Technology and its relation to design, as students understand them when choosing Graphic Design as a career at Universidad Nacional de San Juan, Argentina (National University of San Juan - Argentina)

This work presents the results of a research conducted during the 2016-2017 academic period in the School of Architecture, Urban Planning and Design, National University of San Juan – Argentina (Facultad de Arquitectura, Urbanismo y Diseño de la Universidad Nacional de San Juan – Argentina). Its aim has been to know and understand the main conceptions that aspirants to admission to this School have about technology and its relation with graphic design. The research has also focused on the evaluation of the coherence among the conceptions above mentioned and the theoretical framework that supports the academic proposal of the School, and at the same time, a critical focus on technology has been considered. A population of the 336 students, who attended the common entry course to start a career in the School of Architecture, Urban Planning and Design in 2017, constitutes the subject matter of this research. Two purposive non-probability samples were studied, formed by students who attended the entry course and who asserted, at the beginning and at the end of the course, that they were convinced of choosing the career of Graphic Design and during the first course. The Social Representation theory and its structural approach were applied to identify the students' conceptions. Results revealed that conceptions of the students about technology were at the same time, ingenuous and reductionist, as well, they consider that very little relation between graphic design and technology exists.