I can not believe I have not worked on my paper since the 11th. Wow. That is not good. But I am back. I worked for a couple of hours today and decided I need to stop because I need access to my source materials. So, I am going how now to get those. My digital divide book and my Warshauer book and look up some citations. However I did get to page 20 of 75. My goal for Tuesday is to at least get halfway thorough so I am shooting for page 40. It took me awhile to get going today but I am back on track now. Once I have rewritten I will print and read and edit and decide if I wish to add anything to it in terms of other sources or if I am happy with it. I am back on Track. Considering I am back in the game I should be sitting pretty by Thursday.

The last few sessions I finished going through my sources. I now have a 75 page document that is my chapter 2. Yesterday I rearranged my outline. Today I began the process of rewriting the document in terms of order, flow, format, citations. Today I made it through the first 10 pages. I intend to stay on this track for the rest of the week starting with Thursday. I should be able to work on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday and I should be sitting pretty by Sunday.


http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2012/apr/09/missouri-st-leader-has-eye-on-diversity/

Include this in chapter 2.
http://news.fiu.edu/2012/03/national-study-looks-for-insights-why-do-minorities-drop-out-of-doctoral-programs/38043

this too:

http://www.tnj.com/news/business/google-looks-boost-minorities-science-technology


http://www.tnj.com/news/business/google-looks-boost-minorities-science-technology

Today is a great day. I have finally made it through all of my sources and they are now in my chapter 2. Some have been integrated very nicely into my outline and others have not. But at least that is complete. I have other sources that I have learned of since starting my chapter 2 but I am not going to worry about integrating those at this point. There are at least 2 that I would really like to include. What I am going to do is build a list of these and continue to analyze them and decide if they even have a place. I now have 75 pages of chapter2. What I need to do now is:

1) Finalize my outline based on the information
2) Rewrite the pieces and place them in the right part of the outline
3) Proof read for flow, citations, and the like.

So, how very exciting this is. My next session I will spend time reviewing and improving the outline. Once this is done I will do the rewriting. When I feel good about that, I will submit. My goal is Thursday. I have Wednesday and Thursday to strive for this goal and I intend to. Once I have done this I will print the paper and re-read a final time before submitting to Margaret.

I spent a few hours today working on finishing my sources from my original doc. I have 25 pages to go. My goal is to complete that in my next session which is tomorrow. I have also have 2 of my 3 members for my committee confirmed. I need to add one more. My hope is that I can get Linda Polin or Paul Sparks. Saturday is should finish the sources. Once I do, I will start the rest of my plan which has been written here several times. I intend to submit the next version to Margaret on Sunday. That gives me 2 full days to work.

Today I continued to integrate my sources. I made it to the halfway point. I am on page 40 of 80 pages of content. I think Wednesday will go much faster as much of the remaining content has already been incorporated. I have decided the I will submit based on this content and come back and add evidence from Opting Out and The Digital Divide after hearing Margaret's comments about what I submit. My main goal now is to get done with the sources. I also spent some time thinking about the last part of the outline. I made some progress there. That will have to take place in the last section as well. So, here are next steps:

Finish sources
Fix Outline
Rewrite
Wordsmith

Goal is to finish this by Thursday's meeting and have it in her inbox before our 6pm meeting. I also need to update my page on the site.

Today I did nothing but continue to integrate my sources into my chapter 2. My goal was to complete my sources doc as I have a few more I would like to add but I did not get that done. I complete about a third of that work. On Tuesday, I will work as hard as I can to integrate the other two-thirds. I simply got tired of looking at it. I have come across one book that I simply must include. A second book looks interesting, but I am not sure I will bother including it. I have a few new web articles that I may include but I have not had time to read them as of yet. Perhaps I will do some reading before my next session. I will still have to go back and wordsmith as I am just adding the sources. So, there will be some cleanup. But I can't focus on that until I am done integrating the sources. I may finish that on Tuesday as some of the sources have already been integrated. I started from the top of my source list, but at some point I will have bumped into sources that have already been included. Then there are a few articles that need to be included.

