Relacions entre la identitat catalana i la percepció de vitalitat etnolingüística en una mostra d’estudiants universitaris

This article analyses, on the one hand, the perception of ethno-linguistic vitality in a sample of university students in the province of Girona, and, on the other, links this perceived vitality to the feeling of identity in the group to which they belong. 112 Catalan-speaking students who described themselves as Catalan (Catalan identity) responded to the questionnaire on subjective vitality, in terms of adaptation to Catalan. This instrument assesses the beliefs about one’s own group’s and its language’s vitality (in this case Catalan) and that of the exocentric group and language (in this case Spanish). The results show that the students see their language (Catalan) as having greater status and institutional support than Spanish, but a lower demographic impact (birth rate, immigration, mixed marriages, emigration). Identity is also positively correlated with the perception of ethno-linguistic perception. These results are discussed in relation to the role of vitality in the choice of the language for education (Catalan versus Spanish) and day-to-day communication, and the level at which language policy is defined in order to promote communication in Catalan in the fields of business, politics, education and the media

El cant coral infantil i juvenil educa en valors, hàbits i competències

This doctoral thesis is the result of the experience, continuous practice and day to day work as head of infant and youth choirs that the candidate has developed for over more than thirty years. The motivation, the concerns and the questions formulated with regards to choral singing, have underpinned this research. The thesis has focused on the learning of values, habits and competences in order to demonstrate that singing in an infant or youth choir is educational and goes far beyond the mere act of singing in a choir. We can therefore state that education is continuous, it never comes to an end and, furthermore, it unfolds in divergent ways. In summary to show that singing in an infant or youth choir is educational in the widest possible sense.

Enhancing learning beyond the classroom: blogging and other social networking tools

Blogging has become one of the key ingredients of the so-called socials networks. This phenomenon has indeed invaded the world of education. Connections between people, comments on each other posts, and assessment of innovation are usually interesting characteristics of blogs related to students and scholars. Blogs have become a kind of new form of authority, bringing about (divergent) discussions which lead to creation of knowledge. The use of blogs as an innovative, educational tool is not at all new. However, their use in universities is not very widespread yet. Blogging for personal affairs is rather commonplace, but blogging for professional affairs – teaching, research and service, is scarce, despite the availability of ready-to-use, free tools. Unfortunately, Information Society has not reached yet enough some universities: not only are (student) blogs scarcely used as an educational tool, but it is quite rare to find a blog written by University professors. The Institute of Computational Chemistry of the University of Girona and the Department of Chemistry of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona has joined forces to create “InnoCiència”, a new Group on Digital Science Communitation. This group, formed by ca. ten researchers, has promoted the use of blogs, twitters. wikis and other tools of Web 2.0 in activities in Catalonia concerning the dissemination of Science, like Science Week, Open Day or Researchers’ Night. Likewise, its members promote use of social networking tools in chemistry- and communication-related courses. This communication explains the outcome of social-network experiences with teaching undergraduate students and organizing research communication events. We provide live, hands-on examples and interactive ground to show how blogs and twitters can be used to enhance the yield of teaching and research. Impact of blogging and other social networking tools on the outcome of the learning process is very depending on the target audience and the environmental conditions. A few examples are provided and some proposals to use these techniques efficiently to help students are hinted