ࡱ; cd  !"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abefghijklmnopqR F~{9CompObj\WordDocumentObjectPoolQZ{9QZ{9  FMicrosoft Word 6.0 DocumentNB6WWord.Document.6;  Oh+'01 7 C O[c kw @dtao:Applications:Apps -- Lab:Microsoft Word 6:Templates:Normalissues/text for lynns paperMichele EvardMichele Evard'@{9@v@ܥhA e:f8888>>>>> J T.>Z&rXJ_`8:r,zr88zX"So Please Stop, Thank You": Girls, Boys and Online Talk by Michele Evard Introduction Many people have noticed the gender split on Usenet newsgroups, observing that the vast majority of people posting messages appear to be men. It has been informally estimated that less than ten percent of the public messages are written by women. This is much smaller than one would expect, given that 36% of Internet-accessing accounts seem to belong to women. Many women with whom I have spoken say that they do not post in the public forum but instead send private email responses to questions which are posed in public. Sometimes this is simply because the respondent feels that her answer would not be of general interest; other times it is because the woman does not want to make a public target of herself. I have noticed this tendency in myself. I admit that sometimes I have not responded to a publicly-posed question at all, thinking that many other people have probably already responded. Why should I add my voice to a possible flood of responses? After all, with so many people reading each question, there are bound to be more answers than a person could want. Im just being polite, arent I? To me, this is the main issue when considering men and women on the net. Some women are allowing their voices to be drowned out. People have left the net entirely when theyve become disgusted with flaming and other obnoxious behavior. Ive heard it said that you have to put up or shut up--is there no truely other option? Speaking Out When working with children on-line, I found that the girls did not avoid writing public messages. In fact, while there were only a few more girls in my project than there were boys, the girls wrote 58% of the messages. And the girls who received negative responses did not back off, but held their own. Why were these girls so different from their adult counterparts? Many people have said that women did not get a fair representation when the current networking structure was created. How would the net be different if a higher percentage of women had participated in its creation? What elements of "the Internet" as it is makes it a place in which so many more male voices are heard? [NOTE: id be willing to say so few female voices are heard? or so many female voices are discouraged but I disagree that men are encouraged--the whole problem is that flames discourage anyone other than the offensive or those able to brush them off and there is very little encouragment anywhere.] While I was designing the on-line environment for children to use in school, these questions suddenly became more important. Would the space I designed be dominated by children of one gender? Of one race? Of a certain educational level? Is there away to allow equal access to all of the children involved? What could I do to provide a space which any child could use comfortably? I decided to provide a computer-based newsgroup environment similar to Usenet, without any private email, and observe the childrens behavior. As I believe that children learn through sharing their ideas about topics which interest them, I set up a few groups, but told the children that they could start new topics at will. We used NewsMaker, a software system written by Mark Kortekaas which I helped design. In the spring of 1994, I introduced NewsMaker to three classrooms of fifth-grade students (one class of native Spanish speakers and two advanced-work classes) and two of fourth-graders (another bilingual and one more advanced-work). These students were given the ability to use NewsMaker to read, write, and modify articles, but were not assigned to use it for any particular purpose. I told students in one advanced-work fifth-grade class that they could use it to ask questions about their current computer-based assignment, which was to design and create educational video games to teach younger students about the ocean. I explained to the other advanced-work fifth-grade students that they could the system to be consultants for the new designers, since they had already done similar projects. Another class of fifth-grade students used the system for creating their own news articles and newspapers; Mark worked with that group. Talking in Class I believe that one of the strengths of on-line systems such as this one is that they allow their users to focus on what is interesting to them. School, on the other hand, forces children to concentrate on things which have traditionally been considered important, and to do it in ways which teachers can regulate and measure. This means that a child who knows the baseball statistics for every player on a favorite team, as well as how to calculate them, may be considered a dunce in math class. What does this have to do with me willingly setting up groups on topics chosen by children? I believe that if a child is forced to write only about things which are not interesting to her, she may become disinterested in writing. On the other hand, if she can write about things which she considers important, then she may learn that writing is a skill she would like to have. This may sound subversive, but I dont mean to sneak in the medicine with the sugar. Rather, I believe that writing well is an ability that would be helpful to many children, but that their schooling can convince them that it is boring or that they are bad at it. Writing messages about things in which they are personally interested is one way for children to