Abstract:

Learning Management is a transcendental field for the appropriation of knowledge of the 21st century, particularly in Distance Education. Managing involves encouraging learning to happen, such as planning, design, evaluation of intervention processes, among others.

In education, learning management is expected to support the processes that allow the generation of learning, generate knowledge, solve problems, visualize scenarios, project proposals, generate strategies, among other alternative actions. In distance education, different technologies can help to reach that goal because integrate through different means and resources, in order to the students can learn to learn. Among these technologies, educational platforms have been highlighted, which provide a very broad package of educational options and technological resources. However, although it is desirable to have platforms such as Moodle, Blackboard, among others, it is not an essential requirement in distance education.

However, for example, César Coll indicates that the changes of the last two or three decades in reference to learning have been and are drastic: now individuals can learn where, when, with whom, how, for what and with what we learn differently. Which reminds us to think about mobile devices, because with or without the consent of the teacher, the student uses them for their learning, causing educational institutions to no longer be the only learning space and even more so, in educational settings a distance.

One of the technological elements that have been integrated into education are those known under the name mobile-learning (m-learning), which specifies the use of mobile devices (such as smart cell phones, laptops, tablets, among others, which they have a wireless Internet connection), to generate learning. Sometimes, the m-learning modality is frowned upon as an educational alternative by parents, but sometimes it is not accepted either by school institutions, nor by teachers who see such technologies as distractions.

This paper arises from an investigation carried out at the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN - Mexico), project SIP: 20201596, which addresses the Learning Management in Distance Education, postgraduate level, particularly through a case study of a Master of IPN- CIECAS. In particular, the master's level and its relationship with m-learning are addressed, since at that level they do not depend on the school, parents, or teachers, allowing them to use these technologies. Results of the lines of analysis of ICT (m-learning) are presented with reference to experiences, technologies, and types of interaction. Qualitative methodology techniques (focus group and interviews), applied to teachers and students, were used to understand the use of these devices in learning. These results are interpreted with the theoretical framework of Connectivism.

Among the results obtained, it is highlighted that there are still obstacles for mobile devices to be implemented, even in distance education. Firstly, due to an absence of pedagogical vision of the same, but also for technical reasons, such as access and connectivity. We consider that the vision of the educational institution as that of the teacher must be reconfigured, in the context of a new ecology of learning, typical of the 21st century.

Keywords:

Learning Management - Distance education - Mobile learning - Postgraduate - Ecology of learning.