No abstract

Gender issues are of growing importance in the European and Spanish rural areas. The literature reflects that women have traditionally been linked to marginal positions in economic life, social activities and even political representation at the local level. Local development programs that have been implemented in Europe’s rural areas have had among its objectives the improvement of the articulation of local communities. To reach them, it has been fostered, among others, a gender perspective, promoting both productive activities led by women and their participation as stakeholders in the management and decision-making structures of such programmes. In this paper, we addressed this latter issue. The study focuses on a sample of 30 relevant social actors linked to the implementation of a rural development programme in the county of Rincón de Ademuz (Valencia, Spain) from the mid-1990s to recent date. Through Social Network Analysis, gender differences and women’s roles within the social network are studied in two differentiated periods. This analysis reveals that despite women representing a minority among the relevant stakeholders, their level of participation, prestige, position in the network, and frequency of relationships, among other indicators, are comparable with respect to those sustained by men. Therefore, it cannot be said, as reflected in some of the literature, that women tend to occupy marginal positions in the structure of social relations of local development programs.

Beneficiario de la ayuda para contratos predoctorales para la formación de profesorado universitario, convocatoria 2014 (FPU14/05550), financiada por el Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte. AbstractThe teacher-student technology gap and the lack of attention in the design of attractive and motivating learning methodologies often result in student´s demotivation and poor academic performance. To this end, from the research field, a series of methodologies and tools have been developed, such as gamification, as well as the introduction of ICT in lessons.By implementingSocrative, a classroom app to engage students, we tried to measure the evolution of students' knowledge after the use of ICT and more interactive lessons. In addition, we tried to relate the level of motivation to students' seating plan in the classroom (in rows). We also tried to analyse students' preferences and their feedback of the new techniques and methodologies used during the classes.The main result of the research is that the use of ICT and gamification in the classroom improved students' motivation and learning, especially those who were less motivated. The direct relation between the students' seats in the classroom and their motivation was verified. At the same time, the learning differences between all the students in the classroom were reduced, achieving a balance between the learning and the motivation of the students.

This article shares the strategy for mainstreaming the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the University of Valencia (UV), which, although limited in its scale, may compel other Higher Education Institutions to think in technological and social progress aligned with the 2030 Agenda. It explicates a process driven by the UV, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the United Nations (UN), and in collaboration with the Service for Geospatial, Information, and Telecommunications Technologies from the UN Support Base in Valencia (Spain) to prepare the online event: “The United Nations We Want”. It was the culmination of a collaborative project between students and faculties from different scientific, technological, social, legal, humanistic, and health disciplines that structure the University of Valencia. The intention was that new generations experience the role they can have to shape the future we want, while the university community as a whole can become part of transformative institutional change that draws on both top-down and bottom-up strategies in pursuit of Education for Sustainable Development.

No abstract