Tecnología digital y ocio universitario: Explorando el acceso, uso y actitud de los estudiantes

Abstract

: Digital leisure has become a useful and motivating didactic tool for student learning, which also contributes to the acquisition of digital skills. The aim of this study is to analyse the access and use of digital technology by university students at the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (USAC), as well as their attitudes towards digital leisure. This study is framed within the quantitative paradigm, with a non-experimental, cross-sectional, descriptive, exploratory, and correlational design. A total of 203 university students (47.5% male; 52.5% female) from USAC between the ages of 17 and 49 (M=23.33; SD=5.55) participated in the study. The results indicate that the digital devices and services most accessed by university students are smartphones (91.8%) and laptops (80.3%), and 96% have profiles on social networks. Specifically, younger students (17-20 years old) are the ones who use digital technology most for digital leisure activities and show a greater enjoyment of digital leisure activities. These data reflect how mainly new university students are familiar with digital technology and have a positive attitude towards digital leisure, which could be used by teachers to promote the inclusion of this tool in the classroom to promote digital competences and create a motivating and effective learning environment.