Resumen de Electronic devices and web 2.0 tools: usage trends in engineering students
Patricio Humanante Ramos, Francisco José García Peñalvo, Miguel Ángel Conde González
Personal Learning Environments or PLE are student centred spaces, which take into account theirs needs, learning stylesand preferences. These spaces appear as important alternatives to overcome the shortcomings encountered with the use ofinstitutional platforms. On the other hand, there is widespread use of mobile electronic devices and Web 2.0 tools amonguniversity students, mainly for communication and leisure activities, but that could be used for educational purposes. Thisresearch aims to make a diagnosis on access to and use of electronic devices and the web tools by students of the degree ofSystems Engineering and Computer Science at Faculty of Engineering at the National University of Chimborazo inEcuador, from the viewpoint of PLE. A methodological level corresponds to a quantitative and non-experimentalresearch, ex-post-facto. The results show certain trends in the types of devices and their frequency of use, as well as theirpreferences for the tools to obtain and to find information, not only to create but to edit content and communicate withothers, where they prioritize the use of certain social networks and some tools of synchronous and asynchronouscommunication. One of the main conclusions of this study mentions the huge potential currently offered by Web 2.0 toolsto structure the PLE of college students, as well as the great potential for integration with mobile device.