Today I continued to work on my chapter 2. I incorporated 2 new sources. I need to continue to integrate what is remaining. Once I have done that I will edit it and finalize my flow and adjust the outline to fit what I have. I should get this done this week and get it to Margaret. I have also contacted Farzin about the Delphi method and I am starting to build my list of AA computer science students as I have given up on the idea of studying the Microsoft program. I also continued to build my list of AA CIO's. I met with Margaret on Thursday in a Google+ hangout this week as well.

interview CIO's and students
talk to higher education teachers
track students based on high school computer science teachers
survey students in bdpa
study bdpa's hscc

do they have to be black

This weekend I was only able to work a few hours on Sunday due to family obligations. I was able to work on Saturday but I simply did not get much done. I did make progress today and spent most of my time writing in my digital equity section. I also reorganized my outline section and I have given much thought to my research design. I need to make a decision very soon on that. I will talk to Margaret about that on Thursday. I can do a mix. I can do CIO'S. I can do students. I can do a case study of the MSFT program or I can do a Delphi. Those are the two that I am thinking of. I finally made contact with Microsoft and I am waiting to hear back from them. I need to read more about Delphi so I can determine what makes the most sense for the question I am attempting to answer. I also reached out to Farzin regarding Delphi on Facebook but I have not heard back.

include in chapter 2:

http://www.insidevandy.com/opinion/article_06628392-4559-11e1-9790-001a4bcf6878.html

Today I started off the day reflecting on my conversation with Margaret regarding my research design. I am seriously considering doing a Delphi study. The only problem is that I need to have someone on my committee familiar with the method. I have also reached out to Microsoft one last time. The two other folks I would love to have on my committee are Linda Polin who I had asked when I completed my comps and Margaret likes working with her and someone who I have just met who shares my research interests, LaVelle Hendricks of Texas A&M University-Commerce. I have reached out to him. I then spent a few hours working on my literature review from where I left off. While I was writing I came across this question raised from the New Image of Computing Initiative:


Why isn’t a high school interest in computer science translating into enrollment in college computer science classes?” (p. 17).

I could find students who were interesting in computer science in high school and interview them as to why they did not persist? This is something I could get from the Microsoft attendees. They were exposed, and they attended the programs so they were interested, but they are not in college right now or they are in college in another major. What happened? I could form an interview or a survey around that?

I was able to get through all 26 pages. There are still a few citations I need to find but for the most part they are all done. Now I need to go back through my sources and flesh out my outline. There are a couple sections that are empty. I may even need to reorder and modify my outline particularly that last part. But that is good. I also reached out to Richard Tapia again and the folks at New Image of Computing. It may be easier for me to interview students even though that requires IRB.

Today I spent time continue to develop my chapter 2. I rewrote sections that needed to be rewritten based on my new outline. I got to about page 18 of 29. I need to continue arranging and organizing and rewriting the pieces that need to be written. I am looking forward to getting all of my content in the chapter and in the right places in the outline and in the right order. I did not get as far as I would have liked but I did make significant progress. I have much more work to do. But I am progressing. I won't send the new revision to Margaret until I have a complete offering. I also need to respond to Margaret regarding my committee.

Focus for next section:

Complete Historical Overview

Today we:

Came up with the working title for my paper:

Access Denied: The Underrepresentation of African American Males in Information Technology

Started working on chapter 3 up to research design. stopped.

Now I am back on chapter 2 and we will get back to chapter 3 later today

Created a good outline that I can now use as the template to work each section using the new format from Margaret.

I also uploaded a revised semester plan to dropbox and disscircles

Can I add: http://broadbandandsocialjustice.org/2011/12/stem-jobs-are-the-future-but-what-role-will-minorities-play/

Today I finished fleshing out historical overview section of my literature review. Although I
think I still want to add a technical education section using Wharton as the source. I will do that on Monday. The work below still needs to be completed:

1. Add new section on racism
2. Rewrite other sections
3. Add CNN special
4. Other sources that I added
5. ggt entire chapter 2 done with all sources, check the ones at home with the new format
read, edit for flow, transitions, etc

30+ pages in write format compare to notes from MR

review edits and incorporate.

Send to Margaret

Talk to Margaret during the week
I want to submit these changes during the week.
Next week. Sit down with Dr. Diop and write chapter 3

does the CNN piece on Silicon Valley fit into chapter 2
find and read the piece from Linda and decide: does it fit, if so where, then claim, evidence, take

need to figure where these go and format as well

video game link: where does this information go.
Betsy DiSalvo is a Human Centered Computing PhD candidate at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Interactive Computing looking at the ways in which culture impacts technology, and how we can leverage cultural practices into designing constructive learning interventions. Her focus is on urban African-American males’ use of video games and why they are not turning their passion for video game play into a larger interest in computer science.

