10 Tips For Getting Girl's Involved With IT

• Design lessons that ask students to research women's contributions to the fields of maths, science and technology.
  

• Involve girls in building their own computer and remove the myth that girls don't tinker.
  

• Introduce girls to technically competent women - create role models of "techno-savvy" women.  This might be a female teacher, parent or community representee.
  

• Promote girls as experts and publicise their skills and technical achievements, for example, in helping to set up the school's new network or participating in a technology fair or competition.
  

• Pay attention to how women are portrayed in software and computer games - make this a discussion in class.
  

• Involve girls in IT from an early age.
  

• Have girls work separately from boys to design a classroom website.
  

• Keep computer activities relevant and related to the curriculum.
  

• Be on the lookout for inequities and take into account patterns and practices at home and in school that favour certain students use of IT over others.
  

• Establish "driving rules", pair boys with girls, or have fixed patterns of rotation within the lesson, week or term.