Webbing Cyberfeminism Practices
Facilitated by Kris Blair (English), this cluster focuses on cyberfeminism, specifically concerning technology issues surrounding young women and girls. The group focuses on issues of virtual kinship, identity, and empowerment within local and global academic and social spaces. Additionally, the cluster problematizes the extent to which social/cultural transformation in cyberspace is not only possible but realized in a variety of cyberfeminist webs, despite class and cultural restraints and established boundaries. Rather than privilege academic voices, the cluster attempts to establish close community partnerships in order to collect digital narratives. They are at work creating a research database about women's local and global techno-literacy practices and securing grant funding for creating online and face-to-face social networks for women and girls as part of their techno-literacy development.
The Digital Mirror
One of the most successful community partnerships established by the cluster has been The Digital Mirror, a cyber camp for girls from area junior high schools. The Digital Mirror is intended to pique girls' interest in digital literacy at a critical age developmentally and allow them to explore the ways they define themselves within technological environments. The first Digital Mirror camp, hosted in August 2007 on BGSU campus, had twenty participants from Toledo, Maumee, Otsego, North Baltimore, and Bowling Green schools. Over the course of four days, these girls were treated to a blend of hands-on computer lab work, mentoring by University women involved in careers in technology across BGSU campus, and workshops on a variety of software like Adobe Dreamweaver and Photoshop, Apple iMovie, and Garage Band. The girls developed personal webpages and blogs and also filmed and edited movies to embed on their websites. Finally, they presented digital portfolios to fellow campers and staff. The first Digital Mirror camp was an immense success and internal as well as external funding for the cluster (AAUW, Verizon, U Findlay, Atomic Learning, etc.) make it likely the Digital Mirror will continue in the future.
Sample Documents and Activities
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