University, reading and technology

Fernando Azpurua Grúber

Research Director

When I was -in illo tempore- a high school student in my beloved "Liceo Pedro Emilio Coll", there were frequent discussions among classmates about the certainty of any statement. Suddenly a question would arise: where did you get that from? The questioned would argue: "It's true; I read it in the newspaper!!!". I believe that the envelope of truthfulness that used to accompany the written word is still present in the information transmitted by digital media. Today I would not be surprised if someone said: "It's true, I got it from Wikipedia!!!". The university student must learn to verify the validity of what is written.

Let me confess that I am shocked with the possibilities of information that today's technology offers us, as well as with the immediate data and the infinity of interpretations and narratives. The marvelous possibility that it brings us seems supernatural and captivating. In this domain, the word algorithm is the magic wand. The evolution of computer science is becoming more sophisticated every day and it has become an extremely useful tool for university studies. But beware, it has been created by humans in their image and likeness, so it can have the same virtues and defects.

Entering into the realms of informatics can only be achieved through a good reading of the written word, of fixed and kinetic images, of an infinity of signs and symbols whose interpretation leads us to meanings that are essential to understand reality. The integral development of the university student must have a close relationship with his evolution as a reader. The semiotician Roland Barthes says: "one reads texts, images, cities, faces, gestures, scenes, etc. [...] the object one reads is based only on the intention to read". Everyone is a different reader and assumes a different position before knowledge. For José Saramago: "reading and imagining are two of the three main doors (curiosity is the third) through which one gains access to the knowledge of things". If these doors are not opened: "one does not go far in the understanding of oneself and of the world".

Students should be trained as good readers, capable of interpreting and understanding information in a critical way. Developing their reading skills to be formed in a pedagogy of the search for knowledge, not as a simple receiver of information. A pedagogy to develop social and professional potentialities that alert them and protect them from the development of competencies presumably imposed by curricular strategies, designed with the explicit intention of keeping them away from critical thinking.

Translation by Nimar Rodríguez