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The DIYLab project aims to promote lifelong learning by expanding students’ digital competences, autonomy and creativity through collaborative and meaningful learning. DIYLab locates students at th...

Extensive and profound political, economic, social and technological changes have taken place over the last forty years, mediated by neoconservative movements and the apparently unstoppable development of digital technology. At the same time, however, fundamental issues such as asymmetric power relations, inequality, poverty and exclusion have not only remained unchanged but are becoming more pronounced, producing, in some respects, movements and trends of reactionary change. From this perspective, in this article we begin by discussing the meaning of changes in the university field, based on contributions from different authors interested in the subject. We continue to analyze the problem considering the effects of the transformations produced by digital technologies on the lives and professional experience of university teachers and researchers. The evidence provided by this research project allows us to situate the impact of the unprecedented proliferation of information and the use of digital resources on the notion of knowledge and on teaching and learning methods, as well as to envisage the challenges to face by university. The text concludes considering some of the current university challenges and perspectives, based on various international studies and proposals. Our conclusions invite the reader to necessarily question the sense and the role of digital technology, not only in the seemingly inevitable transformation of university, but also in that of society. En los últimos cuarenta años se han producido extensos y profundos cambios políticos, económicos, sociales y tecnológicos, mediados por los movimientos neoconservadores y el aparentemente imparable desarrollo de la tecnología digital. Aunque, al mismo tiempo, temas fundamentales como las relaciones asimétricas de poder, la desigualdad, la pobreza y la exclusión no sólo han permanecido inalterables, sino que se están acentuando, produciendo, en ciertos aspectos, movimientos y tendencias de cambio involutivo. Desde esta perspectiva, en este artículo, comenzamos dialogando sobre el sentido de los cambios en la universidad, a partir de las aportaciones de distintos autores interesados en el tema. Seguimos situando la problemática considerando los efectos de las transformaciones producidas por las tecnologías digitales en la vida y la experiencia profesional de los docentes e investigadores universitarios. La investigación llevada a cabo nos permite situar el impacto de la proliferación sin precedentes de la información y el uso de aplicaciones digitales en la noción de conocimiento y en los métodos de enseñanza y aprendizaje, así como vislumbrar los desafíos que se le presentan a la universidad. El texto finaliza con la consideración de algunos de los retos y perspectivas universitarias actuales, a partir de distintos estudios y propuestas internacionales. Nuestras conclusiones invitan al lector a reconsiderar necesariamente el sentido y el papel de la tecnología digital, no solo en la transformación aparentemente inevitable de la universidad, sino también en el de la sociedad.

The aim of this article is to analyse how family constraints, in term of gender roles and child-care responsibilities, affect the behaviour and attitudes of immigrant women towards work, comparing Italy (Lombardy) and Spain (Barcelona). Moreover, personal skills, the economic crisis, and the limited job opportunities for migrants (who access mostly low-qualified jobs) also play a role in the employment status of immigrant women. Therefore, we are interested in understanding the reasons that make women decide to work (or seek a job) or not, and how they feel about their work or their unemployed status. We will analyse 72 interviews (47 in Italy and 25 in Spain) with working and non-working women of different nationalities, taking into account years of staying in the hosting country, family composition, level of education, and kind of job, in order to combine these different aspects with the attitudes and outcomes towards work.

Today more than ever, educational institutions need educational leaders who are able to promote profound, substantive and sustainable change. This paper is based on the efforts and results of the first stage of a European project implemented in universities and primary and secondary schools in Spain, Finland and the Czech Republic. The project seeks to explore the changes (and its educational effects) that have occurred in the last decade regarding digital competencies, especially in relation to the emergence of a culture of collaboration that connects youth learning, technology and a Do-it-Yourself (DIY) ethos. To achieve the project's objective, we followed a methodology based on the principles of collaborative action research (CAR). We have analysed the curricula and study plans of the participating institutions in order to explore how and where the project could be applied. We conducted a series of focus groups with teachers, students and parents to discuss notions of DIY learning among the educational communities. Based on these discussions, we began to analyse how each context envisions DIY learning and how it relates to the notion of virtual space. We finished the first stage with the professional development of the teachers, which was aimed at shaping the DIYLabs implementation plan. info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion