As with many other issues there are differences between boys and girls and men and women.

This difference increases as they grow older.

When you children are taught how to use the computer, then they are inevitably very inquisitive and they will try anything. They're not worried about breaking the computer. They're not worried about failing. They're not worried about doing the wrong thing.

As they grow older the men remain inquisitive, although less so. They still want to understand how things work and they may try out different things.

The women, on the other hand, as the women grow older they have a single question for any computer issue. No matter what needs to be done, they say just tell me what button to push. They don't want to know more than that as they grow older. They don't want to know why things happen.

As a result, men usually have a deeper understanding of how the computer works. They will try to figure it out by themselves. Women, on the other hand, would rather ask how to accomplish something new. They won't try to figure it out on their own.

That does not mean that men will read the manuals. As a matter of fact, women are more likely to read the manuals or the help files. Men will try to figure things out by experimentation.

Does that mean that men will in the final analysis know more about computers than women?

Not necessarily.

Women will ask and they will talk about the things. As a result they will learn more about the options and possibilities. They will discover things that the computer will do that men will never dream about. They may well know a great deal more than men about computers because they listen and they follow instructions. If they don't understand they will be more likely to ask questions than men, but polite questions.

Men, on the other hand, will ask more difficult and intensive questions, more of the why-type questions than women.

When teaching a new topic, both men and women are likely to ask questions that are related but are somewhat off-topic and the teacher will be reticent to respond to them because the teacher has a syllabus to cover and the teacher prepared a certain lesson.

The men will be more firm and insistent in their request to know the other material. Women will be able to accept a "no" answer.

However, in a work environment, this situation may be misunderstood. If somebody sees that a woman is having difficulty or if a woman asks for help, then she will often expect to get help only on the question that she asked. She does not want to go beyond that. A person who helps her beyond her question or a person who takes the initiative and helps when she has not asked will be deemed intrusive. The woman may well be insulted by the repeated offers for assistance.

Many men may also be put off by the assistance that was not requested and in some cases their response may be more forceful or even gruff.

These gender-based differences are reflected in a classroom.

The teacher of women may have to make decisions about what is important because the women will not be likely to ask anything beyond what button do I press.

The teacher of men will have to be prepared to give more intensive answers. He will have to know what is behind the things that he is teaching so that he can present it successfully to the classroom because he may be challenged by his students.

Most difficult, though, is a mixed class. Men are likely to be frustrated by the women and women are likely to be frustrated by the men. This situation will also apply in mixed classes but will be stronger. Men will not accept the gender differences in women and women will not accept the gender differences in men.

Surprisingly, this applies even when teachers are given in-service training courses in computers. The teachers who have taught mixed classes should be aware of and accepting of the gender differences between men and women. They have faced these experiences themselves. Yet, when teaching in-service training courses men and women seem to be equally unaccepting of the others. It is as if they forgot their experiences in their own classrooms with men and women and they act like any other students.