Abstract:

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) allow educative process to be more extensive and go beyond the classroom so that, time and distance are no longer an obstacle. Moreover, technological resources provide teachers with more didactic possibilities in order to enrich their practices.

These educational possibilities refer to different ICT potentials such as: hypermedia, multimedia, interactivity, formalism, among others (Coll, 2001) that affect the form, construction, representation and exchange of knowledge.

Using one form of representation over another refers more than to a random decision. In the construction of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), the teacher builts theoretical interpretations, methodologies and conceptual relationships.

Technological resources act as symbolic forms of thinking where experiences and knowledge are structured (Manovich, 1998). For instance, how to improve teacher´s training at Universidad Iberoamericana through the construction of a VLE?

This paper reports a study developed in order to promote teacher´s training through the creation of a VLE. For that, we use a qualitative exploratory approach, in which 10 professors and 3 learning designer from the Universidad Iberoamericana participated.

Data was collected using an evaluation tool, field diaries and semi-structured interviews. The results were analyzed from a social constructivism approach to identify the impact of the VLE´s construction on educational practices and ideas referring to evaluation, learning and teaching. Each of these categories can be evidenced through the choice of some activities and some resources over others. In addition, the comments of the professors in the process adhere to a social constructivism approach and tend to abandon traditional ideas about education.

Keywords:

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), social constructivism, teacher training, Virtual Learning Environments (VLE).