Girls move ahead of boys in working with computers
Surveys from supermarkets are not normally the stuff of educational research, but a piece by Tesco’s under its Tesco’s Computers for Schools brand seems to raise a few interesting points - and it did record results from over 1000 pupils and students aged between 7 and 16.It says that girls are now better at some areas of computing than boys. They suggest that girls are more likely to know how to create a word document, put a profile on a social network site or a video on YouTube. While only 10% of boys said they were not confident with computers, the figure for the girls was 6%. Not a huge difference - but remarkable considering where we have come from. But as we move on we find 35% of boys can create a social networking page while 44% of girls could. Girls are also better at handling downloads, handling photos (although 71% of all the pupils questioned could download a photo) and using google.
The situation with parents however is as one might expect - only 40% of parents reckon they are more proficient with computers than their children in the age group studied.
Around 75% of pupils said they use a computer each day, and 41% couldn’t do without the internet.
If all this is true then presumably we shall see much higher numbers of female students opting for computer courses at university the near future, and there will be a bigger take-up and more varied set of demands for Diploma courses that involve computing, in the coming years.
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