The figures above reflect and support several other research findings from different countries. The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta, 2008) reports that
implementing ICT in education improves motivation and attainment of boys and girls. However, this increase is higher for boys. This may correspond with the finding that girls use ICT at home for school work while boys use it for leisure activities (Becta, 2008; MPFS, 2008; Imhof, Vollmeyer, & Beierlein, 2007). According to Schnirch and Welzel (2004), ICT has a proportionally smaller share in girls’ interests than in that of boys. This also reflects the lower interest rates of girls in our study. Furthermore, Becta (2008) emphasizes the factor of socio-economic background. In Great — Britain, this was found to be more an impact factor for girls’ ICT access and use than for boys’. Considering that there is a higher ICT penetration in German households than in Greek households, one could assume that in Greece children of a comparable higher socio-economic background have access to computers than in Germany. This may be an aspect to explain the higher interest and self-confidence values in Greece.
The findings of Faulstich-Wieland and Nyssen (1998) in Germany report that parents estimate ICT skills as less important for girls. Also Becta (2008) found that girls prefer social and creative ways of using ICT (see also MPFS, 2008), collaborative work and the application of ICT for learning in formal and informal contexts (see also Munk, 2007), while boys prefer to use it for playing computer games (see MPFS, 2008). This goes along with the higher interest and self-confidence values for boys, and also with the higher interest in technical aspects like hardware and programming. In contrast, we were not able to find gender differences for the more creative and social aspects, like standard software and the Internet.
Models, e. g. the model of a student’s career choice by Dick and Rallis (1991), describe how aptitudes and the cultural milieu influence the perception of socialisers and the interpretation of experiences, and thereby influence self-concepts and career values. The self-concepts may have an effect on the particular fields of interest, and therefore reduce the chance to build knowledge and skills in other areas. This means that girls’ stereotypical socialization may hinder them to build the knowledge that could help to prove them digitally literate.
We were able to find out that younger pupils also had more general interest and more selfconfidence in ICT than older ones. However, age had no influence in the different areas that we analyzed. This result, and the above reported usage statistics, allow for two different conclusions regarding age: younger people use computers more often and are more interested in ICT and have more self-confidence in this area. A correlation between these two aspects, high selfconfidence and increased computer usage, can be presumed. According to Compeau and Higgins (1995) computer-self-efficacy is a mediator for computer usage, and findings from a study by Lopez and Manson (1997) support this presumption. However, we can also see that the interest in particular fields remains constant for age and country, and is mainly subject to gender.
To sum up, we have evidence for different ICT interest patterns for boys and girls. However, there is only little evidence for the stereotypical view of girls being less gifted than boys (see e. g. Becta, 2008) and therefore not suited to professional ICT careers. In the following sections, we will elaborate on how these differences go along with the boys’ and girls’ choice of ICT studies and ICT careers.