get a better picture of what writing can be like. The initial set of groups available for the children were almost all for news, divided as the newspapers do into national, international, lifestyle, sports, etc. Mark started one called Mrs. Cs News for the children he was working with (their taechers name was Mrs. C), and I set up Game Design for the children who were writing games. I talked to some students who would be using the system, and from them got suggestions such as a group for puzzles and riddles. While the children did read the outside news groups, most of the time they seemed to prefer to read messages written by other children. This could have been because the outside news consisted of a lot of very long messages (longer even than most newspapers articles). Digging through all of the national news to find news about Boston could have seemed enough of a hassle that children didnt do it frequently. I know I have felt that way about Usenet news! I had hoped that children would write messages about news topics as they saw fit. To give them a space to do this, I thought I would set up a group for every outside topic alongside the group that would have articles by reporters. That way there would be two National groups: one for messages from outside authors, and one just for the kids messages. I hadnt had time to arrange that before the first class of fourth-graders used the system, but I didnt think it would be a problem. After all, these kids had only been using the computers for about 6 months, and they would only have 45 minutes to try out NewsMaker. After that session I was surprised to find that not only had several children written messages, but in the midst of dozens of articles by journalists, one tiny, graceful girl with light brown skin had written this: The White water issue is about how president Clinton might have done something wrong. It might be something serious and it might not be but they are trying to find out that. I personaly think that this is not such a big deal but a lot of people think that it is. And people think nine-year-olds arent aware of the news! Groups on topics other than external news were even more popular. In addition to the initial ones, children requested groups about video games, book reviews, school news, the Logo programming language, local weather forecasts and rap music. One classroom of children worked for several weeks on creating their own newspapers. While they were encouraged to write articles for their papers, in addition to using ones from external reporters, they were not assigned particular topics or events. I was fascinated to see what they chose to write about. Out of the 39 messages, twelve were about school-related events such as the play, the talent show, and a trip. Eight were about local violence and drugs. Other topics the students wrote about included science fair projects, summer plans, family events, and pets. The messages about violent events were the most shocking to me, in a couple of ways. I was not very surprised that there were some messages of this type in the group, as many of the students Ive talked to thought that it is important to know about bad things and also that the media focuses on negative events. I was surprised at how strongly some of the children felt, and at the things they wrote that they had witnessed or experienced. One of the most powerful postings was by Pamela, a sweet girl of Hispanic descent.  Someone Getting Shot By Pamela M. The other night me and my sister were in our room and then we heard two different kinds of shotguns, but we didn't pay attention because people are lways shooting around emptying out there guns like nothing, but when we heard somebody yell out Ahh we got scared. My big sister looked out the window and she seened a body laying down in the middle of the basketball court. My sister got scared and called my mother and my father. My father looked out the window and seened the body laying on the floor and he told my mother to call the cops and the ambulance and she did. The ambulance came but before they came my father went downstairs to check how was the boy was doing. But my father didn't touch him. My father didn't know the guy had a gun on him, but when the police and the ambulance came they told my father to get away from the boy. They asked what happened to the boy. My father told them what happened. The ambulance checked his palse. Then they yelled out the boy was dead. Everyboy was sad. The police stayed in the basketball court all night, but they didn't find any clues. I knew that many of the children lived in dangerous areas of the city, but to read their words about how it impacts them is much more striking than any media-produced news reports. The other surprising thing to me was that all eight of these messages for the newspapers were written by girls. I am not sure why this happened. Out of that many messages, I would have thought at least one would be by a boy. It couldnt have been that no boys were interested in the topic, as John, one of the African-American boys in this class, wrote a message entitled WHY DO PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT RACES KILL EACH OTHER ? in the Lifestyle group. Perhaps they did not want to include such information in their newspapers. Maybe it wasnt macho for a boy to admit that he was scared. Could the Lifestyle group have been a safer place for John because members of his class werent assigned to be writing there? Shalauna wrote a message which helps explain why its so important for children to have a place to talk about whats going on in their lives. She titled it Gang Members and Violence and began by saying These days you really can't go no place and say nothing To no body cause if you say anything smart you will end up get stabbed . She went on