The purpose of this paper was to examine and assess the current state of Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) of junior and senior engineering students at Universidad de las Américas Puebla (UDLAP). A survey (completely voluntary) was designed to elicit students’ PLEs. After pilot testing it with 42 students from a variety of engineering majors, the instrument was refined. The enhanced survey yielded 98 suitable responses (including in-depth interviews) from Food, Industrial, Chemical, Logistics, Civil, Mechanical, and Computer Systems engineering students. Furthermore, to strengthen understanding of their PLEs, mappings were conducted through infographics, in which selected students (n=28) represented and explained their own PLEs, describing relevant formal and informal learning activities that they usually perform by means of his/her PLE.
Results confirmed the influence of technological tools in learning experiences of engineering students and the cognitive skills they have developed during their formal education. Students emphasized that with the use of technology they acquired new skills to communicate and that they have more control over assignments. Through mapping of their PLEs, engineering students recognized their personal learning processes, as an exercise of metacognition. Triangulation of information (survey results, in-depth interviews, and mappings) allowed us to have a more comprehensive view of our engineering students’ PLEs. One particular feature frequently mentioned of PLEs is that students can configure and assemble them depending on their needs and with tools they are already using. Social networking enabled engineering students to build genuine learning communities. Studied PLEs helped engineering students to make visible for them how to take control of as well as manage their own learning. Analysis of PLEs revealed their potential to address the needs of engineering students for multi-sourced content and easily customizable learning environments.
PhD. Science, Engineering and Technology Education. Postdoctoral Fellow at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico.
The Mexican researcher and teacher Frida Díaz Barriga Arceo serves at the Faculty of Psychology of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Her academic career includes a degree in Psychology, Master’s degree in Educational Psychology (Faculty of Psychology) and a PhD in Education (Faculty of Arts). Her research and teaching areas are curriculum development and assessment, instructional psychology, teacher assessment and training, constructivism and higher education teaching. She has given updating courses for teachers and courses for Master’s degree students in diverse universities and education institutions in Mexico and in Brazil, Panama, Guatemala, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Spain and Bolivia as well. She belongs since 1999 to the National Researchers System.
She is the author or co-author of Teaching strategies for a meaningful learning: a constructivist approach (Mc Graw Hill, 2010); Situated Teaching (McGraw Hill, 2006); Learning to learn (Ángeles, 2010); Teacher portfolios (UAM-Díaz de Santos, 2013), ICT educational policies in Latin America. The mexican case (UNICEF-OEI, 2014), Educational experiencies mediated by digital technologies (Newton, 2015).
Nelly Ramírez-Corona is currently a Full Time Professor of Chemical Engineering at Chemical, Enviromental and Food Engineering Department, Universidad de las Americas, Puebla, México. Her teaching experience is in the area of Process Dynamics and Control, Kinetics, Catalysis and Reactor Design. She did her undergraduate studies in Chemical Engineering at the Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, México, and his Master and Doctoral studies at the Instituto Tecnológico de Celaya, México. Her research interests are in the field of Process Systems Engineering, Bioprocess ModelIing and Engineering Education. Her research labor has been reported on scientific international journals and presented in different national and international conferences.
Aurelio López-Malo is Professor and Past Chair, Department of Chemical, Food, and Environmental Engineering at Universidad de las Americas Puebla in Mexico. He teaches engineering and food science related courses. His research interests include emerging technologies for food processing, natural food antimicrobials, creating effective learning environments, and science, engineering and technology education for K-12.
Professor Palou is Director, Center for Science, Engineering, and Technology Education as well as Distinguished Professor and Past Chair, Department of Chemical and Food Engineering at Universidad de las Americas Puebla in Mexico and Fellow of the Institu
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