Towards an education for critical and active digital citizenship in the university

Partimos del modelo neo-republicano de ciudadanía propuesto por Habermas para situarlo en el contexto de la era digital. Se define al ciudadano digital como una persona que ejerce sus derechos en internet de ciudadanía desde unos principios éticos y críticos coherentes con un activismo político, con el fin de promover el cambio social. Este estudio se ha centrado en la evaluación de la ciudadanía digital mediante la Escala de Ciudadanía Digital de Choi, Glassman y Cristol (2017), con el objetivo de constatar qué perfil, dimensiones y necesidades de ciudadanía digital caracterizan al alumnado universitario entrevistado (n=250). Los resultados manifiestan que los jóvenes universitarios tienen habilidades técnicas y competencias digitales altas, así como un uso muy asiduo de los medios digitales. Sin embargo, las dimensiones de enfoque crítico y activismo político en internet o ciberactivismo resultan deficitarias. Además, el hecho de buscar información o informarse mediante medios digitales provoca significativamente un mayor nivel de ciudadanía digital, mientras que la realización de actividades y tareas académicas universitarias no aporta ningún incremento. En conclusión, el nivel educativo universitario se enfrenta al reto de fomentar la educación para una ciudadanía digital crítica y activa, especialmente en su dimensión de activismo o implicación online en todos los aspectos del proceso de enseñanza aprendizaje.We start with the neo-republican model of citizenship proposed by Habermas to situate it in the context of the digital age. The digital citizen is defined as a person who exercises their rights on the Internet of citizenship from ethical and critical principles consistent with a political activism, in order to promote social change. This study has focused on the evaluation of digital citizenship through the Digital Citizenship Scale of Choi, Glassman and Cristol (2017), with the aim of ascertaining, what profile, dimensions and needs of digital citizenship characterize the university students interviewed (n=250). The results show that young university students have high digital skills and technical skills, as well as a very regular use of digital media. However, the dimensions of critical approach and political activism o cyberactivsim are deficient. Finally, the fact of seeking information or information through digital means significantly leads to greater digital citizenship, while the accomplishment of activities and academic university tasks does not bring any increase. In conclusion, the university educational level faces the challenge of promoting critical and active digital citizenship education, especially in its dimension of activism or online engagement in all aspects of the teaching-learning process.peerReviewe

Equidad estructural en los sistemas educativos europeos

The European Union has opted for a competitive and dynamic economy without losing social cohesion. Education is one of the pillars on which it is based to achieve this objective, but also a crucial element from which to ensure equity and social cohesion. The present study approaches, with a qualitative approach through documentary research, what equity measures are being developed from the educational systems of 32 European countries and what equity profiles can be established between countries. The analysis allows to show progress in the line intended, but also the use of practices and educational policies inconsistent and even contrary to equity and social and educational inclusion.La Unión Europea ha apostado por convertirse en una economía competitiva y dinámica sin perder por ello cohesión social. La educación es uno de los pilares en los que se basa para alcanzar dicho objetivo, pero también un elemento crucial desde el que velar por la equidad y la cohesión social. El presente estudio aborda, con un enfoque cualitativo mediante la investigación documental, qué medidas estructurales de equidad se están desarrollando desde los sistemas educativos de 32 países europeos y qué perfiles de equidad pueden establecerse entre los países. El análisis permite mostrar avances en la línea pretendida, pero también el uso de prácticas y políticas educativas incoherentes e incluso contrarias a la equidad y la inclusión social y educativa.

Educating Digital Citizens: An Opportunity to Critical and Activist Perspective of Sustainable Development Goals

The 2030 Agenda sets out seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The educational goal is to promote the education of citizens on sustainable development, among other things. Educating today’s digital citizens on sustainability means training them for justice and social activism, commitment and political engagement. However, research into the subject shows a lack of consistency in the education of university students. This paper presents a study of students of Education, on education on sustainability through the practice of active and critical digital citizenship. A quasi-experimental method was used to learn about the behaviors of digital citizens, and intervention was carried out by means of an SDG-focused workshop and observation of the final level of commitment. The results show a positive level of commitment and digital activism around content related to sustainable development, which can be addressed from the university syllabus in a cross-curricular way

I Am Niqabi: From Existential Unease to Cyber-Fundamentalism

Currently, niqabi women are more and more visible, even in traditionally non-Muslim societies. However, there is a deep ignorance with regard to their worldview in general and about them in particular. The aim of this paper, which is based on a research carried out using the Grounded Theory, is to give answer to three fundamental questions: did niqabi women belonging to the Telegram channel Orgullo niqabi choose to become niqabis after experiencing some kind of crisis or existential unease? Has the grouping of these women in said channel contributed to the polarization of their posture on the niqab in some way? Additionally, if that is the case, has said polarization fueled or given rise to some ideology in particular? One of our conclusions, after conducting 27 in-depth interviews, is that most of these women opted for being niqabi and Muslim in response to the existential unease they experienced, which somehow kept them searching for some meaning in their lives. Another interesting aspect we have observed is that these women have reinforced their posture on the niqab, polarizing their perception in a fundamentalist way. Additionally, our third conclusion is that these women are cyber-fundamentalists, given that, besides the reactionary nature of their ideology, they construct it in a modern way

