
3. Articles on desktop
4. Hardcopies

I should get through all of what I have by the end of the week.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-iit-black-recruiting-0227-20110226,0,6356908.story

Read and think about posting

Today I got back on my track. Although I am still not feeling 100% I am so focused and determined to finish in 2012 that I hit the library again this morning. I had a small setback as the library was closed. No matter. I hit the nearest Panera Bread and got to work. I read several studies that led to other studies. Some of them I read online as I do not have a print copy so I will print and mark up later. I did write the summaries. I tapped into another category which I may or may not have already tapped. I will have to check when I am home. But another category for the literature review map is the node of diversity. I read several studies that point out that organizations are made stronger the more diverse they are. This would seem an important idea since our STEM workforce is not very diverse. This is precisely what led me to my research. I was thinking while I was reading one study and it occurred to me that I have NEVER met a Latino male software developer during my entire career.

I have not been feeling well the last couple of days and Kisa's birthday party was on Saturday. Today I am resting and hoping to feel better in the morning. Monday thru Friday of this week I plan to get a lot of work done.

Today I continued to gain an understanding of research design, research method and stratgies of inquiry. At this point I am pretty sure that my research design is Grounded Theory. I also ordered a book on this particular research design. Additionally, I ordered a copy of the dissertation mentioned yesterday so that I can use it as a model. I was considering Multi Case Study as well as one other design but I think Grounded Theory fits best for what I am trying to do. In the next day or so I should be pretty clear on my research method. My research strategy is qualitative. I also continued to read for and sumamrize for my literature review and I will do more of that on Friday.

I can use this study as a model:

Jackson, J. F. L., Charleston, L. J., George, P. L., & Gilbert, J. E. (in press). Factors that Attract African American Males to Computer Science: A Study of Aspiring and Current Professionals. In M. C. Brown & T. E. Dancy (Eds.). African American Males and Education: Examining the Convergence of Race and Identity. Information Age.

Today I read from Business Research Methods by Bryman and Bell. I definitely had a breakthrough in understanding what I am trying to do. The breakthrough is coming to an understanding of how research is done. I read a section on inductive vs. deductive research that brought me such comfort. Before reading this, much of what I had read and learned from others who had finished their research made no sense. I also think I am about to drop the literature that I have been reading, which is mostly focused on digital divide and digital equity, and begin to focus more on literature that is more targeted to my research question of Why Are African American Males Under-Represented in Computing. Today I have made the decision that I will talk to African American Male ITPros. I will interview them the weekend of August 3rd thru August 6th at The National Technology Conference of BDPA in Chicago. I also contacted Dr. Jerlando Jackson of The University of Chicago about visiting with him to discuss my research as his study is the one I intend to replicate. This book has helped with me immensely and to see clearly or more clearly what I need to do. It was time well spent. On Thursday, I will split my time between more reading of the text, and more summaries on digital divide, digital equity, k-12 computer science education. At some point I will finish those and I will start with the Jerlando Jackson dissertation and its references.

Yesterday I did not get to do much in terms of reading and writing. But since my goal is to be persistent and produce an artifact each day, I did read another study and summarize it. I also spent some time thinking about my dissertation. In other words, what is my research design? I am not clear on that. I thought about doing a mixed-study, because I think it would make for a better study but I am not sure what the qualitative piece would be. What came out of my thinking and conversations with Dr. Odom is when I go to work on my paper at the library it does not have to all be focused on one piece. So, from now on my work will be on different parts. I will do some thinking, some reading and writing on chapter 2 and some work on what my design. This morning I have started my reading in Business Research Methods by Alan Bryman and Emma Bell. It has helped. I will read and take notes and spark my thinking here for the first few hours today and then I will switch to reading 3 or 4 studies and summaries. I also have found a full dissertation that I need to read and check out the references.