to tell about an incident that had happened the day before, when a boy tried to get her to take drugs. She said she went to her mother, but her mother just said dont ask me. In the Lifestyle group, John ended his message with these lines: I WONDER WHAT OUR FUTURE HOLDS OR MAYBE WE DON'T HAVE A FUTURE JUST BECUASE WE ARE KILLING AND HURTING EACH OTHER JUST BECAUSE WERE DIFFERENT. WHO, WHAT, WHEN , WHERE, WHY,HOW . WE HAVE TO ANSWER THESE QUSTIONS FAST BEFORE THERE ALL DEAD. Writing or talking about these kinds of questions is clearly a first step towards solving the problems, but other people need to read or listen as well. A Suprising Lack Of Sex Difference While the children posted many kinds of messages to their newsgroups, most didnt use the system to hold conversations. Tho ones who did were those designing and programming educational video games about the ocean. They got help from a second class, called the consultants, who had done a similar project. These children interacted on-line over a period of four months; I believe that their experiences discussing their school projects can show what could happen when children are given the ability to freely talk on-line. Ill tell the story of one girl to show different ways the children interacted, and how they changed over time. I believe you will also see a surprising lack of the gender differences which appear in other on-line settings. Renees Interactions Renee was one of the game designers. A quiet, petite, white girl, she enjoyed both computer time and giggling with her friends--when she was alone with them. She wanted to create a game in which the player would control a fish, guiding it to the pots of gold which would reveal facts about the ocean. Any time the fish crossed one of the barriers she created, the player would be asked a question about the ocean. In addition, she wanted to have a whale which could chase the fish. It would be made out of two shapes (to make it larger than the fish), and controlled either by the computer or by another person, depending on programmatic constraints. Of course, Renee didnt have the entire design set out on the first day; she, like most of the children, had plans which she modified over time. First Questions On the first day of the game design project, a Puerto-Rican and Caucasian girl named Whitney had a question for everyone, so I showed her how to use NewsMaker to post it. When Renee had a question the next day, Whitney showed her how to use the system. Renee wrote: March 15, 1994 shapes How do you make two shapes move like one? She did not sign this message, but since all messages had their authors name in the headline, it was obvious who had written it. That day she received the following two replies from consultants (the other fifth-graders who had previously done a similar project). Suzanne was an animated girl; the beeds on the ends of her lovely corn-rows often jingled as she talked. Her response to Renee read simply: RENAE I DO NOT KNOW I was surprised to read a message that only said I dont know; after all, the questions in a newsgroup are not generally directed to particular people, so what does it matter if someone doesnt know the answer? This was only one over several such messages. Sometimes the child would offer a possible alternative, which makes more sense to me, but many posts were like this one. In interviews I conducted prior to this project, several children had told me that they were uncomfortable when one of their friends asked them something that they didnt know; it seemed as if they would look stupid if they admitted ignorance. In this on-line setting, however, it seemed to be a way for children to indicate that they wanted to help, but were unable to. Ken, a rather loud, quick consultant with his blond hair in a crew-cut, also answered Renees question. This was another surprise, since it meant a boy was answering a girls question. I had observed Kens class during their computer time, and noticed that boys would only talk to boys and girls would only talk to girls; I never saw a boy asking a girl a question or vice versa. Ken gave a matter-of-fact response which seemed to answer Renees question. Apparently it did not provide the information Renee wanted, since on the next day of the project, she posted this: March 18, 1994 Following Shapes How do you make one shape fallow another? One shape moving by the arrow or letter keys, the other moving by computer, following the other shape? Renee Alberts reply was yet another type of answer: a message which informed the questioner that someone else might have the answer. Talk to Jorge. You two are in the same boat. (Pardon the pun) Albert Albert, a small and quiet boy with straight brown hair, was the acknowledged computer expert in the classroom; he became very active on-line. While he could probably have answered the question directly, as he did with many others, in this case he chose to redirect the questioner. This was probably more efficient; after all, Jorge had (with help) just solved a similar problem. [NOTE: you seemed to put the previous sentence (efficient) with the next paragraph rather than the previous one. I was taling about alberts message; was I unclear? that or maybe the line breaks have messed up a bit, because I cant see how it should start of lisas paragraph w/o rewording] Lisa also answered the question; this short girl with loosly curled brown hair was a good friend of Renees, so her sharp reply was somewhat surprising: Renee,for the first thing you spelled follow wrong,for the second thing you do it by attaching the shapes.simple.ask me for details at lunch. Lisa This was the first spelling flame I noticed, although later in the project there were a few more. (It was not the typical type of spelling flame which is accepted on Usenet, as it was not