Premsa gratuïta, un model de comunicació local = Free press, a local communication model

The relationship between non-institutional free press and local communication is quite particular since this type of press forms a very characteristic model of local communication, showing that advertising suffices to finance an information product addressed to a fairly well-defined readership as long as this product has a good advertising sales department and an effective distribution in its operating area. This paper discusses the present situation of the free press in Catalonia, where this phenomenon has been quite prominent. It points out the main features of this type of press and makes a review of its history, which runs from the euphoria of its early years and its expansion and consolidation, to the current crisis

Improving college access and success for low-income students: Evidence from a large need-based grant program

Using comprehensive administrative data on France's single largest financialaid program, this paper provides new evidence on the impact of large-scaleneed-based grant programs on the college enrollment decisions, persistenceand graduation rates of low-income students. We exploit sharp discontinuitiesin the grant eligibility formula to identify the impact of aid on student outcomesat different levels of study. We find that eligibility for an annual cashallowance of 1,500 euros increases college enrollment rates by up to 5 percentagepoints. Moreover, we show that need-based grants have positive effectson student persistence and degree completion.

La Participación de los estudiantes en la universidad: dificultades percibidas y propuestas de mejora = Student participation in the university: perceived problems and proposals for improvement

Este artículo se centra en el análisis de la participación de los estudiantes en el gobierno de la universidad y muestra específicamente las principales dificultades que hay para ella y las propuestas que pueden facilitar la implicación de los estudiantes en el funcionamiento de las universidades. A partir de una investigación desarrollada durante los cursos 2007-08 y 2008-09, en la que se utilizaron cuestionarios y grupos de discusión con estudiantes y entrevistas dirigidas al profesorado, se obtiene información sobre los principales obstáculos para la participación estudiantil. El estudio realizado muestra que, de acuerdo con la tónica general reflejada en otras investigaciones sobre esta misma temática en nuestro contexto, la participación de los estudiantes en los distintos estamentos universitarios es escasa. Ahora bien, la metodología seguida en esta investigación permite contrastar las opiniones de los estudiantes con las percepciones del profesorado y obtener así matices significativos que muestran las principales direcciones que hay que tomar para facilitar un cambio de orientación en el asunto. Los cambios que debemos emprender están relacionados no solo con la mejora de los mecanismos de información acerca de los canales de participación, sino también con el replanteamiento de los procesos participativos por parte de la universidad, así como del papel del profesorado y, específicamente, de los coordinadores de los órganos de gestión más próximos a los estudiantes. En las conclusiones del documento se presentan las propuestas de mejora dirigidas a potenciar la implicación de los estudiantes en el funcionamiento universitario. Entre ellas se apuntan las siguientes: mejorar la información y los canales de comunicación con los estudiantes, mejorar los procesos electorales, ofrecer formación a los estudiantes para la participación y formación al profesorado acerca de las metodologías, recursos e instrumentos que pueden repercutir en la motivación de los estudiantes

The Impact of ICTs on Lecturer and Student Interaction in University Education Processes

Interaction is a basic element in any educational process, and it is something that needs to be reconsidered in the light of technology. In order to examine the methodological changes that ICTs bring to teaching from an interaction perspective, a study was carried out at the University of Lleida to observe interaction processes in various face-to-face, blended learning and e-learning subjects. The methodological design was based on three data collection techniques: documentary analysis of subject curricula, lecturer and student questionnaires, and lecturer interviews. The data showed that, as the online component of subjects increased, the lecturers and students used more technological tools to communicate (e-mail, forums, chats, social networks, etc.). Furthermore, we found that the lecturers and students basically communicated for academic purposes. While they hardly ever communicated for personal reasons (guidance, support, etc.), they claimed that closer contact with a non-academic focus would be preferable. We also observed that the students’ work was more individual in e-learning subjects. Although there is still a considerable way to go in ICT-mediated lecturer-student interaction, both the lecturers and students recognise the potential of such technologies, even though they still do not use them as they feel they should.

Using problem-based learning for introducing producer theory and market structure in intermediate microeconomics

This paper shows how instructors can use the problem‐based learning method to introduce producer theory and market structure in intermediate microeconomics courses. The paper proposes a framework where different decision problems are presented to students, who are asked to imagine that they are the managers of a firm who need to solve a problem in a particular business setting. In this setting, the instructors’ role isto provide both guidance to facilitate student learning and content knowledge on a just‐in‐time basis

One, two, (three), infinity: Newspaper and lab beauty-contest experiments

"Beauty-contest" is a game in which participants have to choose, typically, a number in [0,100], the winner being the person whose number is closest to a proportion of the average of all chosen numbers. We describe and analyze Beauty-contest experiments run in newspapers in UK, Spain, and Germany and find stable patterns of behavior across them, despite the uncontrollability of these experiments. These results are then compared with lab experiments involving undergraduates and game theorists as subjects, in what must be one of the largest empirical corroborations of interactive behavior ever tried. We claim that all observed behavior, across a wide variety of treatments and subject pools, can be interpretedas iterative reasoning. Level-1 reasoning, Level-2 reasoning and Level-3 reasoning are commonly observed in all the samples, while the equilibrium choice (Level-Maximum reasoning) is only prominently chosen by newspaper readers and theorists. The results show the empirical power of experiments run with large subject-pools, and open the door for more experimental work performed on the rich platform offered by newspapers and magazines.

TV or not TV? Subtitling and English skills

We study the influence of television translation techniques on the quality of the English spoken across the EU and OCDE. We identify a large positive effect for subtitled original version as opposed to dubbed television, which loosely corresponds to between four and twenty years of compulsory English education at school. We also show that the importance of subtitled television is robust to a wide array of specifications.We then find that subtitling and better English skills have an influence on high-tech exports, international student mobility, and other economic and social outcomes.

