Rosie the Programmer

-InfoTech News March 2008, Kimberly Hall and M. Fong Tan

In celebration of Emerson’s Women Herstory Month, Instructional Technology has created a digital story on the history of women in computing, Rosie the Programmer. This brief, four minute, narrated slideshow highlights female computer pioneers, their stories, and the innovations they brought to us.

Digital storytelling is a practice that blends traditional storytelling and basic film-making techniques to create a brief (3-6 minute) and well-crafted narrated slideshow.

Rosie the Programmer features renowned women such as Ada Lovelace King, daughter of poet Lord Byron, who made groundbreaking contributions to programming and Grace Hopper who developed COBOL, one of the most widely used programming languages.  It also highlights everyday women who acted as “computers” during World War II.  Authentic photos and imagery capture the imagination as it explains how Hopper discovered the first computer bug and how Google actively supports women in technology today.

Emphasizing how some women were influenced by their mothers to enjoy math while others expressed their passion for creating, the main intent of Rosie the Programmer is to acknowledge women’s contributions and illustrate that technology is for both genders. The film hopes to encourage Emerson women to openly approach technology within their professions.

Digital storytelling integrates creative writing, graphic design, audio production, and basic film editing. Instructional Technology staff John-Mark Ikeda and Indrani Sen have demonstrated this through the production process. Indrani conducted the research, wrote the narrative and brought it to the team for editing. Once the narrative was trimmed to four minutes in length, Indrani offered John-Mark some images she found during her research to begin selection for the film.

Bruno Caruso and Richard Perkins of WERS recorded the narration of Performing Arts faculty member Roxanne Schroeder-Arce. Later Mac Slocum recorded Journalism faculty Janet Kolodzy and Paula Childs who portray women programmers during World War II.

While describing the main images in storyboard format, John-Mark integrated the audio using Apple’s iMovie. He made revisions and created imagery and aligned the audio and visual elements according to suggestions from the team.

Rosie the Programmer will be viewable on the Emerson Channel from mid-March to early April, and will be available through this page by clicking the above image.

With a little imagination, digital storytelling can be applied to any discipline or course.  Wherever and whenever expression, reflection, and integration are appropriate in the classroom, digital storytelling can be adapted artfully to engage students in the process of learning. To implement digital storytelling as a course assignment, or create one as a resource for teaching, contact the Instructional Technology Group at  itg@emerson.edu.