Differences and similarities in use and acceptance of PLEs between universities in Ecuador and Spain

Abstract

The use of the Information and Communication Technologies to learn in the educational institutions and out of them is a fact throughout the world. Educational institutions are using learning platforms to support them to manage teaching and learning processes. However students do not only use such technologies to learn in institutional contexts. They also learn during their daily life by using social networks, 2.0. tools, looking for information in the Internet, etc.; and to do so they use different devices such as smartphones. The tools and services that learners use with educational proposes, independently if they are provided by an institution, can be grouped in what is known as a Personal Learning Environment. However, it is necessary to check if these environments are used in the same way in different countries. The present work compares how Personal Learning Environments are understood and used in Ecuador and Spain and contrasts experiments carried out in universities of both countries. From this comparison it is possible to see similarities in the needs to use personal environments and to enrich the institutional ones.