Scientific production in Mexican universities: Rates and expectations toward competitiveness = Producción científica en universidades mexicanas: Índices y expectativas hacia la competitividad

This article analyzes emerging issues that Mexican universities are experiencing with scientific production processes, their impact on assessment indicators that determine their level of competitiveness, and the identification of assessment dimensions and criteria related to the activities of professors and researchers. Examples of previous research on universities’ competitiveness are offered to provide suggestions for recognizing the need for legitimized models that allow assessing scientific production in Mexican universities

Latin American science is meant to be open access: Initiatives and current challenges = La ciencia latinoamericana debe ser de acceso abierto: Iniciativas y retos actuales

Latin American open access (OA) initiatives were built upon the foundations laid by the regional cooperative information networks, databases and indexes that started to be developed from the 1970s. OA had an early start in the region in the 1990s, because it preceded the first worldwide OA declaration. This article summarizes the reasons behind the emergence of OA in the region, offers details and data about the most relevant initiatives and discusses some of the current challenges to keep advancing in this arena

El uso de las redes sociales para el aprendizaje mientras desarrollamos una cultura de la información

This document summarizes the most relevant elements of the PhD ‘The Mutual Shaping of Social Media, Learning Experiences, and Literacies’ (Machin Mastromatteo, 2015), presented as the final requirement for obtaining the PhD degree in Information and Communication Science in Tallinn University, Estonia. This research explored the most significant challenges that emerge from integrating social media in higher education learning environments. Learning, literacies and social media were considered as elements that mutually shaped each other during the study, in some sort of co-evolution that was developed during the time period when two groups of students participated in the study

From the ashes = De las cenizas

About 523 years ago, the territory now known as the Americas was ‘discovered’. This event detonated the conquest and colonization of this ‘new world’, processes that altered the historical development of the indigenous civilizations. This work examines one of the most disheartening consequences of this clash of civilizations: the almost total destruction of the indigenous people’s cultural heritage. This annihilation was driven by the implementation of colonial domination, which implied the establishment of a new socio-political order and the systematic and forced religious conversion, which included the destruction of the codices that were seen as ‘works of the devil’

From the ashes = De las cenizas

About 523 years ago, the territory now known as the Americas was ‘discovered’. This event detonated the conquest and colonization of this ‘new world’, processes that altered the historical development of the indigenous civilizations. This work examines one of the most disheartening consequences of this clash of civilizations: the almost total destruction of the indigenous people’s cultural heritage. This annihilation was driven by the implementation of colonial domination, which implied the establishment of a new socio-political order and the systematic and forced religious conversion, which included the destruction of the codices that were seen as ‘works of the devil’

Two years of information culture development for supporting higher education: Initiatives, teacher’s perceptions and future actions

Information Culture Development (ICD) is a holistic information literacy program that was established in 2013 and developed at CETYS Universidad in Mexico. ICD caters to all university stakeholders with different initiatives that are contained within ICD’s four axes: (a) curriculum and learning support, (b) information and digital literacies development, (c) research and scientific communication support, and (d) evaluation and communication of results. This article presents such initiatives and the instruments used to evaluate them. Moreover, it analyses recent interviews with eight academic staff that have known of and benefited from these initiatives, both for themselves and for their students. The data analysis offers a means of determining ICD’s role in supporting the development of an information culture and positively influencing teaching, learning and research practices in the university. Furthermore, academic staff insights help guide the program’s further development, by pointing toward the need for future actions and strategies

Cultura de la información, desarrollo abierto, tecnologías sociales y participación ciudadana

This paper discusses the implications of social technologies, open development, information literacy and digital literacy (referred to collectively as information culture) for citizen participation. It examines the basics, activities and purposes of literacy for social action, which is benefited from keeping a holistic vision that integrates the previous elements. When developing literacy activities for society at large, we find certain dynamics that impact what it means to be a citizen in the digital age, such as Wikileaks activities, the Arab Spring, Snowden revelations, among other recent events. This framework is offered as an exploration of some of the current specific challenges for the exercise of a digital citizenship and how the mediators of an information culture could facilitate the development of such citizenship

Learning with Social Media: An Information Literacy Driven and Technologically Mediated Experience

This paper summarizes the theories, methods, and results of a doctoral research that integrated social media (SM) in a learning experience for students and explored the roles that information literacy, digital literacy, and new literacies played in such a learning experience. Participatory action research was the methodological approach used for two rounds of data collection, resulting in the development of the research framework ‘Doing Online Relearning through Information Skills’ (DORIS). The data collection methods used included students’ reports, diagnostic, and final questionnaires; and semi-structured interviews. Data analysis relied on content analysis, open coding, and constant comparative analysis. This paper provides a summary of the discussion leading to the answers to the research questions, including topics such as issues and challenges of using SM for learning; participants learning experiences in such a technologically mediated environment, their engagement and the mutual shaping of SM, learning experiences, and literacies

Developing information literacy programs: Best practices from Latin America, Spain and Portugal for developing information literacy programs = Desarrollando programas de alfabetización informacional: Mejores prácticas de Latinoamérica, España y Portugal para desarrollar programas de alfabetización informacional

This article summarizes the best practices framework known as 75 Lessons Learned from Information Literacy Programs at Ibero-American Universities, which was drawn from the study of 301 information literacy experiences conducted in Latin American countries, Spain and Portugal. This research implied the analysis of 499 documents and data triangulation with 113 interviews and 135 surveys. This comprehensive framework is a useful Ibero-American guideline for developing new information literacy programs or strengthening existing ones, at a worldwide level

Oportunidad: Herramientas TIC para la Facilitación del Aprendizaje Universitario

In the processes of design, revision and execution of the curricular structure of the universities, we must consider aspects such as the subjects or objects of study, their relationships and the ways in which the learning of them can be evaluated. There are also aspects that are transversal to all syllabus, which are the integration of information literacy during the course and the use of different technologies that allow great diversity and innovation in the ways of teaching and learning. This paper presents a rubric that focuses on the use of technology and is divided into three stages that can be applied in the review and execution of syllabus by teachers. These stages are: a) a previous stage, consisting of applications for the use of information, develop the program, prepare learning objects and design the evaluation scheme; B) continuous stage during the course, with applications to carry out conceptual introductions, audiovisual presentations, communicate with students in and out of class, perform exercises and manage motivation and conflict resolution; And c) a closing phase, consisting of tools to evaluate and monitor learning through its progressive and summative evaluation, post-evaluation communication, correction and updating of syllabus and documentation of teaching experience. This work offers the rubric itself for the interested public, especially academics and librarians