A recent survey conducted by the ISU Office of Institutional Research reported males spend more time on the computer than females.The survey reported that 46.4 percent of male college freshmen have computer skills in the top 10 percent among their peers, while only 23.2 percent of female college freshmen ranked in the top 10 percent nationally. At Iowa State, the trend is followed by 60.9 percent of male college freshmen and 27.3 percent of females with computer skills in the top 10 percent. Tom Andre, professor of curriculum and instruction, said the discrepancy has been caused by society as a whole and is not a new issue.”I think there are a number of factors, including socialization differences, that are slowly changing,” he said. “However, males are more oriented to technology, and that is what computers are.”While social norms may discourage females from focusing on technology, computer usage varies among individuals of both genders. “These traditional roles are more often than not learned from our society,” Andre said. “However, people are individuals and vary within those roles, and we want to accept people as they are rather than force them into a mold.”The activities on computers also differ between the genders, according to the survey. “Using [the Internet] for communication has been shown to be a feminine practice, and it makes sense that females would use e-mail more than males,” Andre said. Some education and developmental professionals believe the gap can be attributed to the availability of technology to the sexes and social patterns existing today. “We do see the gap in most kindergarten though high school students where males tend to use computers more often,” said Ann Thompson, professor and chairwoman of curriculum and instruction. Parents are more likely to send their sons to computer camp and to buy them computers at early ages, she said.”The lack of encouragement for females to make use of technology is a problem that the schools and families need to address because it encourages stereotypical behavior,” Thompson said. “If software developers put together more games that appealed to females, that would help.”There also is a gap in computer gaming between the sexes because most computer games contain male characters and tend to contain some type of chasing or shooting, Andre said.Even when the point of a game is not to kill, he said some males are more apt to look for the violence. “Back in the 1980s, there used to be a game called Jenny on The Prairie, where Jenny would have to make friends with a fox that would give her different things,” he said. “When I played it, I tried to kill it, because it did not occur to me that I should make friends with it.”Another potential turn-off for women is the traditional Internet domination by males since its creation. However, these trends are changing, Andre said. “A prime example of women making an appearance into the technical fields can be shown by a 25 to 50 percent increase in the number of female chemistry majors nationwide,” he said.Women traditionally see themselves as more social than their male counterparts, said Niki Davis, professor at the ISU Center for Technology Learning and Teaching.”Our Western culture encourages women to see themselves as more social and less technical than men,” she said. “This is highly reflected in the careers that women choose. Although it is a misconception, women associate computers with anti-social activities.”Some experts said computers lack a sense of emotion so women have a lack of interest in them. “Suppose there were more things on computers that deal with the sharing of feelings and emotions,” Andre said. “In that respect, I could see women using computers more.”