Abstract
Marc Prensky (2001) claims that students of today have been exposed to digital technologies since their birth, and that these "toys and tools of the digital age" (p1) are embedded into their existence: They internalise digital technologies rather than adopt them. This paper presents a preliminary study undertaken to explore undergraduate students' frequency of use of particular digital 'toys and tools' (or information and communication technologies - ICTs). The ICTs selected for the study were mobile phones, email, synchronous chat (text, and video/audio), asynchronous text chat, computer applications and computer games. In addition to examining the frequency of use of these ICTs, the study looked at the perceived value of the ICTs for work and for social interactions. One hundred and fifty (57 females, 98 males) students enrolled in a three year undergraduate information technology program at a large Australian university participated in the study. Findings from the study revealed that females are just as comfortable in using modern day ICTs used by IT professionals as their male counterparts, however, females are less comfortable in using computer games. This is of concern to the author and should be to other educators and it seems that computer game-play is to become the pedagogy of the near future (Gee, 2003). If this is so, then 'girls' will need to become more comfortable and apt in playing computer games, otherwise there is a high danger that their learning will be left behind they male counterparts.