| By employing a qualitative methodology, this study seeks to understand the meaningfulness of the online experiences of eleven women between the ages of 18 and 35 living in the province of Ontario. It demonstrates that the participants have a positive attitude towards the Internet as a tool for informal learning. This thesis describes how the interviewees use information on the Internet to learn about hobbies, cultures, gender roles, customs and traditions, to develop skills and to achieve career goals. Finally it illustrates that women can appropriate the meaning of masculine technical networks to use cyberspace for their individual educational purposes through interpretive flexibility. This refers to the concept that the meaning of an object is ambiguous and therefore subject to various interpretations and uses. |
