The progress experienced by society resulting from the ready availability of information through the use of technology highlights the need to develop specific learning related to informational competences (IC) in educational settings where future professionals are trained to educate others, specifically in university degrees in social sciences. This study seeks to ascertain the opinions of students enrolled in these degrees at the Universidad de Córdoba (Spain) with regard to the knowledge they consider that they possess about IC for their future professional development, through the practical application of exploratory factor analysis. The methodology designed is based on a descriptive, non-experimental, correlational survey. The results show that factor analysis is a fundamental tool for obtaining results in terms of students’ perception of their knowledge of IC because its psychometric value has confirmed construct validity and enabled us to break down the items that made up the four initial dimensions of IC into eight factors to improve the understanding and explanation of these IC.

Abstract:The present study describes the construction of a reliable and valid questionnaire that allows to investigate the incidence of the communication media in the life of children of young ages. The process was carried out in three periods: Design of a first draft, within the framework of an interdisciplinary practice of the subjects "Media Literacy and didactics application of ICT "and " Educational Mediation and Paz culture in Primary Education" that study in second of the Degree in Primary Education, from the Teacher Training College "Sagrado Corazón" (Córdoba University) and the evaluation of this by a group of experts. Analysis of the data obtained, application of the recommendations and implementation of the second draft to a total of 282 students from two

The aim of this paper is to investigate the issue of access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) at younger ages, which is leading to dependency on mobile phones, video games, and compulsive aimless internet surfing—an issue that schools have been increasingly seeking to tackle. With the appearance of emerging technologies, and not forgetting those already established, an instrument is required that will adapt to new casuistry and help to design intervention programmes in accordance with present and future patterns of use, abuse, and addiction. Studies such as the one proposed here will provide data about the profile of this population in order to improve programmes and influence the ICT policies rolled out by central and local governments. The chief aim of this paper is to construct and validate an instrument capable of evaluating problems experienced by young people in relation to technology use, abuse, and addiction within the programmes developed in Spain. The research design used in this study is mixed empirical, non-experimental, and sequential in nature in three stages: interviews conducted with 11 prevention professionals, group of 11 experts and pilot group of 30 participants in indicated prevention programmes. The findings of the study indicate that the instrument fulfills the parameters established to be considered a systematic empirically sustainable instrument, since the young population needs to identify these patterns in order to understand and prevent risk behaviours associated with their use.

En este trabajo se presenta parte de los resultados de una tesis de maestría donde se estudia al foro virtual como recurso integrado a estrategias didácticas para promover el aprendizaje colaborativo. Para el análisis de las intervenciones de los foros virtuales, se adoptó la propuesta elaborada por Silva Quiróz (2007) buscando validar si mediante el trabajo realizado por los estudiantes en estos foros se favorece el trabajo colaborativo. El foro virtual es una de las actividades curriculares que se utilizan en una asignatura presencial de la carrera de Ingeniería Civil. De acuerdo con los resultados obtenidos, se puede afirmar que es posible desarrollar trabajo colaborativo en la comunidad virtual integrada por alumnos si los docentes explican adecuadamente cómo realizar la intervenciones y si el tema en discusión resulta atractivo para los alumnos.

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