Young African-American men and Latino men actually game the most hours per week of any other group, but they are not well represented in computing or other technology-related fields. The common wisdom at the time, which was if you get people gaming like young Caucasian or Asian men then they will go into technology, wasn’t really proving true.
We decided to form a game-testing group after a number of iterations and co-design processes with young African-American men in Atlanta.
There is a lot I’ve found in my research that will apply specifically to how we work with and teach young African-American men and the kind of things that move beyond what I am looking at, which is their motivation to not learn. They are actively choosing to not learn in schools because it’s not cool...the Glitch Game Testers was a way to get them to move beyond that.
Out of the 16 men who graduated from high school, 15 have gone on to college, and of those 15, 13 are in computing-related majors. These are unheard of results for a computer science program to increase participation in computing, especially with this demographic, which is probably one of the more difficult to reach.

http://dmlcentral.net/blog/whitney-burke/young-black-males-learning-and-video-games

work this in up top somewhere or in the paper. rewrite using the new format:

In July, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic & Statistics Administration (ESA) published an eye-opening report on the status of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workers in the United States. The report revealed that there were 7.6 million people working in STEM industries in 2010, representing about 5 percent of all employees nationwide. It also noted that the number of STEM jobs is growing three times faster than the number of non-STEM jobs, with a projected growth rate of 17 percent between 2008 and 2018.

This is why the White House introduced Educate to Innovate, an initiative dedicated to improving participation in and performance of U.S. students of all ages in STEM subjects. So far, the program has partnered with stakeholders in the public and private sectors, educators, and STEM-focused foundations to ensure that all of America’s youth, regardless of race or socioeconomic status, have the educational opportunities and resources necessary to participate in STEM education and compete for STEM jobs in the future. This type of initiative is especially important for low-income and minority youth, many of whom attend schools that lack the resources to provide significant STEM offerings.

The stakes for getting these policies right are very high, especially within minority communities. Americans with STEM degrees boast incomes that are, on average, 26 percent higher than non-STEM workers, regardless of whether or not they work directly in a STEM occupation. However, a 2010 Bayer report revealed that minority chemists and chemical engineers gave the nation’s K-12 education system a grade of “D” when it comes to encouraging minorities to pursue STEM careers.

ESA’s July report observed that STEM jobs “play a key role in the sustained growth and stability of the U.S. economy, and are a critical component to helping the U.S. win the future.” In order to enhance innovation – and increase the number of STEM workers – in the U.S., policymakers and educators alike must do whatever is necessary to ensure that more women and minorities are pursuing studies and careers in these lucrative fields. These stakeholders must also focus on bolstering broadband adoption within minority communities.

Closing the digital divide will ensure that minority youth grow up well-equipped and well-prepared for STEM-focused higher education opportunities and careers. Without such a comprehensive commitment to broadband adoption and STEM education, our nation will continue to fall behind in economic growth and innovation.

------
david drew, read these links
There were two reports released in September 2010 about how to improve STEM education, one by the National Science Board, which said that the United States does a poor job of identifying potential STEM success students and should cast a wider net earlier on, and another by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, which said we should be focusing on developing master STEM teachers, rewarding them, and opening 1,000 new STEM-focused schools over the next decade. Which of these would you say is more likely to be the answer? Or what are they perhaps missing?

his answer:
I totally agree with the first one. I believe what they’re saying is there are many people who could succeed who get discouraged from STEM or never encouraged, which is the main thrust of my book. I feel that often that happens because teachers and counselors—and sometimes even parents—believe that a girl can’t do math, believe that a student of color can’t master math and science, that a white student from poverty cannot become a scientist. All of these are false beliefs. That’s all garbage. The whole thrust of my book is that in the emerging high-tech global economy, we switch from the manufacturing era to the information era, and pretty much everybody should be learning at least some of this in high school and many people could go into STEM as a career. We have to get away from a model from the industrial age that says: a) we only need a few people in this area and those will be the geeks; and b) only a few people can succeed in this area. Those are false. So my whole book is about broadening participation, and I feel the achievement gap is based on false factors and can easily be eliminated.
claim
evidence
my take

I list four factors in the book and talk about a number of programs that have done this. One, recruiting into STEM, which maybe isn’t the best verb because it sounds like marketing. It’s making young people aware that college is an option for them and STEM is an option for them. Two, mentoring is critical. Three, in high school and in college, finding ways to create study groups and peer support groups that are focused on academic excellence. The main thing is not to discourage kids and to encourage them to study STEM. Some of the key decisions occur in middle school because they’re heading into algebra. I used to work with Carl Sagan and one of the things we struggled with is that kindergarten students and first-grade students have a natural interest in science and they’ll ask questions about it and get involved, but then if you look as they get older, their interest declines. Where it becomes critical is in middle school because there students are making choices about what they will take in high school and that affects whether they will go to college and where they will go to college. A lot of the avoidance of STEM by teachers, counselors, parents—steering students away from STEM, or avoidance by the students themselves—has to do with anxiety about math. What you have to do is get beyond psychological barriers to broaden participation.

