What have we learned about gender differences in ICT?

Abstract

Gender differences among school students in the use of information and communications technologies (ICT) and their ICT literacy have been of interest over a number of years because ICT has become so central to education, work, and life in modern societies. This report presents results from detailed analyses of differences in computer and information literacy (CIL) across 14 countries. It finds that even though female students demonstrated higher levels of CIL than did male students there are some differences in specific aspects of CIL. Female students performed relatively better on tasks that involved communication, design, and creativity, and male students generally performed relatively better on more technical tasks. Moreover, male students were more confident than female students in their ability to perform specialized ICT tasks. Even though there were some gender differences in patterns of use of ICT, these differences did not appear to be related to differences in CIL. In addition, there were no appreciable differences between female and male teachers in their pedagogical use of ICT or in their dispositions towards its use.