Abstract:

It is becoming increasingly common for universities and schools to use some form of digital system between teachers and students. They usually use a Learning Management System (LMS). (Watson 2007) discusses the concept and systems used today and believes that the intentions with LMS are good but they lack valuable functions. They have most often been used to distribute instructions to students. It is a unified information that applies to all participants and is not in any way individualized or gives the individual student the unique support that may be needed for a good learning environment.

Learning in the digital era requires new skills focusing on different digital artifacts (Siemens, 2005). Learning is also a lifelong process that not only happens in an institutional context. Learning takes place in both formal and informal contexts. Learning and work-related activities are connected today, and education needs to be shaped to support a continued process even after completion of formal learning (Bernhardsson, Vallo Hult & Gellerstedt, 2017).

Instead of standardized one-way solutions for transferring instructions, in which is the way many LMS are used, students should during their time at the college learn tools that support learning and communication with others. By using the tools used in working life during the study time, the boundary is blurred between the school's LMS and tools commonly used in working life. (Bernhardsson, Vallo Hult & Gellerstedt, 1017). Many LMS used in higher education is not used in business and the skills gained by students through LMS can not easily be transformed into knowledge of the tools that companies use. By introducing tools that are widely used in business, students can create their own set of tools for communication, project management and information retrieval. The tools can then contribute to encouraging their own critical search of information based on which they can shape their unique knowledge and to act as an "agentic learner" (Billet 2009). The use of an LMS that students can not use after completing studies does not give the same opportunities for continued learning as a set of proprietary tools. They need to create a Personal Learning Environment (PLE) so that they can then continue to use same tools after completed studies. (Attwell, 2007)

It is not new tools within LMS, adjustments and minor changes, which are needed without a whole new perspective where the focus is shifted from LMS to PLE. It is difficult for students to understand how tools in an LMS provide knowledge of working life skills, but it is needed as described as a system change by Reigeluth (1994). A whole new perspective on what tools support lifelong learning and not just a college or university learning.

It is difficult to create understanding among students how tools locked in an LMS provide knowledge for an upcoming work life. A whole new set of tools is needed or what is described as a system change by Reigeluth (1994). A whole new perspective on what tools that support lifelong learning and not only university studies. Since the LMS is connected to the university the LMS is closed for external access.

In this paper we discuss, based on a theoretical perspective, whether open cloud-based tools can form the student's PLE to replace the university's LMS.

Keywords:

PLE, LMS.