Many years ago, when my wife was a teacher of modern foreign languages and schools had very few computers, the question of girls versus boys in the use of computers was often discussed at some length. As a generalisation, it was very obvious that boys were very keen to get there hands on the few machines that were available, whereas the girls were not. One theory put forward was that girls were reluctant to risk using the computer in case they damaged it (put down to maternal instinct) while the boys did not care. Also, those girls who were prepared to take the risk often could not get a look in because the boys had got there first. Another factor was that the school computers were usually used in subjects such as maths and science which were seen as boy subjects while the girls were more comfortable with the arts and languages.
I became involved in a scheme to try to encourage the girls to get some computer experience by producing some simple games to help in the learning of languages. So, for the first time, the computer on its trolley, was taken from the maths room or the science lab into the languages department. There, the girls were encouraged to sit at the keyboard and, those that did, soon realised that nothing drastic or terminal was going to happen. This was about 25 years ago and bears no comparison with schools today but I wonder how much the mothers of today are still influenced by those experiences when they were at school. Norman -- [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