typed perfectly, but it certainly was a start. No one responded with a flame for Lisas typing.) I believe that there were at least two reasons for Lisas abrupt manner: first, for a 10-year-old shes quite blunt, and second, she and Renee had a comfortable friendship in which criticism could be taken as an attempt to help. Lisas on-line communication was not particularly clear; her teacher said that she often didnt take the time to write clearly in other settings either. Other students gave Renee more details in posts they wrote during the next session. Unfortunately, they did not seem to address Renees question to her satisfaction. Tina was a new student in the consultants classroom; a tall African-American girl who loved to dance and to laugh, she seemed to want to help even though she didnt have much experience. She wrote: WELL YOU COULD USE YOUR FOUR TURTLES,THEN SEE WHAT HAPPENS. TINA H.-307 When I read this, and other messages like it, I was surprised; if these children had been asked How do I build a treehouse? would they have said Use some boards and see what happens? Renee did not seem to take offense, but replied by restating her question more clearly: I could use four turtles, but that doesn't answer my question. How do you make a shape follow another shape that a person is controlling? How do you make the shape that is following, follow by computer? Renee This demonstrates one type of occurrence which I considered most important during this project: instead of assuming that the respondent was stupid, or just not getting it, several students realized that what they themselves had written was unclear. In real life it is very common for children of this age to assume that they are not at fault if someone doesnt understand their words. There is no need for them to clarify what they said; after all, they already explained it once, so the other guy must just be stupid. Perhaps in their minds they explained it; because they cannot review their verbal communication, all they have to go on is what they think they said. But in this on-line environment, children can go back and see what they actually said. This happened many times during the project, and several children were surprised to see what they had really typed. I heard children say say oh, my question wasnt clear! to others or just to themselves; another comment they made was I shouldve explained that Id already tried that! Sometimes one student would identify a problem in another ones message. For example, Carrie, a quiet designer of mixed descent, tried to answer Renee by writing: RENEE, JUST COPY YOUR PRESEADURE {sorry spelled wrong} FROM THE TIMELINE!!!! In this case, it does seem that the capital letters were intentional, although Carrie may not have thought about it, and just have had the caps lock off when she added in the sorry part. Either way, the exclamation points and her use of just seemed to indicate exasperation. Renee responded: But that won't make a shape follow. This time Renee did not restate her question, but she did point out the discrepancy between her question and the response. Between answering questions, Renee asked another question on the third day of the project: March 18, 1994 Words Appearing On Screen How do you make words appear on the screen when you reach a certain point of the screen or you reach a shape that is on the screen? Renee Albert simply suggested that she try a particular command. Several times during the project, Albert commented that giving someone a complete answer is not really help, since they might just copy it and not learn anything. Other students didnt feel as strongly about this issue. Three consultants all answered in what I considered very helpful ways. Carrie, on the other hand, apparently took exception to Renees question, as she wrote: RENEE I DON'T MEAN TO BE RUDE BUT YOU'RE ACTING DUMB AND YOU'RE NOT THINKING!!!!!!!! GO TO YOU'RE TIME LINE AND COPY YOU'RE PRECEDURE THAT DOES THAT!!!!!!!!! UN NAMED While the capitalization was probably a caps-lock accident rather than an attempt at shouting, the message was still quite pointed. It was also interesting to see that Carrie signed the message UN NAMED rather than just leaving her signature off. Her name would have been in the message headers in either case, but writing UN NAMED indicated to me that she wanted to comment anonymously, perhaps because she didnt want to be flamed back. Carrie apparently decided that she shouldnt have criticized so strongly, since at the beginning of the next session, she repeatedly tried to delete the messages which included her comments. Then, after Ken had written a junk answer (containing only random characters), Carrie wrote this: KEN WHAT IS THAT SUPOSED TO MEEN. RENEE GO TO YOUR TIME LINE. -------CARRIE This was a much politer way of expressing her suggestion of looking back to a previously-completed project. Renee never acknowledged either of these messages on-line. Over a month later, Renee was still getting an occasional reply to this question. She wrote: Stop answering this question. #1, I have too many answers, and #2, I have solved my problem and am using something else. Thank-you very much. Renee She did not choose to post her solution, but she was quite polite in thanking everyone for their help. Only a few children ever wrote thanks; most were girls but some boys did as well. Uncertainty in Renees Answers to Others While Renee asked several questions, she replied to quite a few as well. Many of her answers sounded like they were written by a stereotypically uncertain young girl. During the session in which Renee posted her second and third questions, Albert wrote: March 18, 1994 Reverse shapes Does anyone know how to reverse a shape: make the black part white, and the white part black? Albert Lisa replied simply no, but Renee