Manuel Benito

iPLE Network: an integrated eLearning 2.0 architecture from a university's perspective

Universities can offer eLearning 2.0 tools and services to learners while obtaining clear benefits from releasing the control over some learning content. This means a shift from the institution centred and monolithic model of traditional virtual learning environments (VLEs) to a more heterogeneous and open model. This article tries to plot an architecture to be put in practice by universities to give learners the control of their learning processes by using eLearning 2.0. We propose an institutionally powered personal learning environment (iPLE) that constitutes our vision of how Web 2.0 tools (blogs, wikis, starting pages), services (del.icio.us, Flickr, YouTube) and people arrangement and data sharing (social networking, learn-streaming) could be applied in an integrated manner to learning processes. First, this article justifies the suitability for a PLE in the context of eLearning 2.0 and European Higher Education Area. Second, an overview of the evolution from VLEs to PLEs is given, and different PLE approaches are reviewed. Third, the concept of an iPLE is presented, and a conceptual architecture for it is detailed. Finally, this article also describes the technological aspects of a prototype of iPLE Network designed for the University of the Basque Country, which will be used as a test-bed for a case study in the Faculty of Medicine.

Meta-analysis of the TAEE project applying social network analysis

The social network analysis (SNA) is an approach that can be applied as a complement to other analysis (such as statistical) in order to obtain other valuable information. The social network analysis has been used in several initiatives showing that it is an approach that can contribute in building the semantic web. Within the project Technologies Applied to Electronics Teaching (TAEE) there are biannual conferences (it has been organized since 1996) and have accumulated a significant amount of data resulting from the conferences held. All of this information constitutes a data source that should be exploited and that can provide meaningful information. In this document we describe, how to social network analysis has been used on data sources generated by user communities, in order to obtain some semantic artifacts, like ontologies. Also describes how to was applied the social network analysis and its metrics on the information generated in the TAEE congresses to answer a set of questions (What are the relationships and the level of cohesion of the different organizations (at the level of Spain and across continents) involved in TAEE? How have evolutioned the thematics covered in the conference?, What are the new ontological additions in technology over the years?, and How have evolutioned the thematics in the research and studies related to teaching electronics?) formulated by the organizers of the congresses and that through other approaches would have been a large task and complicated. The answers to the questions can provide us important information about the behavior and characteristics of the elements present in TAEE conferences, furthermore being an element for making decisions on future initiatives with the same style of TAEE.

Meta-analysis of the Articles Published in SPDECE

The Spanish Multidisciplinary Symposium on Design and Evaluation of Reusable Educational Content (a.k.a. SPDECE) is an annual meeting of researchers and teachers organized by the Spanish Thematic Network of Activities and Objects for Learning (a.k.a. REDAOPA). The objective of SPDECE is to share experiences and results of research being carried out, in both pedagogical and technological fields, on the design, development, and best practices in reusable learning objects. In addition, it also aims to establish linkages and synergies between the individuals and organizations attending the conference. This work tries to determine the level of attainment of those objectives based on the analysis of the topics, organizations, authors, and citations of the articles published in SPDECE through its various editions. In addition, topic and organization structure comparison between SPDECE and the reference journal in the field of learning objects IJELLO (Interdisciplinary Journal of E-Learning and Learning Objects) is presented.