Technology Integration

I’ve been noticing the last several years the gender differences related to technology use. In our lab before school, about 27 students (grades 5 and 6 mostly) can be found interacting with each other and the Internet games they have found on sites like MiniClip. (I don’t allow point and shoot or fighting games if you’re wondering about that.)  
 The gender split is 15% female and 85% male.  The girls spend their time, as do the boys, finding desktop pictures, but while boys ride virtual skateboards and trick bikes, girls tend to read stories about Hannah Montana, visit sites like girlsense.com . I’m wondering about what can be done to equalize that ratio. Perhaps it’s because this is a rural area, but more likely than not I suspect time worn sterotyping by well meaning parents is at the root of this. 
Yesterday we broke up the class into boys and girls. Each group had a turn at launching a pumpkin at a target. The boys won the toss and went first. The girls finally won. It was interesting to see how each gender struggles with nailing down the variables such as cannon height, angle, velocity and mass. There was no difference in this third grade group in that regard.
So I’m thinking that to be effective, we need to start in the primary grades. Next week, I’ll introduce computer programming via Scratch, a free program for Macs and PC’s.