Reflections on Being a Woman in #HigherEd #EdTech

Why am I writing about my experiences as a woman in edtech? Because sharing our personal stories helps to promote awareness and understanding of the complex topic of gender.  In a society where women are constructed to be passive, polite, decorative objects to be desired by heterosexual men, women confront a unique experience when taking the leap to contribute our thoughts, critiques, ideas, and creations in the open web.  I acknowledge that these are my own reflections and I do not suggest that there is a singular "woman's" experience that I represent here.

Over the years, I have felt tensions upon jumping into the active, public space of participation, which I am informed in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, is not where I belong. I am aware of the self-talk that surfaces as I begin to type a blog post (especially a post like this one). As critical as I am about gender issues, this self-talk is persistent.  As fortunate as I am to have a family and community that encourages me to pursue my voice and follow my passion, that self-talk continues to try to silence me and situate me into a more passive role. Where does it come from? And why is it so important to shut it down?
It comes from the destructive messages about women that I hear every day in popular music.  It comes from the inferior roles that I see women stitched into on television and in the movies.  It comes from seeing the wrinkles increase on my own face when I look in the mirror and, in turn, see nothing but 20 something year-old hot babes delivering the news on television alongside aging, overweight men.

Over time, women internalize these messages and, painfully so, actively participate in their construction. I have a vivid memory of seeing a young mother answer her mobile phone in a grocery store after hearing her ring tone, "Don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me?," a song performed by pole-dancing, lingerie-wearing women, to which her toddler daughter bounced back and forth to the catchy beat.  Little girls' clothing has become hyper-sexualized, toys for girls (which are all pink and mostly glittery, just to make it clear it's for a girl) drip with the message "it's your looks that matter," and as I scan my children's Instagram feeds, I see the posing that more and more young girls enact in selfies.  I also painfully aware of the 3.6 million videos that are retrieved (mostly of adolescent girls) when I search for the phrase "Am I pretty?" on YouTube.

I was born in 1971, the year Ms. Magazine was launched. When I was young, there was no such thing as a MILF and having a baby was not tied to a race to drop the baby weight, as it is today. And when I was seven, my birthday wish was to become Wonder Woman, not a member of the Real Housewives cast.  I did not have a mother or know anyone who did that regularly visited a "med spa" to spend thousands of dollars a year to diminish the natural effects of age on her body.  When I was a kid, cosmetic surgery was something celebrities participated in. Today, there are children's books written to normalize the concept of plastic surgery for moms -- all in the name of "beauty."

The social construction of gender informs the way many women feel about themselves and impacts their sense of belonging in professional spaces, as well.  It also informs the choices made about who is important, who should be listened to, and who should be followed.  Over the years, as I have reviewed the keynote presenters showcased at higher education conferences, I have sensed that this is not a realm in which women are valued equally.  As I view the "top" EdTech bloggers, I see men outnumbering women 3:1.

For about four years, I taught an online faculty development course for @ONE titled "Building Online Community with Social Media."  I taught the class two to three times per year and it maxed at 20 participants.  Regularly, I had no more than 2-3 men enroll in each class. As I reflect on this experience, I grow concerned about the gap between the gender of higher ed practitioners leveraging emerging technologies to transform pedagogy and those who speak out about how to make it happen.

A few years ago when I took the leap to start hosting live Google+ Hangouts on Air, the message was communicated to me, as well.  There I was, facilitating the sharing of ideas and participating in active dialogue. After one of my first Hangouts on Air (which, by the way, stream live to YouTube), I was excited to see that there had been comments made to the YouTube video feed during the live conversation. When I visited the video page, I found comments that were made about my own body. I felt violated. I felt outraged. I felt disgusted. I quickly trained myself to manage the situation - instead of withdrawing from these conversations, I trained myself to disable the comments on the YouTube page as I delivered a Hangout on Air.  I did this for about a year before it dawned upon me that this is precisely one of the obscure barriers that prevent women from participating in edtech conversations. 

What I find inspirational are organizations like EdTech Women, dedicated to creating networks for women to connect with other women in a supportive community; conferences like SxSW, which make an explicit effort to value and integrate diversity into their dialogue; contributions that acknowledge gender issues in edtech, like Rafranz Davis's The Missing Voices in EdTech, Rebecca Hogue's post after #ET4Online in 2014 and Maha Bali's post, #NoMomLeftBehind, which opened a dialogue about the topic of including childcare at edtech conferences; and men like Michael Berman who regularly practice inclusivity in their work and John Farquhar for asking how improve things.

