EDC Center for Children and Technology
(TR17) Girls and Design: Exploring the Question of Technological Imagination

Imagine is a prototype computer-based design tool, created as part of a research project on women and technology, that enables girls to create machines by starting from their own imaginative vantage points. It is intended to function as a legitimating environment in which girls are encouraged to think of themselves as designers and inventors of machines without the traditional bottleneck imposed by math and science. To test the use and effectiveness of this program for encouraging girls' technological imaginations, an elective course in design based on Imagine was offered in an alternative junior high school in New York City. This paper outlines the research on women and technology which inspired the creation of Imagine, and reports on the projects created by girls in the pilot course.