Ada Lovelace Day
Today is Ada Lovelace Day, on which we all celebrate a woman in technology that we admire. Working at Google, I found it difficult to identify one woman to actually write about, as there are so many that I could easily dedicate an entire post to*.
However spoiled for choice I am at work, it’s actually a woman I know who doesn’t work in an obviously technology-related role who I want to really call out: Christina Green, a (tragically, recently laid-off) middle-school science teacher in the bay area. I admire her real dedication to introducing her students to technology in the classroom, helping them use online collaboration tools in assignments and even getting them all to produce podcasts. She’s described helping her students become familiar with computers who are starting from absolute zero — introducing them to the concept of a mouse — in light of which her achievements are particularly impressive.
An unfortunate roadblock that Ms. Green consistently runs into is other teachers’ hesistance to adopting technology, which sometimes verges on aggressive resistance. I’ve often been shocked to hear how computer-illiterate her colleagues are, and always wish her the best in her efforts.
There is a growing societal divide between those who can afford to have a computer in their home and those who cannot. Children raised in a household without exposure to computers and the internet will be severely disadvantaged in the coming decades. Christina is working to overcome that, bringing children who might otherwise be left behind back into our grand little sprint to progress, and is doing more good than I expect I ever will.
* Because I want to give them a shoutout, a short list, in no particular order: Melanie Colburn, Maricia Scott, Tina Huang, and Nori Heikkinen. They are all significantly more capable than I, and consistently astonish me with their talents.
