Content area
First, second, third, and fifth grade students in an elementary school were observed using computers during a period of five weeks. The computer culture in the school was described in terms of internal factors (students; social context; hardware; software; computer access and implementation) and external factors (culture; community, district, school; home environment). Staff and students were interviewed, and students' attitudes were surveyed. Gender equity regarding computer use appeared high in the school in spite of no special efforts to promote girls' computer use. Important factors contributing to that finding may include: relatively high computer access in the school; frequent use of computer tools (word processing, and graphics); frequent computer use in the language arts area; high parental interest and expectations for their children's computer uses; and high computer access and use at home for both sexes. However, some computer-related gender differences emerged in relation to software preferences, use of computers, and student interaction. The fifth grade boys appeared to have a higher preference for games than did the girls. The opposite was true for tool use. The fifth grade girls rated computer tools and some games/drill and practice higher than did boys. First grade boys appeared especially excited by the drill and practice/games with speed, navigation, and scoring elements. When computer access was limited and unstructured boys tended to dominate use. Computers were mainly used in computer labs and teachers indicated a preference for computer use in a lab setting rather than use of a classroom computer. Girls indicated higher preference than boys for using computers by themselves. In spite of predominantly individual use of computers, there was a high level of peer interaction during use, which students appeared to enjoy. The interactions were mainly same-sex and task-related. Students were very task-focused during computer use and computer time was rated highly compared to other activities in the school among both girls and boys. The study gave a holistic picture of computer uses to explain gender differences, or lack thereof, in student reactions to computers and software.