No abstract

Resumen Buscar y gestionar la información constituyen componentes fundamentales de los Entornos Personales de Aprendizaje (PLEPalabras clave: entorno personal de aprendizaje; web 2.0; tecnologías de la información y la comunicación; estudiantes universitarios.

The educational landscape has changed in recent years, requiring reflection about new pedagogical methods and theories. There are three important perspectives as drivers of pedagogical reflection: lifelong and life‐wide learning, the idea of learning as a social construct in which internal elements and changing external factors converge, and the recognition of technology as a resource that can promote ubiquitous and expanded learning. Learning ecology has been proposed as a conceptual and empirical framework, but its still emergent nature along with its multidimensionality and complexity require further exploration. The Delphi study we present as part of a broader research project aims to identify the components of learning ecologies. Three panel rounds with international experts were carried out, after which two important dimensions emerged in the structure of learning ecologies. The first is related to intrinsic “learning dispositions,” which is made up of three categories: the subject's ideas about learning, their motivations and expectations. The second dimension, called “learning processes,” comprises four components: relationships, resources, actions and context. The identification of the components of learning ecologies and their influence on formal, non‐formal and informal training processes will provide guidance for educational policies and help to better organize training programmes.

Identifying the roles and competencies of faculty performing in virtual environments is crucial to higher education institutions in order to build a common frame for teaching and training initiatives. One of the goals of this study is to identify and systematize faculty's roles through a review of the most representative surveys. There has also been an effort to identify competencies associated to every role, with an emphasis on those of the pedagogical scope, by means of a focus group. Furthermore, a cross-sectional survey with 166 faculty participants has been conducted in order to identify faculty's level of proficiency on the pedagogical competencies and the interest in training programs.Teacher perceptions on both these aspects constitutes a relevant reference for the design of faculty training programs. Results reveal that content drafting is the aspect in which the subjects declare the highest level of proficiency as opposed to assessment. Faculty also appear to be willing to improve their training, being aware of the changes and requirements entailed by e-learning.

La inmersión de la sociedad en la era digital ha influido de manera decisiva en las formas de comportarse de las personas, en el ámbito del trabajo, de la economía, del entretenimiento y de la enseñanza. La educación superior está sufriendo una gran transformación debido al desarrollo tecnológico en el que estamos sumergidos, y esos continuos cambios han evidenciado la necesidad de mantenernos actualizados de forma permanente, adoptando así la idea de aprendizaje a lo largo de la vida. Cada persona tiene un abanico de posibilidades, amplio y diverso para formarse y para aprender, lo que exige a los individuos tomar cada vez más el control de su propio proceso de aprendizaje. El concepto de ecologías de aprendizaje proporciona un marco de análisis para saber cómo aprendemos, y qué contextos y/o elementos empleamos para formarnos, con el fin de proporcionarnos nuevas oportunidades de aprendizaje. Ser conscientes de los elementos y/o contextos que configuran nuestras ecologías de aprendizaje puede ser una estrategia muy útil que nos ayude a actualizarnos de forma autodirigida y efectiva. Esto nos ha llevado a realizar un estudio bibliográfico dirigido a identificar algunos de los aspectos que caracterizan las nuevas formas en que aprendemos, lo cual nos permitirá comprender el papel que debe jugar la universidad en la sociedad actual.