@amcollier @brocansky @jessysaurusrex I organize a number of tech events and want to be more inviting/supportive. Any specific recomendatns?
— John Farquhar (@JohnFarquharWWU) November 6, 2014

And while I agree with Jesse Irwin that EdTech Women events should not contribute to the turning women into decorations...

There's a buttload of “Women in Tech” events in my inbox – and this is why I will be going to NONE of them http://t.co/9KPk0mLAQp
— Jessy Irwin (@jessysaurusrex) November 6, 2014

I do believe we all need to support the cultivation of conversations about this topic and to facilitate the development of communities that inspire, support, and encourage the work of women in edtech.

Preparing College Students for the #Social Job Search

If you identify yourself as part of higher education, I expect you agree that preparing students for a successful job search is one of your priorities -- not the only one, but certainly one of them.  Just like so many of aspects of life, looking for a job is an entirely different reality today than it was just a few years ago.  And, no, I'm not referring to the economy in this post.

More Companies Using Social Media
The use of social media by Fortune 500 companies has increased significantly in recent years, leading to transformed relationships with customers and more transparent communications with leaderships. Use of corporate blogs increased from 16% to 38% by F500 companies from 2008-2013 (UMASS Dartmouth, 2013). In 2013, 77% of these companies had corporate Twitter accounts, 70% had Facebook accounts, 69% had YouTube accounts, 35% were present on Google+ (none had a presence a year ago), 9% had Four Square and Pinterests accounts, and 8% were using Instagram.

 

Why is this important to college educators? Well, it's important to us because this sharp increase in the value of social media to major corporations is, first, reshaping many concepts that underpin our disciplines but, secondly, and more broadly, the increased use of social media identifies a need for college graduates to have a developed their own mastery of using these very same networks to build their own professional brand.  

Some of you may be thinking to yourself that this trend is very industry specific and, well, you have a point that certain industries are certainly different than others. For example, we all know that academics aren't going to be hired based upon their Twitter followers.  But what I believe is so important and precious is the fragility of preserving the openness of where one is headed in life at graduation.  To presume that one will thrive in a particular industry and ignore the opportunities of flourishing in others may be a missed treasure.  I graduated with an undergraduate degree in Art...I'm still trying to figure out where I fit into this miraculous world (and loving every minute of it).

Why Social Recruitment is on the Rise

A recent survey of 1,600 human resources professionals by Jobvite found that 94% of recruiters use or plan to use social media in their search for new employees and 78% of them have hired at least one employee through social media.  The survey revealed that Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are primary sources for locating talent; however, what's more interesting is how recruiters are learning from what they find online about prospective employees.  By locating an individual with a particular skill set on LinkedIn, for example, a recruiter may further validate that individual's presentation, industry-related presence, overall expertise within a field, or even cultural fit by clicking over to her YouTube channel and viewing videos she has uploaded or examining the number of Twitter followers, as well as their own social worth within the particular field. Blogs provide deeper validation of an individual's writing ability, as well as one's ability to negotiate and interact with others who may leave comments that challenge the views represented in the post. 

All in all, social recruitment can provide much more context about a person's skillset and fit within a company than a resume.  And in today's competitive job market, wouldn't you want to set yourself apart from others?  That's not to say resumes are dead, however. Rachel Louise Ensign at the Wall Street Journal argues, "a paper resume can make or break a bid for a job" because hiring managers still want to review a resume on paper before meeting a candidate in person.  

Preparing our Students

Perhaps, the question is, "What are the odds of getting that interview without a professional presence on social media?"  And, more importantly, how is are experiences students have in college preparing students to cultivate this presence? Integrating social media into our teaching and learning landscape holistically fosters an effective and professional use of tools like Twitter, Facebook, blogs, even Pinterest is being used in college. Today LinkedIn shared the video below which lucidly points out simple ways students can build a presence on their site. 

I'm going to share this video with my students -- I hope you do too!  And while you are at it, take a few moments to explore Pathbrite, another new, open, free ePortfolio site which provides robust integration services for those who are interested.  Pathbrite is a great way to have students create ePortfolios for a class, program, or institution that are easily "taken with" students after graduation and even embedded directly into LinkedIn.  I have my own Pathbrite ePortfolio embedded on my LinkedIn page.  That's another way we can teach our students -- by leading by example. :)  

I would love to hear from some of you about how you and/or your institutions are preparing students for success in the social job search. Please share!