Trust in Distributed Personal Learning Environments: The Case Study of LePress PLE

This paper reports a research effort to improve the learning process through the use of blogging. It main rational is built on the possibility of eliciting a set of potential trust effect in the design of a particular online learning space, called LePress. The LePress is a WordPress plug-in that aims to bring assignment related workflow management and context specific semantic data exchange to WordPress. It describes the aplication of a mixing method approach, which, interconnects two research works results, and is based on the observation of online learning communities in action. One research refers to a development of a blog extension prototype called LePress. The other refers to the results gather from a survey deployed to better understand the effects and influence of trust people's online activity and sharing patterns. The innovative nature of this research can be characterized by the elicitation of a set of potential effects of trust in the design of particular software tool which is used for enhancing learning and problem solving practices in working life contexts. It relevance is grounded in the changes that are taking place nowadays in the education contexts. Helps bordering educators and researchers' perspectives on the possible potential effects that those changes can bring to our daily learning activities.