Use and access to ICT in students of public secondary schools in Chihuahua City, Mexico: inclusion in teaching and digital literacy

This paper addresses the issue of the digital divide in students of public secondary schools at Chihuahua City, Mexico. It seeks to identify potential inequality of opportunities with regards to subjects’ access to information, knowledge and education through the ICT (internet, mobile telephony, broadband and television). The study takes three schools as investigative stage, using the survey as a data collection instrument, identifying patterns of behavior regarding: general knowledge of them, access to computer equipment and internet, and characterization of their use. Other aspects of analysis are the identification of the educational level of parents and access to technology resources available for academic and non-academic purposes in various application areas (home, school and social environment). The proposal concludes, that it is through the recollection of alternatives suggested by the teachers themselves to incorporate ICT for teaching purposes in a systematic and planned fashion, whose greatest reflection manifests in better digital literacy indicators.

Pupil participation in school life: an approach from the educational community

The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC, 1989) is currently the most ratified international treaty. Several authors have highlighted its potential for both a moral education and citizenship. However, paradoxically, different studies report its limited or occasional incorporation into school practices. This article explores experiences of participation in schools,the third P of the CRC, from the plurality of voices and actors of the educational community,by means of 14 discussion groups in 11 autonomous communities in Spain. Discourse analysis evidence low levels of student participation in school life. But, at the same time, a favorable educational environment for the development of projects that contribute to child participation is found, as well as for the incorporation of the CRC as a mover and a referential integrator of the different schools projects. However, it is also an educational background conductive to projects for its development, such as the incorporation of the CRC as a referential integrator of the schools projects.