University net works. The case of DIPRO 2.0 net

Abstract

The advent of the Internet in education is now a latent and patent reality. At the university level this relationship has become more visible through the new resources that teachers have been incorporating into their classroom dynamics and their teaching activities. One such tool are social networks, which outside of the educational spectrum are of great relevance. In this paper, we present an educational social network aimed at academia, as a proposal to develop professors’ training in the subject of personal learning environments. This issue is gaining greater significance because it involves the development of a set of skills that lead to the attainment of competence in the digital and literacy achievement of technological means, for both personal use and from a critical perspective. These skills are relevant to students and necessary for teachers when dealing with the correct utilization of information technology and communication in the educational reality of everyday life. The inclusion of personal learning environments in the dynamics of university teaching implies firstly, becoming familiar with this environment; if we add social networks we will be merging two of the lastest, currently used tools. The proposal that we make here is a part of a project I+D+I granted by the Ministry of Science and Innovation (EDU 2009-08893) in the 2010 call, which involves researchers and teachers from more than twenty higher education institutions and abroad.