scholarly journals Time of Use and Patterns of Internet Consumption in University Students: A Comparative Study between Spanish-Speaking Countries

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 5087
Author(s):  
José Gómez-Galán ◽  
Diego Vergara ◽  
Eva Ordóñez-Olmedo ◽  
María Guadalupe Veytia-Bucheli

Today, the processes of virtualization in higher education are decisive. The digital paradigm has an enormous influence on the university world, and will have even more in the future. Knowing how students access the Internet, how they consume it and how long they use it would be of great value for university policy, to facilitate the proper integration of information and communication technologies (ICT). The main objective of this study is to determine the time of use of the Internet by university students in different Spanish-speaking countries in the last eight years (2012–2019). It also aims to determine whether belonging to a common cultural space has an influence on this fact. The broad sample was composed of 2463 subjects from Chile, Ecuador, Spain, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela. The results show that there is no homogeneity in the time of use and consumption patterns among the countries analyzed. The particular elements and social habits of each specific country, and multiple variables within each of them, condition their use. In conclusion, it can be argued that the integration of ICTs in university contexts is a very complex phenomenon in which multiple factors are present. In this sense, the sustainable educational policies of each country—and even of each university—must focus on their characteristics and idiosyncrasies. Importing practices from other countries, or attempting to apply common patterns of integration, may not be effective because of differences in the very different variables present in each.

2004 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 97-99
Author(s):  
Karim H. Karim

This is Gary Bunt’s second monograph on the Muslims’ use of the Internet,the first being Virtually Islamic (Cardiff, UK: The University of Wales Press:2000). It is a good contribution to the growing literature, and will appeal tostudents of contemporary Muslim societies and the sociocultural and religiousinfluence of new communication technologies. The book provides auseful list of websites containing information on Islam and Muslims.Bunt suggests that a substantial number of Muslims use the Internet asa propagation and networking tool, to dialogue with each other, and to conductresearch. For some, it is an important way to bypass state censorshipand access other media, and it acts as a means of local and global contact.The Internet is used to disseminate and obtain decisions and points of interpretationon current events, and, for some individuals who are relativelyunknown or treated as pariahs locally, to achieve fame in the larger ummah.Since September 2001, Muslims’ activities and activism on the Internethave proliferated; meanwhile, those in power have increased attempts torestrict them. There has been an increase in websites, chat rooms, and e-maillists. The author justifies linking Muslims’ uses of the Internet with jihad andfatwas by stating that these two areas have seen the most significant integrationof electronic activity with religion. However, he shuns alarmism aboutthe Internet and Islam by presenting a rational analysis and discussion.Bunt admits that a small, albeit growing, minority in Muslim-majoritycountries uses information and communication technologies. Muslim onlinediscourses are part of the contemporary discussion about Islamic identities.The Internet “has not superseded traditional forms of political expression, butis a means through which conventional boundaries and barriers can be transcended”(p. 11).


Author(s):  
Andrea Pozzali ◽  
Paolo Ferri

Developments in information and communication technologies have raised the issue of the intergenerational digital divide that can take place between “digital natives” and “digital immigrants”. Despite emphatic claims concerning how educational systems must take into account the specific characteristics of “digital natives”, sound empirical research on these topics is lacking, especially for Europe. This paper presents the results of research performed during the course of 2008, studying how university students in Italy use digital technologies. The research is based on a survey of 1086 undergraduate students at the University of Milan-Bicocca, complemented by focus groups and in-depth interviews. The results of our research show that, even if university students are familiar with digital technologies, the general possession of high level skills in accessing and using the Internet should not be taken for granted.


2012 ◽  
Vol 49 (No. 11) ◽  
pp. 540-542
Author(s):  
J. Vaněk ◽  
J. Jarolímek

The fact that the development of information and communication technologies (ICT) is a key factor of development of individuals, regions, sectors and whole countries is well known at the beginning of the 21st century. The real situation of ICT utilization is very different in particular sections and it fails to reach standards that we would expect. The sphere of the agrarian sector of the Czech Republic is a very good example. The Information and Consulting Centre FEM at the University of Agriculture in Prague (IPC) has been participating on research of the utilization ICT in agriculture for three years. According to the latest data from July 2002, 55% of agrarian enterprises are connected to the Internet, which is much less than in other sectors.


Land ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Łukasz Komorowski ◽  
Monika Stanny

The European Union is actively promoting the idea of “smart villages”. The increased uptake of new technology and in particular, the use of the internet, is seen as a vital part of strategies to combat rural decline. It is evident that those areas most poorly connected to the internet are those confronted by the greatest decline. The analysis in this paper is based on Poland, which at the time of EU accession had many deeply disadvantaged rural areas. Using fine-grained socio-economic data, an association can be found between weak internet access and rural decline in Poland. The preliminary conclusions about the utility of the smart village concept as a revitalisation tool for rural Poland point to theoretical and methodological dilemmas. Barriers to the concept’s implementation are also observed, although there is a chance they may be overcome with the continued spread of information and communication technologies in rural areas.