realized that there was an ambiguity in the question. Instead of answering one of the possible questions Albert meant, she responded by asking for clarification. After Albert replied, Renee suggested a solution: Can't you just click space on all of the blocks in the square and then make the picture by clicking again? Then the black or background would be white and the picture or the white would be black? Renee This uncertainty was more often found in posts by girls than in those by the boys. It could be that Renee used it in this case because she was giving advice to the computer expert for the class, but she also seemed hesitant when answering a question by one of the other girls who was not an authority: Maybe you could color the box black as if you were writing words. I'm not sure if it will work, but it might, Renee Renees style was even more apologetic in the following response to a question about musical tones: I know this probably sounds strange, but do yu mean higher than tone h, because there is none. But if you want tone a,b,c,d,e,f, or g, then there is a proceedure in the box that has cards that has things you can do on the computer. I'm sorry I don't know the exact answer right off hand, but go look. You might find it! I do not want to suggest that all of Renees statements were uncertain or apologetic, but several of them were. In any case, it was heartening to me to see that not only did Renee ask questions publicly, but she spent time answering her classmates questions in a constructive and supportive manner. More Than Tech-Talk While most of the questions concerned strictly technical issues, not all of them did. For example, some children discussed the topics of their games while others talked about ways to make their games educational. Several weeks into her project, Lisa addressed a question about the style of her game to Renee. Renees response was quite authoritative, even after the computer expert had replied: April 29, 1994 RE: RE: FOR RENEE > > RENEE,WHAT DO YOU DO ON YOUR GAME WHEN SOMEONE GETS AN ANSWER > > WRONG? > > > How about printing on the screen, "Wrong!" > > Albert > I agree with Albert, say "wrong." But you should also explain the correct answer, and sometimes put "wrong" in a funner way. For example, put nope, uh-uh, think again, etc. Make it fun to be wrong! Renee Very few messages were directed to a certain person, as this one was, and as in this case, other students seemed to ignore the direction and answer anyway. Rather than ignoring Albert as an annoying interloper or contradicting his suggestion, however, Renee responded in a way that incorporated his comments. It is also interesting to note that Lisa asked Renee a question on-line, rather than doing so in person, even though they are friends in the same classroom.  Another non-technical topic which generated discussion was raised by a thoughtful African-American girl named Tisha. She wrote: April 29, 1994 what do you think? Do you think that by asking trick questions you are teaching some one else? tell me what you think tisha I was very glad to see the children asking for opinions on non-technical aspects of their programs; most traditional school settings dont seem to welcome childrens discussions of their personal pedagogical viewpoints. Renee answered Tisha during the next session: May 2, 1994 RE: what do you think? I think that it depends on the trick question. Can you give an example? I think it might just confuse people with the correct answer, but give an example. Renee A week later, after a tiny Hispanic consultant named Kim answered, Renee responded again: May 10, 1994 RE: RE: what do you think? > > Do you think that by asking trick questions you are teaching some > > one else? > > > > tell me what you think > > > > > > tisha > > I THINK THAT IF YOU HAVE TRICK QUESTIONS AND > SOMEBODY IS TRYING TO ANSWER IT WOULDN'T BE RIGHT BECAUSE THEY ARE > TRYING THEIR BEST TO ANSWER THE QUESTION AND THEN THEY'LL NEVER NOW > WHAT IT WOULD BE. SO I THINK THAT TRICK QUESTIONS DO NOT TEACH > SOMEBODY A LESSON. THAT'S MY OPINION. > > KIM E. > I think that you should have trick questions to add fun to your game. I think that it would be fun for somebody to find out that there is a trick question. It might make them think about the answers more carefuly if you tell them before they start playing the game. But just be sure to tell them whether they chose the right answer, otherwise it might confuse them, and that wouldn't be good! Renee These girls were clearly focusing on the educational aspects of their games and paying attention to how the younger children would feel and what they would learn while playing the games. Three other girls also responded to Tishas question, but no boys wrote on this topic. Tisha and Renee then proceeded to have a conversation about trick questions in person; Tisha told me that she wanted to talk to Renee about it (even though they werent friends) because Renee had asked her for examples. Final Questions Over time, the style of Renees messages seemed to change. Her ideas were more clearly expressed in her later messages than in the early ones, and she gave more context for her questions. I had thought that the children might stop using the on-line system when their questions became more complex, but that was not always the case. I include here one of Renees final questions not for its technical content but to demonstrate how long and complex a few messages were; as Renee stated and you can see, it is almost incomprehensible without the graphics in front of you. May 6, 1994 Getting back to my main screen In my game I have barriers, which are long and thick lines. At every barrier I have a question. The question appears on a blank screen, and there are choices that you have to choose from. Then you move the fish to the answer