Gender, perceptions, and reality: Technological literacy among first-year students

Recent studies have found that gender gaps in information and communication technology (ICT) skills exist, despite changing gender role expectations for men and women. In this paper we report on survey results from an ongoing longitudinal study of ICT skills which found that - in general - first-year students were confident in their ICT skills. However, comparison of student skills in four major technology domain areas indicates that there are differences between the male and fale first-year students in levels of confidence. We also report on a second, follow-up study designed to examine the actual ICT skills of the first-year students. This investigation indicates that both male and fale students have greater confidence than actual skill. The study also found that both male and fale students have approximately the same level of actual ICT skills. These findings suggest that fale students, although possessing ICT skills similar to their male counterparts, do not perceive thselves as competent users of technology. These differences in ICT skill confidence have implications for fluency with technology in acadia as well as the recruitment and retention of women in the Computer and Information Sciences.