El Misterio de la biblioteca Mil.lènium o cómo promover relaciones colaborativas desde la participación del alumnado = The Mystery of the Mil.lènium Library: How to Promote Collaborative Relationships Through Student Participation

La pedagogía crítica acentúa la falta de neutralidad de la escuela respecto a las relaciones de poder que existen en la sociedad. Su propuesta consiste en modificar las relaciones de poder en el aula en el sentido de transformar las relaciones coercitivas –las que reproducen las relaciones existentes– en relaciones colaborativas partiendo del reconocimiento y la participación de los alumnos en las actividades escolares. Desde esta perspectiva, uno de los objetivos de las actividades es que los niños produzcan «textos identitarios», entendidos como artefactos que los alumnos se pueden apropiar para promover su desarrollo cognitivo. El artículo muestra el trabajo educativo integrado desde Educación Infantil hasta 6.º de Primaria de una escuela de la provincia de Girona en la que el 97% de los alumnos es de origen extranjero y cuyo propósito es incrementar las habilidades lingüísticas orales y escritas en la lengua escolar, así como la utilización de otros lenguajes multimedia. La unidad didáctica consiste en la elaboración de un cuento a lo largo de un curso escolar por parte de todo el alumnado con la ayuda de los profesores, de dos autores y de tres ilustradores. Cada ciclo escolar decide los personajes y el escenario y explicita textualmente el transcurso de la acción. Los ilustradores producen las imágenes y los autores posibilitan la transición de aquello que ha elaborado un ciclo al producto del siguiente. La actividad basada en la participación y la utilización de procedimientos democráticos de decisión se inserta en la propuesta educativa y lingüística de la escuela, así como en sus concreciones curriculares. Los resultados muestran que los textos construidos por los niños se apoyan en sus «fondos de conocimiento» sociales y familiares y constituyen una fuente de progreso en la consecución de las competencias básicas y en la construcción de valores democráticos

Tornadoes and waterspouts in Catalonia (1950-2009)

This paper presents a preliminary climatology of tornadoes and waterspouts in Catalonia (NE Iberian Peninsula). A database spanning 60 yr (1950-2009) has been developed on the basis of information collected from various sources such as weather reports, insurance companies, newspapers and damage surveys. This database has been subjected to a rigorous validation process, and the climatology describes its main features: timing, spatial pattern, and trends in the tornado and waterspout distribution. Results show the highest concentration of tornadoes from August to October, the highest density in the heavily populated coastal areas and a growing positive trend that is likely more closely linked to an increase in observation and perception rather than a real climatic trend.

Faculty-librarians collaboration in an e-learning experience : resources management and training in Open University of Catalonia (UOC)

The traditional model of learning based on knowledge transfer doesn't promote the acquisition of information-related competencies and development of autonomous learning. More needs to be done to embrace learner-centred approaches, based on constructivism, collaboration and co-operation. This new learning paradigm is aligned with the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) requirements. In this sense, a learning experience based in faculty' librarian collaboration was seen as the best option for promoting student engagement and also a way to increase information-related competences in Open University of Catalonia (UOC) academic context. This case study outlines the benefits of teacher-librarian collaboration in terms of pedagogy innovation, resources management and introduction of open educational resources (OER) in virtual classrooms, Information literacy (IL) training and use of 2.0 tools in teaching. Our faculty-librarian's collaboration aims to provide an example of technology-enhanced learning and demonstrate how working together improves the quality and relevance of educational resources in UOC's virtual classrooms. Under this new approach, while teachers change their role from instructors to facilitators of the learning process and extend their reach to students, libraries acquire an important presence in the academic learning communities.

Open Apps: Opening Teaching Experiences and Applications

The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) is an online university that makes extensive use of information and communication technologies to provide education. Ever since its establishment in 1995, the UOC has developed and tested methodologies and technological support services to meet the educational challenges posed by its student community and its teaching and management staff. The know-how it has acquired in doing so is the basis on which it has created the Open Apps platform, which is designed to provide access to open source technical applications, information on successful learning and teaching experiences, resources and other solutions, all in a single environment. Open Apps is an open, online catalogue, the content of which is available to all students for learning purposes, all IT professionals for downloading and all teachers for reusing.To contribute to the transfer of knowledge, experience and technology, each of the platform¿s apps comes with full documentation, plus information on cases in which it has been used and related tools. It is hoped that such transfer will lead to the growth of an external partner network, and that this, in turn, will result in improvements to the applications and teaching/learning practices, and in greater scope for collaboration.Open Apps is a strategic project that has arisen from the UOC's commitment to the open access movement and to giving knowledge and technology back to society, as well as its firm belief that sustainability depends on communities of interest.

Efficiency and Equity in Learning Communities and schools

Traditionally, school efficiency has been measured as a function of educational production. In the last two decades, however, studies in the economics of education have indicated that more is required to improve school efficiency: researchers must explore how significant changes in school organization affect the performance of at-risk students. In this paper we introduce Henry Levin’s adoption of the X-efficiency approach to education and we describe the efficient and cost-effective characteristics of one Learning Communities Project School that significantly improved its student outcomes and enrollment numbersand reduced its absenteeism rate to zero. The organizational change that facilitatedthese improvements defined specific issues to address. Students’ school success became the focus of the school project, which also offered specific incentives, selected teachers, involved parents and community members in decisions, and used the most efficient technologies and methods. This case analysis reveals new two elements—family training and community involvement—that were not explicit parts of Levin’s adaptation. The case of the Antonio Machado Public School should attract the attention of both social scientists and policy makers