that you think is right. What ever answer you chose, some words appear on the screen saying whether you are right or not. My problem is that after the words say wheather you are right or not, I want to go back to main screen, which has all of the barriers. I could just type star (a procedure of my own) at the end of my procedure and get back to the barriers, but then I would have an even worse problem! If I type "star" then my fish will go back to the left corner, where it is in the beginning of the game. I need the fish to go to above, below, left or right of the barrier, but where you go depends on where you were (above, below, etc...) before you answered the question. I would need to create at least four procedures for every question just to decide where the rfish needs to go, maybe even more. Please, if you have any suggestions that are very simple, please tell me. If you need to, you can look at my main screen and a question to really understand what I'm talking about. Renee No one answered this question on-line. Albert came over to Renee in person, and looked at her screen design. They talked for quite a while, but Albert had very few ideas that Renee was able to accept. They asked for my help, and the three of us came up with a few things for Renee to try next. When she still didnt have it all worked out perfectly a couple of weeks later,she didnt give up, but asked again for help in person. Renee was grateful for the other students help, but asked me if I knew of any other way to reach her goal. My suggested solution involved programming techniques which the children had not used before; Renee initially felt that they were too complicated for her to use. Later, however, she decided that her design was important enough to her that she would take the time to learn something new and use it. Renees game progressed much as her messages did. She was able to work out her problems and produce a complete game which other children liked. Her game was the only two-player game; she made a whale which a second player could use to chase the first players fish. If the whale was able to catch the fish, the game ended, even if all the pots of gold had not been retrieved. Just One Girl? Given only the messages quoted above, it would seem that the girls in this project wrote much more than boys did. After all, Ive just quoted 16 messages by Renee, 15 by other girls, and only 9 by boys. Would the story be different if I had chosen another child? Certainly. Does this story present an overly-biased picture? I dont believe it does. While Renee did write a high number of messages compared to average for her class (she wrote 23 and the average was 12), she was not the most prolific poster. For example, Albert wrote 41 messages, Stephan 23; Emilie authored 31, Carrie 22, and Lisa 20. Of the 235 messages written by the twenty game designers, 138 of them were by girls. That means almost 59% of the messages were written by the ten female class members. There were 10 girls and 8 boys in the consultants class; 86 messages were from girls and 66 from boys. This class was more balanced (female consultants wrote an average of 8.6 messages each, and the boys 8.25), but the girls still wrote more. These few quick statistics show that girls participated in this on-line environment at least as much as the boys did, and in many cases, more than the boys. Breaking Stereotypes There are many stereotypes which could apply in this setting--both general ones about boys and girls and newer ones about adults on-line. Boys are often rude, girls are more social, children ask questions of their friends, people dont like to admit ignorance, women get upset by being flamed on-line and stop posting... The list goes on and on. I was glad to see that many of these stereotypes were broken in this project; children did not all act in ways which simple stereotypes would have predicted. The boys were generally helpful, both to other boys and to girls; only occasionally did they write anything rude. Girls did pay attention to social aspects of being on-line, even to the point of writing about types of behavior that the considered appropriate. They did not confine themselves to the social sphere, however, but also asked and answered technical questions in this public forum. Both boys and girls answered questions of children of both genders, whether or not they were friends. Many children admitted it when they didnt have an answer, and generally suggested alternative questions or possible answers. And girls did not simply leave when they read rude messages. Most of the time, neither boys nor girls were rude in their messages; although there were some striking exceptions, none of the messages reached the nastiness of common Usenet flames. The message that Carrie wrote and then tried to delete was the strongest message any of the girls wrote; there were a few blunt ones, such as Emilies Renee, just go to your timeline!, but these werent considered rude by the children. Messages with Duh! in them, however, were considered rude by many children. For example, Ken sent this message in response to a question Carrie had posted: March 15, 1994 RE: Shapes > How do you make a round circle using two shapes? > Make a semi-circle on one shape and another semi-circle on the other. DUH!!! Don, a smiling, active boy of Hispanic descent, chimed in Yeah! Carrie replied by writing the only message from a girl that said duh! to someone: Don I tried that and it made a skinny oval DUH!!! CARRIE I was glad to see that Carrie didnt just back off and consider her question stupid due to the negative responses she received in public from these boys. I heard conversations between some of the designers, about how they considered these boys messages rude; no one said in my hearing that they thought Carries response