One of the fundamental topics in the education of students enrolled in computer-related degrees is that of Boolean algebra. This is because it allows the expression of several problems related to digital design, artificial intelligence, databases, compilers, and formal languages, among others, as a sequence of Boolean operations and variables, which can be dealt with by using Boolean algebra methods to optimize algorithms, minimize digital components, and so forth. This study presents a piece of web-based software, denominated as MiniBool, which has been developed with the objective of supporting the learning of Boolean algebra in a blended learning setting. This educational proposal gives students the opportunity to reinforce learning at any time and in any place. It additionally increases the learners' motivation by including gamification, through the use of a ranking that shows the students' level of participation. MiniBool was evaluated by means of a formal experiment, which was carried out with Discrete Mathematics students at a higher education institution in Mexico, where two groups were formed randomly: A control group, whose members attended classes and reinforced their knowledge in a traditional manner with a pencil and paper, and an experimental group, which learned in a blended learning context, receiving the same classes as the control group, but reinforcing what they had learned using MiniBool. The statistical results obtained indicate that the use of MiniBool has a positive and motivating effect on learning and that a greater academic performance is achieved than when the traditional teaching-learning method is applied.

Based on the analysis of 1241 documents published in Mexico (2002Mexico ( -2012 concerning curriculum studies, we find that the issue of innovation was addressed in 6 out of 10 research papers that focused on the higher education level (60.4 %). It shows an increase in empirical research, quantitative and qualitative, that accounts for the process of implementation of innovative curriculum models and recover the experiences of his actors. There is still a predominance of neoliberal discourse and a vertical approach in curricular reforms, the "top-down curriculum design", but there are also examples of active agency of actors (mostly teachers and students), ranging from acts of resistance and rejection, to proactive experiences in their academic communities based on the organization of groups of teachers or researchers who took a leading role and achieved successful experiences related to the needs of their context. The lack of a systemic change approach, and especially appropriate teacher training processes, are the main obstacle to educational change prescribed in the curricular reforms in Mexico. In higher education are two important issues: the competency based education approach and the curricular flexibility. In both terms prevails polysemy, and there are no consistent attempts to innovation through them in the sense of changing conceptions and practices in the classrooms. The competencies approach suffers a "pedagogical vacuum", and in some curricular reforms it has tried to fill in several ways, primarily the adoption of business models or neo-behaviorists conceptions transferred to universities. The flexible curriculum is not only a technical issue, because of its implications in the management and administration of universities, as well as in school practices and processes. There is evidence that the most important problems in their implementation concerns legal aspects, academic organization and operation, as well as by the lack of mentoring and academic mobility of students and teachers.Keywords: curricular reforms; higher education; innovation of curriculum models; competencies and curriculum; curricular flexibility Introduction Curriculum Studies in MexicoIn the field of curriculum in Mexico it is impossible to find an unique or comprehensive approach that could include all and each of the subjects of study, problems or situations that pertain to such field. Depending on the way curriculum is conceived, the idea of curriculum research and its method will be determined, and so will be fixed, at the level of intervention, the conceptual and technical character of its design and evaluation. But, at the same time, although contemporary curriculum research has been originated in the United States its recontextualization worldwide in nations with distinctive histories and cultures (as Mexico) underline its localized and reconstructed character (Pinar, 2014). Following Kumar's ideas (2011) it is possible to identify three phases in the evolution of the studies about curriculum in Mexico. The first ...

Hoy más que nunca, ante el anuncio de un “nuevo modelo educativo” para la educación básica mexicana, es necesaria una mirada al fondo de la problemática que se genera cuando se instaura por decreto una reforma curricular. Es así que esta obra cobra gran relevancia, primero por el análisis que hace de lo sucedido con la Reforma Integral de la Educación Básica (RIEB), y segundo, por el escenario que podemos anticipar a través su lectura para lo que pude ser el devenir de la nueva reforma en su carácter de proyecto sello de la administración educativa en turno.

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