J. Cooper, from Princeton, wrote an article on the digital divide regarding gender differences and one particular study looked at learning groups of children and whether social context mattered with gender. He says, "The answer seems to be that, for the girls, having boys present has the effect of increasing computer anxiety and decreasing learning. Light et al. (2000) had boys and girls work with a mildly competitive problem-solving game in which the players’ task was to reach a geographical location without being captured by monsters. The children worked in groups of two, either same-sex or opposite sex dyads. Light et al. (2000) found that, overall, boys performed better than girls in this game. However, in same-sex dyads, the difference in performance was small. In mixed-sex dyads, the difference was enhanced. Boys’ performance was markedly improved relative to their performance in the same-sex group, while girls’ performance showed significant decrements." (324).I want to highlight the part about the children doing better with the same-sex groups. The girls obviously had less anxiety in a dynamic such as that and had their peer's support to do well. Even at such a young age, you can see the importance of role models and peer support for girls with computers and technology. I thought this article was a nice ending for my blog due to my overall focus on role models and I love how there was a study that touched upon the confirmation of that. So essentially go back and take Gail Farnsley's advice and form some sort of peer network. Then just be amazing!
Cooper, J. (2006). The digital divide: The special case of gender. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 22(5), 320-334.