was also rude. Although four of the boys sent these kinds of messages very early in the project, many of the others were generally helpful and non-offensive. One of the girls, a designer, felt strongly enough about rude messages that she wrote this: March 21, 1994 Rude! I think that some of the answers that are given are rude and impolite. NewsMaker is not a place to talk about what happens during the day , it is a place to ask guestions and get answers. Some of the answer that we are geting are rude and the people that write them should stop. People should also stop answering question impolitely. I think that if someone asks a question people should not answer the question if they have nothing to say. They should also not end the question writing something like "Duh!" they should answer it with something like "And that is how you do it.". So please stop thank you. Whitney Three girls responded to this post, agreeing with Whitney. The only boy to reply was Ken, who only typed HJKL over and over. He had posted various derogatory comments in other groups, as well as nonsense such as this, but none of his remarks were ever answered, and those to whom they were addressed continued to participate. While Ken was certainly not supportive of Whitneys message, he didnt flame any of the girls involved, nor did he ever write duh! again. As a matter of fact, none of the children ever wrote duh or anything similar in their messages after Whitneys post. I was very glad to see this happen; I had not given any social guidelines or rules to the children, as I preferred to see if they would construct a self-governing community. Emilie dealt with the duh responses to her questions in a different way. This thin girl with light brown hair usually pulled back into a ponytail didnt take smart talk in person without some response, and she didnt on-line either. She posted this question initially: DOES ANYBODY KNOW HOW TO MAKE DIFFERENT MUSIC THAN TONE C ,TONE B,... EMILIE B. Two of the male designers answered her the same day. Mark, a friendly Oriental boy, stated: Nooooooooooooooo! Duh And Stephan, a studious African-American child, said: Nope!! You can't. DDDDUUUUUUUHHHHHHH!!!!!!! STEPHAN G. Emilie did not respond to their messages directly, but immediately put up a second question on the same topic: (STEPHAN + MARK DON'T ANSWER THIS) DOES ANYBODY KNOW HOW TO MAKE MUSIC ON THE COMPUTER???????????? This was another way of dealing with the problem of rude responses. There was no way for Emilie to automatically disregard messages by certain people; while on other systems there are kill files and bozo filters which allow users to hide messages by particular authors, there was no such mechanism available to the children. I was glad to see that Emilie found a way to avoid flaming back while at the same time remaining a participant. There were other aspects of the childrens interactions which were striking. For example, girls and boys answered about the same number of questions in both classrooms; the girls were more likely to qualify their answers, however, while the boys were more direct. The girls more often used stereotypically feminine forms of writing, using suggestive and apologetic tones. Female designers asked twice as many questions as their male counterparts did, and while the female consultants asked a total of four questions, none of the male consultants asked a question. Im not sure if the boys felt that they would lose face by asking questions, but it certainly seems that the girls viewed asking questions as a social activity, rather than an admittance of ignorance. Why Did It Happen? My original questions asked if I would be able to provide a space which would exclude any children due to their gender, ethnic group, clique, or ability level. I also wanted to have a space where the children would be free to express themselves on important topics which are not typically supported in schools. I believe that for these children, I was able to reach this goal. Im not altogether sure why it happened; I dont know which choices I made were helpful or harmful. I do, however, have some feelings about certain aspects of the situation and how they affected the children. I feel that the public nature of all messages caused most of the children to think twice before writing anything offensive. A child who posted a flame might have been flamed in return--and not only by the child he or she flamed, but by other members of the community. Although teachers were not major participants in the project, it was clear that they could read any of the messages. In addition, none of the messages could be anonymous, so there could have been negative consequences for unacceptable behavior. Since this network was local to the school, all of the children on it could locate anyone who had written a message. Because the authors real name appeared with every message, everyone else knew or could learn who each author was and could find him or her in person. This could be very positive, as in the case where Tisha and Renee talked in person after writing messages on-line, but it could also mean that if a message was offensive, other children could talk to the author in person about it. Another aspect of the network being in a physical community was that children may have taken others real-life personalities into account when reading their messages. For example, Renee may have been offended by Lisas spelling flame message if she hadnt known what Lisa was like in person. Children in this environment knew that there was a real person behind each message and that there were real repercussions of the messages. Even given all of the above considerations, it still may seem surprising that boys and girls used the system in similar ways. Many people think of men and women as having vastly