Miller, Schweingruber, and Brandenburg's (2001) article examines middle school students' use of computers in the context of gender differences . The authors establish, through a review of the literature, that in the past there was a real or perceived gender divide in computing prowess. Although the nature of the study questions appears to establish that they seek to examine whether this gender gap still exists, no clear research questions with defined parameters are formulated and the focus of their findings and scope of their discussion seem to me to be outside their research context. Miller et al. conducted survey-based research examining several areas: students' perceptions of their computer abilities and how they acquired those abilities, students' access to computers, and the purposes for which students use computers. These questions were examined with gender as the independent variable. The authors were particularly attentive to socioeconomic factors that may influence access to computers and attempted to mitigate this problem by employing a stratified cluster sampling technique for participant selection, although they did not clearly specify how closely participants were clustered (multiple schools in a district were clustered together). represented but it is not known whether entire classes from each school were sampled). The authors use levels of participation in a school free/reduced lunch program to determine school socioeconomic status (SES); it is unclear whether this is an accepted practice in American research. However, in my own experience, SES data can be skewed if schools are on the border between two economic zones, because wealthier students may be inclined to participate in an existing meal program for reasons of convenience. base.T...... middle of article ......Simard, 2009).The authors provided some interesting data and, at least among the students in their study, showed that both boys and girls Girls now use computers at a similar level and have similar perceptions of their computing abilities. The value of the study, however, lies in the research proposed and not in the conclusion it drew. Works Cited Miller, LM, Schweingruber, H. and Bradenburg, CL (2001). Middle school students’ technology practices and preferences: Reexamining gender differences. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 10(2), 125-140. Molluzzo, J. & Dwyer, C. (2009). Gender and tech careers: the gap persists. Retrieved from http://www.isedj.org/7/21/ISEDJ.7%2821%29.Molluzzo.pdf Klawe, M., Whitney, T. and Simard, C. (2009). Women in Computing --- Take 2 Retrieved from http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1461947