Measuring Digital Citizenship: A Comparative Analysis

This paper aims at showing a state of the art about digital citizenship from the methodological point of view when it comes to measuring this construct. The review of the scientific literature offers at least ten definitions and nine different scales of measurement. The comparative and diachronic analysis of the content of the definitions shows us two conceptions of digital citizenship, some more focused on digital competences and others on critical and activist aspects. This paper replicates and compares three scales of measurement of digital citizenship selected for their relevance and administered in a sample of 366 university students, to analyze their psychometric properties and the existing coincidences and divergences between the three. The most outstanding conclusion is that not all of them seem to measure the same construct, due to its diversity of dimensions. An online activism dimension needs to be incorporated if digital citizenship is to be measured. There is an urgent need to agree internationally on a definition of digital citizenship with its corresponding dimensions to elaborate a reliable and valid measuring instrument

Impactos del confinamiento por el COVID-19 entre universitarios: Satisfacción Vital, Resiliencia y Capital Social Online

La excepcionalidad derivada de la situación de confinamiento por la pandemia del COVID-19 ha afectado a todos los ámbitos de nuestro funcionamiento como sociedad: el relacional, el sanitario, el económico, etc. y, por supuesto, el educativo. Este estudio se centra en el impacto en dichos ámbitos y el papel jugado por aspectos como la resiliencia, el capital social online y la satisfacción vital. Para ello se llevó a cabo un estudio cuantitativo de carácter exploratorio sobre 343 estudiantes universitarios. La conclusión más destacada es constatar el fuerte impacto que el confinamiento ha tenido sobre la situación vital del estudiantado en el ámbito psicológico y académico, principalmente, y el importante papel de la relación con la satisfacción vital y la resiliencia, fundamentalmente. Se concluye con la necesidad de trabajar la cuestión de la resiliencia desde la universidad y se dan una serie de claves a tal fin

Evaluation of Ionic Liquids as In Situ Extraction Agents during the Alcoholic Fermentation of Carob Pod Extracts

Anhydrous ethanol is a promising alternative to gasoline in fuel engines. However, since ethanol forms an azeotrope with water, high-energy-consumption separation techniques such as azeotropic distillation, extractive distillation, and molecular sieves are needed to produce anhydrous ethanol. This work discusses the potential development of an integrated process for bioethanol production using ionic liquids and Ceratonia siliqua as a carbohydrate source for further fermentation of the aqueous extracts. A four-stage counter-current system was designed to improve the sugar extraction yield to values close to 99%. The alcoholic fermentation of the extracts showed ethanol concentrations of 95 g/L using the microorganism Saccharomyces cerevisae. The production of anhydrous ethanol through extractive distillation with ethylene glycol was simulated using CHEMCAD software, with an energy consumption of 13.23 MJ/Kg of anhydrous ethanol. Finally, several ionic liquids were analyzed and are proposed as potential solvents for the recovery of bioethanol for the design of an integrated extraction-fermentation-separation process, according to their ability to extract ethanol from aqueous solutions and their biocompatibility with the microorganism used in this study.This research was funded by the Fundación Séneca, grant number 20957/PI/18 and The Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) grant number RTI2018-099011-B-I00

ENO regulates tomato fruit size through the floral meristem development network

A dramatic evolution of fruit size has accompanied the domestication and improvement of fruit-bearing crop species. In tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), naturally occurring cis-regulatory mutations in the genes of the CLAVATA-WUSCHEL signaling pathway have led to a significant increase in fruit size generating enlarged meristems that lead to flowers with extra organs and bigger fruits. In this work, by combining mapping-by-sequencing and CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing methods, we isolated EXCESSIVE NUMBER OF FLORAL ORGANS (ENO), an AP2/ERF transcription factor which regulates floral meristem activity. Thus, the ENO gene mutation gives rise to plants that yield larger multilocular fruits due to an increased size of the floral meristem. Genetic analyses indicate that eno exhibits synergistic effects with mutations at the LOCULE NUMBER (encoding SlWUS) and FASCIATED (encoding SlCLV3) loci, two central players in the evolution of fruit size in the domestication of cultivated tomatoes. Our findings reveal that an eno mutation causes a substantial expansion of SlWUS expression domains in a flower-specific manner. In vitro binding results show that ENO is able to interact with the GGC-box cis-regulatory element within the SlWUS promoter region, suggesting that ENO directly regulates SlWUS expression domains to maintain floral stem-cell homeostasis. Furthermore, the study of natural allelic variation of the ENO locus proved that a cis-regulatory mutation in the promoter of ENO had been targeted by positive selection during the domestication process, setting up the background for significant increases in fruit locule number and fruit size in modern tomatoes

