Abstract:

The study reported in this paper aims to contribute to a better understanding about the use of Communication Technologies in Portuguese Public Higher Education Institutions and explores gender differences in perceptions of students about the use of these technologies in supporting learning activities.
This is a descriptive and exploratory research and quantitative data was collected using an online questionnaire during the period of 27th October 2010 to 11th February 2011. A total of 2207 participations from 36 Portuguese Higher Education Institutions were validated for further analysis. Despite the multitude of variables about which data was collected, this paper reports exclusively on the results obtained concerning the use and student’s perceptions about their competences in the use of Communication Technologies.
Findings suggest that there are differences between male and female students in the use and in the perception of their own competences in the use of Communication Technologies. Significant differences are found in the use of Learning Management Systems (BlackBoard, Moodle, WebCT, etc.) in which girls use them more frequently than boys, and in the use of Publishing and Sharing Technologies (Blogs, Wikis, Flickr, Youtube, Podcast, Social Bookmarking, etc.) and Interpersonal Communication Technologies (email, MSN, Skype, etc.) in which boys use these technologies more frequently than girls do.
The results also indicate that there are gender differences in the perceptions of Portuguese students regarding their competences in the use of Communication Technologies. Male students seem to have an overall better perception of their own skills in relation to the majority of technologies considered in this study.
Specifically, males hold in high regard their competences in relation to the use of Publishing and Sharing Technologies (Blogs, Wikis, Flickr, Youtube, Podcast, Social Bookmarking, etc.) more than females do. Girls seems to think poorly of their skills in relation to the use of Collaboration Technologies (Google Docs, Social Bookmarking, Mind Maps, Wikis, Blogs, etc.) and boys positive self-perception also stands out in the use of Content Aggregation Technologies (RSS feeds, Netvibes, Google Reader, etc.) and in the use of 3D Virtual Environments (Second Life, Habbo, etc.).
As gender related issues are scarcely tended to in research studies done about the use of technology in Portugal, it is expected that the ongoing study, presented in this paper, may contribute to a more in-depth understanding about gender differences and students’ self-perceptions about the use of Communication Technologies in supporting learning activities.

Keywords:

Gender, Higher Education, Communication Technologies, Competences.