Yes, but I don’t think it’s enough. I understand that there are constraints. I also think that there are some myths that everybody buys into when talking about reforming education. There are four. Here’s something you’ll hear high officials in government saying: ‘American high-school students perform dismally in international assessments.’ Which is true. ‘This shows how much American education has declined. We have to take steps to restore American secondary and elementary education to its former glory and here’s how I think we should do it.’ That’s false. There was no period of former glory. We always were at the bottom. Now it’s become much more important, and we’re more aware of it now. Another myth is that the way to fix this is to spend a lot on curriculum. I don’t think so. Curriculum reform is fine, but we’ve spent huge sums—for example, the new math after Sputnik. Given the choice, I’d rather have my child taught by an exciting, creative, involved teacher using a science curriculum from the 1950s, as contrasted with a hostile, critical, boring teacher using the latest curriculum. I think it’s all about the teacher. Another myth is that the key is we’ve got to recruit more young people into teaching. That’s good, but it’s not the key in my opinion. The problem isn’t getting young people into teaching; it’s keeping them in teaching. But it’s all about the teacher.

claim: better teachers
evidence: what he said
my take:

That is the right conversation to be having. There are things that would surprise people. I think the fundamental barrier is that people are worried about erroneous beliefs that some students may not be up to it. And I feel that virtually any student can master these subjects, at least at the high-school level, and many in college. As far as surprises, many students can benefit from technical training—community college technical training. There are many STEM jobs that don’t require a college degree. I am not saying that some students are not smart enough to go to college—my whole bid is that everyone can learn this—but some students don’t want to go to college. Some want to go to work right now. So take STEM courses in high school and some community-college courses, and there are jobs that are in demand now such as underwater welders, all kinds of jobs where you can get excellent training. I also don’t think enough attention is paid when discussing STEM [in relation] to reading. I haven’t ever met an outstanding mathematician that can’t read. I think there are still a lot of uninformed ideas and prejudices that certain people can’t do this. And that’s just wrong. When you have the president of Harvard saying that women maybe don’t have the intellectual fire power to succeed in STEM, that’s pretty serious. It’s a battle that I feel is the central battle, and I think we’re in an era now with respect to women in STEM, with respect to underrepresented minorities in STEM, with respect to white students from poverty in STEM, that’s kind of like a previous era with respect to civil rights where the rhetoric was one thing but the reality was different.



         

I received feedback from Margaret on my chapter 2. I basically need to rewrite what i have done thus far. My goal is to have this done by Sunday. That is aggressive but that is my goal. The email was full of information and links to resources. It was a lot to absorb so I started today's session with reviewing the materials. It is not hard to understand just much to absorb. It was however very helpful and reduced my confusion. It actually made me look forward to future research. Below is the message I received from Margaret:

Hi Kai,

You are writing and that is good. And I can see you are struggling to find organization.

You have a two section lit review with a paragraph long introduction and no conclusion.

I have two big comments that affect the whole paper.

1) you need structure -- this will help you organize what you have written.

Both sections need structure and each paragraph needs structure.

You are building an argument -- it goes like this...
Section 1: topic
subsection 1 Topic
Paragraph one
Claim
data
what you take from this
Paragraph 2
Claim
evidence or data
What you take from this
Paragraphs x-x (with this structure)
Summary paragraph
what I took from all of these supported claims
Sub section 2 Topic
Paragraph....
So for each paragraph.. find the claim... support it with evidence and start building your arguement.

2) And the next thing is that you are over quoting. Think about quotes as illustrations.
They make your point stronger and provide additional information but they are NOT
instead of writing. The most common mistake a graduate student makes is writing
through the voice of others. You need to find your own voice. You are telling us
what you have learned.

This screencast I made for the MALT students might help...

http://screencast.com/t/SkULeX6yg

Also go to

http://ccar.wikispaces.com

Go to lit review and read what I have written... especially the part about when and how to quote.