Mutation at the tomato EXCESSIVE NUMBER OF FLORAL ORGANS (ENO) locus impairs floral meristem development, thus promoting an increased number of floral organs and fruit size

[EN] A novel tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) mutant affected in reproductive development, excessive number of floral organs (eno), is described in this study. The eno plants yielded flowers with a higher number of floral organs in the three innermost floral whorls and larger fruits than those found in wild-type plants. Scanning-electron microscopy study indicated that the rise in floral organ number and fruit size correlates with an increased size of floral meristem at early developmental stages. It has been reported that mutation at the FASCIATED (FAS) gene causes the development of flowers with supernumerary organs; however, complementation test and genetic mapping analyses proved that ENO is not an allele of the FAS locus. Furthermore, expression of WUSCHEL (SlWUS) and INHIBITOR OF MERISTEM ACTIVITY (IMA), the two main regulators of floral meristem activity in tomato, is altered in eno but not in fas flowers indicating that ENO could exert its function in the floral meristem independently of FAS. Interestingly, the eno mutation delayed the expression of IMA leading to a prolonged expression of SlWUS, which would explain the greater size of floral meristem. Taken together, results showed that ENO plays a significant role in the genetic pathway regulating tomato floral meristem development. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.This work was supported by the research grants AGL2012-40150-C02-01 and AGL2012-40150-C02-02 and a fellowship to AF-L from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. BP was supported by the European Commission through the JAE-Doc Program of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). The authors would like to thank the research facilities provided by the Campus de Excelencia Internacional Agroalimentario (CeiA3).Fernández-Lozano, A.; Yuste-Lisbona, FJ.; Pérez-Martín, F.; Pineda Chaza, BJ.; Moreno Ferrero, V.; Lozano, R.; Angosto, T. (2015). Mutation at the tomato EXCESSIVE NUMBER OF FLORAL ORGANS (ENO) locus impairs floral meristem development, thus promoting an increased number of floral organs and fruit size. Plant Science. 232:41-48. doi:10.1016/j.plantsci.2014.12.007S414823

Deep eutectic solvents for the extraction of fatty acids from microalgae biomass: Recovery of omega-3 eicosapentaenoic acid

Microalgae are a vast group of autotrophic microorganisms whose metabolic diversity makes them a natural source of valuable organic compounds such as lipids, carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, and bioactive molecules. Several microalgae species contain notable amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids, particularly eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), which is an important alpha-linolenic acid derivative for human health. Conventional methods are considered effective at recovering total lipids from microalgae, however, they imply the use of large volumes of organic solvents such as methanol and chloroform, which are toxic and pose environmental risks. Thus, it is necessary to find new methods involving sustainable and green extracting phases. Deep eutectic solvents (DES) are renewable compounds often formed, but not exclusively, by quaternary ammonium salts and non-hydrated metal halides. Due to their availability, low cost, biodegradability, and environmental friendliness, DES are a promising alternative to organic solvents in extraction processes. This work assesses the efficiency of several DES phases for the extraction of fatty acids from the microalgae Nannochloropsis gaditana with a special interest in the recovery of EPA. The tested phases include mixtures containing choline chloride, lactic acid, ethylene glycol, and sodium acetate. Their performances were compared to those provided by conventional methods based on the use of organic solvents. Specifically, an in-situ transesterification process based on methanol with 10 %v/v of HCl was optimized in terms of temperature, time, and catalyst amount to be used as a reference. The results show that several of the tested eutectics such as choline chloride-ethylene glycol were capable of matching and even outperforming the best results obtained for EPA, with 104 % of extracted EPA methyl ester as the percentage of the mass obtained with HCl-methanol. The extraction capacity of DES was also improved by microalgae biomass pretreatment using ultrasonic and NaCl-based methods in a further stage. In the case of EPA extraction, and under optimal conditions, DES were capable of recovering over 18 % more quantity than the obtained with HCl-methanol. These results demonstrate that DES are effective at both recovering total fatty acids from pretreated biomass and at selectively recovering EPA using both unpretreated and pretreated biomass.The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support of the Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities (MICINN) ref. RTI2018-099011-B-I00 and the Seneca Foundation Science and Technology Agency of the Region of Murcia ref. 20957/PI/18. Dr. Sergio Sánchez Segado wishes to acknowledge The Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities of Spain its support through the “Beatriz Galindo” Fellowship BEAGAL18/00079