Response on Technology and Gender, and the Digital Divide

We're going to go a little off course today to talk about the following study - “Self-Concept, Self-Esteem, Gender, Race, and Information Technology Use”

Here are my thoughts!

It seems that technology had positive and adverse affects for both genders, but in very different ways. The research indicated that boys tended to use and play video games in much higher percentage than girls did (440). However, this signifies another aspect of the research, which states that video game playing had a negative affect on an individual’s self-concept (437). In addition, “children who play video games more have lower grade point averages and more problematic school behavior than children who play less” (438). The only positive that was noted by video game playing was an increase in visual-spatial skills, which could be helpful for math and sciences (438). However, the research indicates that Internet has a “positive influence on self-concept dimensions” (437). From all this, “girls had higher academic and behavioral self-concept, whereas boys had higher physical appearance and athletic self-concept” (439). This seems to be an effect from video game playing, because that usage has an adverse affect on academics, as noted before.

The digital divide, as explained in lecture (and in this study), expresses the divide between those who utilize the Internet, and those who do not. This may have to do with income, their environment, or – as the study indicates – it can be much more innate than that (without relying on outside factors). According to the research, males use the Internet more than females (438). Males tended to make use of the Internet for shopping of sorts, while females utilized the Internet for its abilities to connect and network with others (438). However, the study also notes that there is a divide between African Americans and Caucasian Americans in which “even within income levels, there are race differences in home Internet access favoring Caucasian Americans” (438). This evidence can support another statement made by this study, indicating that “Caucasian American youth score higher than do African American youth on social and academic self-concept whereas African American youth score higher on physical appearance self-concept” (438). Since Internet usage increases social and academic self-concepts, the logic follows that since there is a digital divide between Caucasian Americans and African Americans, then this self-concept divide would exist as well.

In terms of whether or not this information affects the use of technology in classrooms, I believe that this just does not relate. It seems to me that this study relates more to the private usage of technology for individuals, and less so for the usage in a classroom. Classroom usage is directed and instructional, while private usage implies freedom to explore the Internet and its uses.