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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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).

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.

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.

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