Therese, what first drew you into this field and what continues to motivate your work there today?

Henry, it's a good question.

And I think we probably have to go back probably when I was about 16, where I guess you've got to sort of put into perspective.

I went to an all-girls school where the school I went to was one of those schools where it wasn't where girls were academic.

So girls were not necessarily going to be lawyers or doctors.

The best that the girls could probably be were teachers, nurses, hairdressers, and be domesticated workers, so to speak, getting married and having kids and looking after their children and doing some sort of part-time work to sort of keep the money coming in.

I was in year nine and I we obviously were trying to work out what subjects i was going to do where where we were sort of going to head towards in terms of a possible career and i'd already decided that i really like the idea of being a computer teacher now Again, the old adage, what you see, sort of, if you don't see it, you can't be it.

What misconceptions do educators sometimes have about encouraging girls into STEM pathways?

What's the right kind of pace of introducing technology? Because it does sound like embedded into what you're saying is that there is a place for screens in schools at some stage.

Absolutely.

Look, there is no evidence that suggests that, you know, X amount of time is good.

We know that not all screen time is equal screen time as well.

So I'm thinking of, say, a kid in year seven, say an 11 or a 12-year-old kid who has half an hour on a computer where they're looking things up, they're creating a picture.

I'm going to say like an essay or a document, and then they're making a PowerPoint presentation.

So that's half an hour of doing really solid work.

How did we get to a point where we're having this discussion? How did we get to a point where screen time is big enough part of the school day that people see it as a problem?

What's the right kind of pace of introducing technology? 'Cause it does sound like embedded into what you're saying is that there is a place for screens in schools at some stage.

Absolutely.

Um, look, there is no evidence that suggests that, um, you know, X amount of time is good, and we know that not all screen time is equal screen time as well.

So, um, I'm, I'm thinking of, say, a kid in year seven, say, a 11 or a 12-year-old kid, um, who has half an hour on a computer where they're looking things up, they're creating a, um, I'm gonna say, like, an essay or a, um, a document, and then they're making a PowerPoint, um, presentation.

So that's half an hour of doing really, um, solid work.

Then you might get a, um, a kid the same age, um, goes to ChatGPT for three minutes, puts an answer, you know, puts a question in, gets an answer.

Now, you know, one's three minutes, one's 30 minutes.

How did we get to a point where we're having this discussion? How did we get to a point where screen time is big enough part of the school day that people see it as a problem?