different interactional styles on-line. Some of the stereotypical behavior did exist, but many of the children went far beyond what might be considered gender boundaries on the net. And the participation levels, with girls writing more than the boys did, were clearly different than those on Usenet. I believe that part of the reason for this happy occurance was that all of the children started using the system at about the same time, and at the same age. If the boys had been on-line weeks before the girls were, it could have felt like a boys activity, and girls may have acted differently--or vice versa. If the children had been a few years older, entering the crisis time of adolescence, their experiences may have been vastly different. Various psychologists have studied children as they become adolescents, and found that girls seem to be more strongly affected by this time than the boys are. Perhaps the girls in my project wouldnt have participated as freely as they did if they had also been dealing with the new set of social expectations and insecurities brought on by adolescence. There are many uncertainties in any project like this, and the reasons for the childrens interactions may never be entirely clear. The important point to me is that all the children were involved; neither girls nor boys let others chase them off. All of the children seemed to want to participate in some way. What Next? How will these experiences affect these children once they get on the net? What could they, and others like them, do to change Usenet, or is that impossible? If these children had started their on-line experiences with Usenet itself, rather than the local Usenet-style system, I believe they would have acted much differently. For example, they would have seen flame wars and learned that rudeness is so common as to be acceptable. By giving them a local system, I provided a way for them to determine what their on-line community would be like, rather than requiring them to learn some other peoples standards. Now that they have been able to make that choice, and see one type of community, what will they think about the net? The optimistic side of me would like to say that, with an influx of students who have used local networks in ways such as I have described, the net will change drastically. The percentage of obnoxious flamers will go down as more and more of these children join, and therefore the flames wont be heard as loudly. The children will have seen that they dont have to shut up to avoid being targets, and they will tell those who are rude that it is inappropriate. Of course, those flamers will step back and think about what they are writing, and will cease their bullying ways. After reading a nasty flame, or getting offensive email from some random guy I have never heard of, however, I am more likely to think that newcomers who enjoy being offensive will take one look at the net and feel that it is a place where they can be as rude as they want without any consequences. Those who dont like such behavior will quickly learn that they cant avoid it, and will quietly bow out. After the kinds of experiences Renee and her schoolmates have had, however, I would hope that they wouldnt just give in to the flamers. While messages such as Whitneys may have no effect on Usenet itself, given the amount of time it has endured, there are alternatives such as Emilies---ignoring the flames and those who write them. These children will know that those who post offensive messages dont have to do so just to get their points across, and will hopefully not let rudeness affect their own actions. Usenet does not have to be the hostile and flame-friendly environment that it sometimes is. These children have demonstrated that it is possible to have on-line discussion groups that are balanced across such lines as gender, race, and academic ability--and that the on-line world is not inherently a hostile environment.  PAGE 20  john quarterman of matrix information & directory services, austin tx (info@mids.com) did study showing women/men 36/64 have internet accounts.  hm, places like this are hard to add in stuff about the physical. andrea (alia, actually, and I wish I could think of a similar-sounding A name) was a ballerina in the school play, lots of kids know her interest in dance. very graceful and feminine. While all of the childrens names have been changed, every message I quote is otherwise exactly as the student typed it.  [NOTE: Do we know if she's Mexican, Puerto Rica, what? Hispanic covers a lot of territory -- I dont, but ive left a message with the teacher to see if she knew. the girl was born in the us, from what I understand.]  As you can see, the children sometimes used all capitals; I believe that this was due to their lack of typing skills rather than any desire to shout. Writing was difficult for many of them, and no one tried to force the children to make each message picture-perfect.  RE: in the header of a message is commonly used to indicate that the message is a response or reply to a message with the same title (minus the RE:). Thus the double-RE here indicates that Renee is responding to Alberts response to the message entitled FOR RENEE.  [note: your version was garbled badly here, so im not sure if you wanted to cut something. this is what I have from you: Very few messages were directed to a certain person, as this one was, and as in this case, other students seemed to ignore the direction and answer anyway. Rather tha trick question. Can you give an example? I think it might just confuse people with the correct answer, but give an example. Renee  note to myself: recount after edits  For example, Gilligan, Carol , Lyons, Nona P. & Hanmer, Trudy J., Eds. (1989). Making Connections. 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