Abstract

The institutions are responsible to promote, regulate and guarantee the coordinated social action among citizens. For decades the institutional trust has been declining. This creates a major problem because institutional trust is necessary for the institutions development. Among the negative consequences that it brings, it is found that the low institutional trust is associated with low general social trust. Because of that, people feel insecure in their relationships with others and have pessimistic thoughts about the reliability of strangers, which affects social cohesion, cooperation, collective connection and tolerance between citizens, among other things. The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between social trust and institutional confidence in the Argentinean context, confidence levels, and the relationship between institutional trust and effectiveness. For these purposes, a self- administered questionnaire was designed and applied to 316 college students from four public and private universities in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The results indicate that participants have a low institutional and general social trust, there is a relationship between institutional trust and general social trust, and finally, that institutional confidence is influenced by the perception of institutions effectiveness. Despite this rather optimistic scenario, these results may help to identify the areas to start working out the problems of low levels of institutional and social trust. If the social confidence of Argentineans is greater than institutional trust, it should be strengthened these social ties as it will allow to improve social cohesion and participation, and believe that working together can improve and change the proper functioning of institutions. From this point, It is possible gradually increase the number of people as social networks. Also, as results shows from this research and previous ones, the Education in Argentina is an institution in which you trust, and it would be feasible to start and/or strengthen the process of change in educative centers. Although it is not an easy task, it is necessary for society to live better and more equitably.

Abstract

The advance in new technologies has changed the educational model considerably. On-line education has arrived with a bang at university and those degree courses linked to the field of communication have adopted this type of technologies. In just a few years, the number of courses available in the communication field that include on-line subjects has multiplied. It seems that this tendency of proliferation will continue due to a high demand for degrees in the communication field as well as the possibility of completing these degrees on-line. This paper shows the perspective that on-line journalism students at the Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid have on their studies. The results of a survey of students of the different courses that include the qualification allow us to gain a perspective of their experiences at the beginning and end of the studies. The questionnaire asks about socio-demographic traits from which we draw a sociological profile of on-line journalism student. It also delves into the motivations and expectations surrounding the decision to enrol in this mode and in its assessment both in terms of learning and the relationship between peers and teachers. Some of the conclusions point to the positive attitude of students and a satisfactory evaluation by the students.

Abstract

The change in classroom methodologies has in many cases come with the emergence of the Internet and 2.0 tools (mainly social networks). The development of a constructivist approach focused on group work means that students’ training can be improved by this type of resources as they foster important aspects such as socialization, information searching and the achievement of a common goal, etc. This work aims to analyze the information and communication technology (ICT) university learning processes and student preferences for working either inside or outside the classroom at the universities of Córdoba, Sevilla, Huelva and the Basque Country. Our objectives are focused on knowing: the students’ feelings on social software and its influence on collaborative and group work;) the social network tools they use and, if there are any differences between these universities in terms of collaborative work perceptions. The instrument for data gathering was a four-dimensional questionnaire. The main results are: students are interested in group work as a type of classroom methodology; students have little knowledge of technology tools (except for social networks). These results provide a reliable diagnostic instrument for the variables that comprise this tool.

Abstract