Youngsters are rapidly shifting roles, from consumers of media and technology to partakers and inventors of new social and educational technology applications. Teenagers, indiscriminate of gender, often use visual and social media to build relationships and self identity. The distinctive characteristics of the new generation of teens should be used to target educationally entertaining experiences to augment learning via interactive digital TV [1]. But how are young boys and girls different in their preferences for educational TV entertainment programs?

Svoen reports on research investigations into diverse uses of TV and news media by adolescents--as consumers, contributors, and architects of educational materials. A nonrepresentative large sample of adolescents in Norway was surveyed online; follow-up interviews were conducted with a small focus group. The majority of the participants had access to a mobile phone, a television, a computer, the Internet, and a DVD/video player.

The online survey results revealed that boys barely accessed the Internet more, but substantially used computers more than girls. The adolescents in the study favored watching films on DVD/video over going to movie theaters. The multitasking participants acquired pleasure from combining online chatting, playing computer games or music, and watching TV with reading and homework. However, the boys and girls differed in their enjoyment of the types of computerized and simulation games. The boys preferred computers as a substitute for the TV, while the girls indicated no partiality for mobile phones and computers. The subjects expressed appreciation for precise and fast Internet access to digital games, music, and information in vast databases.

The survey results undeniably show that adolescents are capable of using technology to produce and exhibit novel artistic, educational, and social multimedia application materials. The findings in the research study are timely, vital, and useful for creating gender-based educationally entertaining materials, accessible via the Internet and interactive digital televisions.