University students' use and preferences of digital technology in the Peruvian highlands

In recent literature, there has been much discussion about student use of digital technology for academic and learning purposes undertaken in most developed countries. However, most of the empirical literature has ignored developing countries like Peru. This paper reports on research into how first-year university students communicate, their general study habits, and how digital technologies are used to support academic activities. A quantitative approach using a descriptive design is proposed for this study. A convenience sample of 201 students from a variety of backgrounds (cultural, social and economic) participated in the study. The findings evidence that learners' technology use in this university is considerably more constrained than “Net generation” discourse suggest. Participants are not making good uses of digital technologies that “work best” for them taking in consideration they were enrolled in online instructional modality. Further investigations are recommended to find out the reasons behind these findings.