The PLE and its impact on the educational literature: the last decade

Abstract

The concept of Personal Learning Environments (PLE) is, one of the concepts in the field of educational technology that has gained more attention in during the last decade. Those of us who do research on this topic assume —perhaps naively— that this is a disruptive, a fundamental concept, at the base of the emergent pedagogical approaches that characterize the techno-social age we live in, not only from the technological and instrumental perspective, but its roots in the very foundations of the educational process. Nevertheless, we know very little about the impact of this concept - and other associated topics - on other educational issues that are not necessarily linked to technology. By means of a systematized review of the available literature, we analyzed the impact of the PLE topic on three main themes of the scientific literature in education produced during the last decade: emerging pedagogical practices, self-regulated learning and professional teacher development. The analysis is focused on whether (and how) the PLE concept has impacted each of the topics, the level of importance of that impact in each one of the themes and the way in which the concept is "materialized" in them. The conclusions of this article intend to offer suggestions on the future of research and the applications in practice of a concept that, after more than ten years of its emergence in the educational field, continues to be considered as emergent.

Keywords

• entorno personal de aprendizaje
• prácticas educativas emergentes
• aprendizaje autorregulado
• desarrollo profesional docente
• revisión sistematizada de literatura.