RUSC. Universities and Knowledge Society Journal, Vol 12, No 1 (January 2015)

Students in higher education: Social and academic uses of digital technology

Eliana Esther Gallardo Echenique, Luis Marqués Molías, Mark Bullen

Abstract


This article presents the results of an in-depth interview of twenty Education students at a public face-to-face university in Catalonia on how they use digital technologies in their social and academic lives. The results show that while students have a certain level of competence in digital technology, the way they use the technologies varies according to their purpose. The results also show that social networks and WhatsApp are the most important applications for students, because they enable them to contact others, communicate with each other over long distances, and contact people with shared interests.