CultusWith the society going digital, education remains one of the few fields that have not transitioned fully from traditional models to unified technological design. When we analyze the issues in education, or education gaps across race, class, and gender divides, an inevitable question arises: How will a move towards the digital influence these differences?
There is no doubt that education will not avoid the technological revolution, considering the development of the distance learning courses and online degrees expansion. New York Times wrote last week about discussing the rise in popularity among, massive open online courses (MOOCs).
Websites like Skillshare , offer online courses and provide to the global educational community a chance to upgrade the knowledge. They are receiving more and more attention and are making the educational landscape richer and more versatile.
In this constellation women outnumber men in college attendance and graduation rates. It must be said that this is a great boost for women. However, they still only make about 77% of what their male counterparts earn. The fact that men remain at the top of the socioeconomic totem pole has shown that certain ,jobs value and payment still reflects persistent gap of sex-stereotyped occupations (females are more educators and males are in tech sector).
Here are some stereotypes that can be mentioned in this context. They support the fact that women cannot do math or men cannot make great language teachers. All these come but from our cultural imagination, indicating that our socialization inclines us to choose gendered professions. Much of these stereotypes is reflected in the education system, impacting how the sexes participate. In a direction to stop further division into “male” and “female” jobs or educational studies, researches and surveys are showing that in more recent curriculums men are encouraged to be more vocal at school, while women are rewarded for passivity and deferring to male peers.
With the development of the digital sphere, a great potential for gender-equitable advancement can be achieved. Being an established statistics that women constitute the majority of U.S.online learners, may prevent some of the negative gender discrepancies of the past.
Here is one example: female anxiety about body image has been linked to poorer academic achievement. Knowing this, without the stress over appearing physically perfect at lectures, women may simply perform better.
The advantages of the online education, convenience of access, flexibility, and the freedom from financial burden have a great appeal. Life-changing opportunity could also be foreseen for single parents of genders, stay-at-home partners, and people juggling few jobs. Online education addresses the flexibility essential for reforming education, with both – the nuclear family and conventional career trajectories- break down.
In any case, there are a number of obstacles that need to be worked out. MOOC’s curricula must take into account how men and women participate in online communities, and accordingly design them effectively on the mass scale for thousands of participants.
Having said this, the following issues need to be considered when creating the online curriculum:
-If women generally display more passivity or courage in online chats, will they be evaluated differently.
-Will the fact that men are more visual learners be considered?
With these considerations in mind an outlook must be designed, with comprehended gendered learning and activities that will take into consideration the experiences and attitudes that our society has exposed on us .
There is no doubt that the goal is not to put us against each other in the ”battle of the sexes”, but to design holistic digital instruction in which all genders have an equal opportunity to participate successfully.
If you are interested in this topic further you might want to get more at:
Tien’s Dream: Equal Opportunities and Rights for Her Daughter
Women as Agents of Change – Animated Film
