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Last updated: Friday, February 16, 2007 10:45 AM EST

When Shippensburg University sophomore Sara Joseph started using technology to interest more women in her major, she had no idea what kind of audience she would attract.

The computer science student and other women in her major originally reached out to local high school girls using a video podcast to help younger students see how interesting and challenging the major is. They discovered, however, that they were helping even more people.

Each seven- to 15-minute “Where is the Software” podcast features Joseph, Charmagne McKinney, Logan Kennedy, Elizabeth Jones, Natasha Gunasekara and Tina Bledsoe covering computer science topics, such as spyware or MySpace or female role models in computer science.

Although the podcast was designed for females, it has also attracted the attention of male students and people on- and off-campus who aren’t familiar with technology and want to know more.

“We can take a complicated topic and explain it in ways they can understand, which makes the topics more accessible for secondary school girls and others who have not yet embraced computer science,” said Joseph. “It’s an opportunity to share information.”

Joseph, who is from Campbelltown, and Kennedy, a freshman from York, say podcasts, which are online video clips that can be watched on computers, have made it easy to spread the group’s message.

“Podcasting is a new and growing type of media,” said Kennedy. “By using this form of media we are able to show that computer science has practical applications to attract others to the major.”

Four podcasts have been completed, and the group plans to host a podcast every month. The students and their adviser, Jeonghwa Lee, have created an interactive Web site so people can watch the shows, interact with the hosts, ask questions, and perhaps become friends with a student in the program.

“I am every excited with what we are doing,” said Joseph. “The biggest benefit of this podcast is the interaction we have with one another and other females who might need a little help. This community of women we have formed has been our biggest success so far.”

Some women have stereotypes about the computer science major. “The research shows that girls do not have a lack of confidence in their ability to do compute science, but that they have little interest in it,” said Carol Wellington, professor of computer science. “Females have an image that these careers mean that you sit in a cubicle trying to make money, but they want to do something they enjoy.”

Interest in the podcasts seems to be growing.

“We have not only received encouraging comments and positive e-mails from a wide variety of people from as far away as Texas, but we can also see through statistics online that our audience is continuously growing, with over 100 people watching each episode,” says Joseph.

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On the Net:

http://clipper.ship.edu/~wics

www.whereisthesoftware.podshow.com

— From Matthew McKeague at Shippensburg University.