Now is the time to go to the website and put up a plan for what you will do this semester. I
gave you credit for your flurry of work at the end, but I need a pattern of regular work.

You need to be making progress... (edits are in the dropbox)

Margaret

After reviewing the material, I started the process of the rewrite. Instead of starting where I left off I started at the beginning using Margaret's comments. This way when I get to the end I have it in the form and using the suggestions before I move on. Also I can go forth with the rest of my sources in the proper fashion. On Sunday I continued to work on the new format. I did the first section which is Historical overview. I still need to finish that and then I will rewrite the rest and work on section titles and order and transitions and rewrite intro. I have also started thinking about interviewing African American IT leadership perhaps at the CIO level. I have 2 in mind thus far:

1. Thomas Sneed
2. Shellye Archambeau

Perhaps I can tap ITSMF (Information Technology Senior Management Forum). I sent an email via the website to gain a contact. Perhaps I can survey them and report the findings.

Today I worked on my paper at Barnes & Noble. My usual spot Jitterbug Cafe, a coffee house in my neighborhood was closed for the holiday and so was my backup the Lone Star College Library. It cost me about an hour to find a place to write but once I settled in it was a productive session. I was able to work until about 1pm as I had to get back in time to join the family for a New Years Eve trip down to Galveston to view the lights and have dinner. When I sat down to work I had 21 pages saved. I now have 25 but i am still rewriting and adding the citations. The first thing I did was to read through the paper and make an corrections to flow, grammar, spelling, citations etc. Once I completed that I started to add to the content. I finished the day with 25 polished pages. My plan is to work again on Sunday and send Margaret the new update on Sunday. She had emailed me on yesterday and reminded that she does not have pages so I will need to send her word copies. Also I need to make sure I use TurnItIn or at least double-check my citations against the original sources. I also reached out to Mike Swift who wrote the Silicon Valley article as well as Shellye Archambeau of MetricStream. Here are my Action items for next session.

1. Finish editing and add graphic from Silicon Valley story
1. Run against TurnItIn | Find instructions
2. Send to Margaret
3. Check prose above to see what I missed.
4. Use something from CNN special, look at APA on how to site.

Today I continued working on my chapter 2. I have about 19 pages. I still need to clean up 11 through 19 in terms of citations, flow etc. I will do that in the next session which should be sometime this week. I am finding it is too hard to wait and entire week to get back to writing. I will try to write during the week so that when I start again on Saturday I am not starting cold. I sent what I have to Margaret. During my next session I should clean up the 19 and get my citations done and try to write my next section as well as incorporate a couple of sources such as the Affirmative Action Myth, Blacks surging in technology, RAGS and A Nation at Risk. I have all of these. I need to critique, and decide where to to ask. I could easily have the entire thing down by this weekend. I am also waiting for Margaret to reply with her comments. Additionally, this week I will need to write up my plan. I have it written out on the inside cover of Whip's model, so I just need to put it in a document and upload to disscircles.

Today even though I had several distractions due to the holidays I still wrote. I really feel that I am building momentum. My dissertation comes first. Only family and something that at this point Cathy needs me to help with comes before writing. Today I finally submitted 12 pages to Margaret. It was well written and I had most of the citations there and I felt that I wrote with authority and added my analysis well. It was not perfect, but I now I will start to benefit from her reading it and guiding me. I still have not heard from the Microsoft contact so I will have to go in another direction. I will probably go back to qualitative interview idea. I have not seen that as of yet and I still like the idea. I plan to write this week during the week. But if not I will certainly write some on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. I am also off this Friday so I should probably get some writing done then as well. If I maintain my discipline I should be in good shape before January 1. If I have not heard back from Margaret as it will take her some time to read then I will start to figure out chapter 3. Below is the message I sent to Margaret today:

Here is my first draft of Chapter 1. I have not run it through TurnIntIn as of yet as I need to locate my instructions and I wanted you to see the work without delay. I know that it may take you some time to review and get back to me with your comments. During that time I will work on finding the instructions and run the paper through. This is about half of what I think my complete chapter 2 will look like when complete as I continue to go through my summaries. Also, I would like to talk with sometime this week about my plans or the term and where I would like to be as well as some of the obstacles I have run into with my plans for the study. I will continue working on the chapter 2 and merge what I do with your comments and be ready to submit my changes. My plan is to send you a document each week on Sunday as I am able to write on both days. I will have some extra time here during the holidays so I plan to make progress during that time as well. I also intend to start reading about what I need to start my chapter 3.