As a technology director at an all girls school, I am always on the lookout for new insights into educating young women in the STEM areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Thus I was excited to learn about Lesley’s Farmer’s new book Teen Girls and Technology: What’s the Problem, What’s the Solution (Amazon citation).

Given her background in library programs (she coordinates the Librarianship Program and Cal State, Long Beach) it’s not surprising that Farmer has gathered an impressive amount of research studies which describes the past and current status of girls technology education.

Using the simple writing model of “what, so what, and now what” Farmer adequately addresses the “what” part of the model, citing study upon study and piles of statistics to give the reader a grounding in the disparate treatment girls receive from teachers, other adults, and peers of both genders which contribute to girls attitudes towards and facility with technology.

It’s in the areas of “so what, and now what” that I felt keenly disappointed. Farmer offers no fresh insights into what’s to be done to address the situation, but instead relies too much on previously published literature and broad platitudes about how to engage female teens through socially relevant topics and fun activities using topics such as entertainment, fashion and beauty, child care, and advice to the love lorn. In short, it read to me like applying gender-sterotypical solutions to a problem that does little to break the mold and truly inspire young women to lives of meaning and purpose in the technical arena.

Alan November (wiki citation) is a welcome fixture at educational conference around the world. I’ve heard him speak several times myself, and I’ve always come away with something new, so it was with great anticipation that I started his latest book, Web Literacy for Educators (Amazon citation).

After a few chapters, I began thinking “is this it? November has been talking about this stuff for years… There’s nothing new here!”

Granted, teachers with little or no knowledge of the web (for example, what are the elements of a URL) may find this to be a useful guide. And it is charming to find someone that still uses Alta Vista as a search engine. I had better hopes for Chapter 6 on Blogs, Wikis, Pods casts and Wikis, but these important tools are dismissed in a mere fifteen pages with little revelation aside from an anecdote or two describing how a teacher is using them.

Where this book may find an audience is with librarians who find themselves pushed to teach students about information literacy and using something other than a card catalog to search for resources. (I suppose a few are still around in remote parts of the earth.)

If you’d looking for something about Web 2.0 literacy for educators, look elsewhere, such as John Hendron’s RSS for Educators: Blogs, Newsfeeds, Podcasts, and Wikis in the Classroom (available from ISTE or Amazon.

Coming up next: Another disappointing read….

I recently returned from my busman’s holiday having read several books, which I will review in this space as time allows during the ramp-up to the start of school.

The books included:

The Female Brain, by Louann Brizendine.

Teen Girls and Technology: What’s the Problem, What’s the Solution?, by Lesley Farmer.

Web Literacy for Educators, by Alan November.

Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns, by Clayton M. Christensen, Curtis W. Johnson, and Michael B. Horn.

One excellent, one very good, and two disappointing….

More to come.