Promoting Digital Skills and Critical Awareness through Online Search and Personal Knowledge Management: A Case Study - 2nd International Workshop on Evidence-Based Technology Enhanced Learning - page 15

themselves the problem of a responsible use of the digital resources - at a personal
and social level - recognizing the potential risks, and the need for rules that could
promote appropriate social interaction on the web. In particular, those groups that
had created branding initiatives for non-profit organisations demonstrated the abil-
ity to appreciate the social, economic and cultural rights for individuals and the
society that the network can offer and took in considerations the challenges and
opportunities of digital affordances.
5 Conclusions
From the findings of this case study we can draw a complex picture of PKM in
which individual instances (the development of personal skills) converge with the
technological aspects and the social dimension of the digital resources. PKM skills
express 'learning behaviours' such as problem solving, interaction with teacher
and other learners, self-correction, critical reflection, competence improvement,
meaning making, experiential learning. The process of learning PKM skills fol-
lows the four step of EBP (Evidence-based Practice) [12]: formulating an answer-
able question; information search; reviewing of information and critical appraisal;
employ the results in one's practice/work.
Futhermore learning PKM skills depends on: 1. personal and environmental
conditions which promote learning; 2. teaching decisions the educator and the
learner need to make to engage successfully in learning; 3. the characteristic be-
haviours of effective adult learning. The link between these three elements is new
and evidence-based, both in design and practice. This overview provides a guide
for teachers wishing to adopt the adult learning approach while using technology
for their courses.
The gathered evidence suggests that it would be necessary to carry out further
research aimed at analysing the relationships among the basic conditions that in-
fluence the PLE (Personal learning environment), including both personal learning
factors and environmental conditions, and PLN (Personal learning network) that
represents the people a learner interacts with and derives knowledge from.
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