Academic Digital Culture at the Latin American Universities. Case study in the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)

• In Event: Educación superior y cultura digital

Abstract

Within this proposal, I present the results of the first of a series of investigations on the development of the Internet culture in the Latin American academic circle, a specific area of interest of education studies in our region. We designed and carried out an empirical-analytical study at the UNAM. Our investigation started with the question: Which is the academic digital culture of the full-time academic staff of the institution? To respond, a quantitative, transversal and ex-post facto design was chosen, applying structured interviews to a representative sample of full-time professors and researchers selected among the faculty members. We took base on a theoretical scheme that recovers concepts from various authors in order to define the digital academic culture as a product of the transition from a printed-paper practice to a full-networked academy. The working hypothesis was that, given the investment in infrastructure and the academics' training in skills for the management of computer technologies, it was very likely that the professors and researchers made use of the online devices to carry out a wide range of activities that make them more efficient, productive and creative in their daily work, going beyond the use of them for the mere consultation of bibliography and references online. Neverthless, results point to refute the working hypothesis after discovering that the academic staff members do not use digital media, either with the frequency -quantity- or the manner -quality- that are required to demonstrate the existence of a consolidated academic digital culture at the University.

Author

• Gerardo L Dorantes