Transcript Cultural differences in the contents of Web sites among students

Cultural differences in the contents of Web sites
among students from Finland and Mexico
Miguel Santiago
Key words: Internet, web site, use of Internet (students), cultural
differences (develop and underdeveloped countries).
Introduction
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The Internet plays a very important role in our societies. Through Internet
we can be in communication with other users and systems around the
world, and even buy anything with a simple click.
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The Internet has changed completely the habits of many people, with this
technology we can obtain a huge amount of information with different
contents. However, the information can sometimes be incorrect, of low
quality or having malicious purposes for the users.
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Several studies have evaluated the positive and negative effects that the
Internet has in the everyday life. But few studies have evaluated the quality
of the information that the people consult in the Web sites and the type of
information that is published on Internet.
Aim and questions
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My area of interest is focused on basic research that
examines the cultural differences in the use of Internet
as process of learning in students, with a special interest
in technology-based environments
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My objective is:
To know and evaluate the cultural differences in the use
of Internet among students of a developing country as
Finland and an underdeveloped country as Mexico.
Aim and questions (2)
My research questions are:
1) Which are the most Web sites visited in the two countries?
2) What characteristics do these Web sites have?
3) What for do these students use the Internet (e.g., homework, play games,
chat online)?
4) Which is the influence of the use of Internet in these students?
In addition, if there is one Web site of the same company, but with different
content, i.e., different quality and quantity of information.
5) Which are the differences in the content between Web sites, for example;
yahoo.com.mx and yahoo.com.fi?
Methods

The idea is to realize quantitative and qualitative
analyses to develop this research project.
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I will use quantitative analyses for known if there are
differences between the countries, through the data
collection using questionnaires.

Questionnaires will be realized face to face or using
different tools on Internet (Facebook, Skype etc.). The
questionnaires will be written in Finnish, English and
Spanish languages.
Methods (2)

Aimed at students aged 15 to 24 years (50 to 100 students per
country, in secondary, high school and university).

To analyze the information obtained from students in both
countries, I will use statistical environments (R and IBM SPSS
Statistics).
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In the case of the qualitative analyses; these analyses will be used
to understand, analyze and interpret the data such as social
characteristics, human experiences, sharing a common social
experience in students (for example, quality of information in Web
sides)
Results and implications

Compare the differences in the use of Internet between
the students in both countries, which differ in social,
politic aspects, religion, educational factors etc., allow
me to understand the function of this tool, the present
and future of this technology.
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With this research, I will guide and support students of
different levels (secondary, high school and university)
to use in a positive way Internet as a tool that will help
them in all areas of their life, for example in their
learning skills.
References
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