Author(s):  
Dmitry Namiot ◽  
Manfred Sneps-Sneppe

This chapter describes proposals for organizing university programs on the internet of things (IoT) and cyber-physical systems. The final goal is to provide a structure for a basic educational course for the internet of things and related areas. This base (template) could be used both for direct training and for building other courses, including those that are more deeply specialized in selected areas. For related areas, the authors see, for example, machine-to-machine communications and data-driven cities (smart cities) development. Obviously, the internet of things skills are in high demand nowadays, and, of course, IoT models, architectures, as well as appropriate data proceedings elements should be presented in the university courses. The purpose of the described educational course is to cover information and communication technologies used in the internet of things systems and related areas. Also, the authors discuss big data and AI issues for IoT courses and highlight the importance of data engineering.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-52
Author(s):  
Mukhtar Mukhtar ◽  
R. Ahmad Zaky El Islami ◽  
Damanhuri Damanhuri ◽  
Ferdinand Murni Hamundu

Information and communication technologies can support learning of geometry through geogebra software. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of dynamic mathematics software geogebra towards problem solving and self-efficacy. Seventy-four university students divided to one class assigned as geogebra assisted learning and the other as using conventional learning. The results showed a significant difference of problem solving between these two groups statistically. Additionally, The results showed that there is a significant difference of self-efficacy between these two groups statistically. The results indicates that the problem solving and sef-efficacy of the university students using geogebra assisted better than using conventional learning. We can conclude that the dynamic mathematics software geogebra is effective to improve problem solving and self-efficacy


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 32
Author(s):  
Alvertos Ioannis Mourikis ◽  
Romanos Kalamatianos ◽  
Ioannis Karydis ◽  
Markos Avlonitis

The Internet of Things (IoT) has already penetrated an ever-increasing array of daily aspects of life. IoTs bridge the analog and digital worlds in an unprecedented manner and degree by providing in situ sensing. Adding to the IoT the capability to collect interrelated multi-modal sensing, the use of the Internet of Multimedia Things (IoMTs) has recently been exhibited to significantly enhance the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in numerous applications, and most importantly in agrifood systems. In this work, we review key recent works in the conjunction of the three domains of IoMT, agrifood and precision agriculture and present open research directions.


2012 ◽  
pp. 684-705 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis Terán ◽  
Andreas Ladner ◽  
Jan Fivaz ◽  
Stefani Gerber

The use of the Internet now has a specific purpose: to find information. Unfortunately, the amount of data available on the Internet is growing exponentially, creating what can be considered a nearly infinite and ever-evolving network with no discernable structure. This rapid growth has raised the question of how to find the most relevant information. Many different techniques have been introduced to address the information overload, including search engines, Semantic Web, and recommender systems, among others. Recommender systems are computer-based techniques that are used to reduce information overload and recommend products likely to interest a user when given some information about the user’s profile. This technique is mainly used in e-Commerce to suggest items that fit a customer’s purchasing tendencies. The use of recommender systems for e-Government is a research topic that is intended to improve the interaction among public administrations, citizens, and the private sector through reducing information overload on e-Government services. More specifically, e-Democracy aims to increase citizens’ participation in democratic processes through the use of information and communication technologies. In this chapter, an architecture of a recommender system that uses fuzzy clustering methods for e-Elections is introduced. In addition, a comparison with the smartvote system, a Web-based Voting Assistance Application (VAA) used to aid voters in finding the party or candidate that is most in line with their preferences, is presented.


Author(s):  
Luis Terán ◽  
Andreas Ladner ◽  
Jan Fivaz ◽  
Stefani Gerber

The use of the Internet now has a specific purpose: to find information. Unfortunately, the amount of data available on the Internet is growing exponentially, creating what can be considered a nearly infinite and ever-evolving network with no discernable structure. This rapid growth has raised the question of how to find the most relevant information. Many different techniques have been introduced to address the information overload, including search engines, Semantic Web, and recommender systems, among others. Recommender systems are computer-based techniques that are used to reduce information overload and recommend products likely to interest a user when given some information about the user’s profile. This technique is mainly used in e-Commerce to suggest items that fit a customer’s purchasing tendencies. The use of recommender systems for e-Government is a research topic that is intended to improve the interaction among public administrations, citizens, and the private sector through reducing information overload on e-Government services. More specifically, e-Democracy aims to increase citizens’ participation in democratic processes through the use of information and communication technologies. In this chapter, an architecture of a recommender system that uses fuzzy clustering methods for e-Elections is introduced. In addition, a comparison with the smartvote system, a Web-based Voting Assistance Application (VAA) used to aid voters in finding the party or candidate that is most in line with their preferences, is presented.


Author(s):  
Nils B. Weidmann ◽  
Espen Geelmuyden Rød

In the aftermath of recent popular uprisings in dictatorships, many observers argued that information and communication technologies, notably the Internet, played a key role in the mobilization of political protest. This book unpacks when and under which circumstances Internet technology can benefit opposition activists aiming to mobilize protests, and when the technology plays into the hands of autocratic governments. Since autocratic governments enjoy a high degree of control over the introduction and expansion of Internet technology and over digital communication ows, the book argues that it should help them keep levels of protest low in the long-term. However, once protest has started, short-term government intervention becomes more difficult, which is why Internet technology can catalyze ongoing episodes of unrest. The book presents detailed empirical analyses of the relationship between the use of Internet technology and protest in autocracies. By leveraging new sub-national data on political protest and Internet penetration, these analysis cover more than sixty autocratic countries at the level of cities. The results show that higher levels of Internet penetration in cities reduce the overall occurrence of protest in dictatorships, but once protest has started, the Internet contributes to the continuation of protest in the same city as well as its diffusion to other locations. By examining the use of the Internet by governments in relation to other means of autocratic repression, the book also demonstrates the technological modernization of autocratic politics, where digital repression via the Internet partly substitutes traditional forms of political control.


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