Abstract:

Antioquia department which is located in Colombia has a fundamental challenge: articulate a model of education development of capacities that involves technology facts, culture and entrepreneurship with the purpose of decrease the social inequality and educational gaps in the rural and urban zones. That is why it is necessary to create education parks in these regions to meet educational and cultural needs. An educational park is a place for community gathering, where the opportunities and capacities of the township are provided, looking to educate juvenile population and strengthen technical training, the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and capacitation on entrepreneurship.

This research is based on a case of Titiribí township Antioquia, in order to identify the perception by the township community the advantages that the educational park will bring to improve the processes of social Inclusion and decreasing of educational gaps. The methodology which is used corresponds to the quantitative design plan, using self-administered questionnaires instrument, because this method is appropriated to relocate opinions, prospection and beliefs of the interviewed. The target population was composed by students from grades 6 to 11 of the township educational institutes. Know that the most of the activities of educational park is directed to this population. The interviewed were selected as a simple random sampling, 184 inquests made by students were recollected.

The analysis of the recollected data in the self-administered questionnaires is structured from 3 thematic axes, due to it is relation with objectives of the investigation, the axes are the following: benefits of the educational park, perception of the students about the educational park, and the service provided by the educational park. The main results are: it is observed that 53% of the interviewed respond that they do not know the importance of the Communicational and Informational Technologies (TIC), the 37% knows what are the TIC and the 10% didn't know or did not respond. Moreover, it’s observed that the principal benefits perceived by interviewed are the (24%) educational, (17%) cultural and (18%) have mentioned the technology learning.

Finally, it concluded that population of the township perceive that the educational park allows a greater access to the information and knowledge, generating a bridge between the new offered technological resources and a greater participation of the community in educational processes. Besides it observed that the young interviewed associated the educational park with cultural and sport activities. As a result, the interviewed consider that it is essential to program the activities to explain the purpose of the educational park, therefore it is recommended to contextualize with the advantages, services and opportunities that the educational park will bring to the community, that brings a greater empowerment and use of the educational park in the short and medium terms.

Keywords:

School students, educational park, perceptions, social inclusion.