This community gathers the quantitative and qualitative data relating the National research project: “Ecologías de aprendizaje a lo largo de la vida: contribuciones de las TIC al desarrollo profesional del profesorado” (Eco4Learn) Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness  I+D  (EDU2012-37334). [Lifelong Learning Ecologies: TIC's contributions to teachers' professional development]

The social changes in which we have been immersed for over a decade have also brought about changes in the needs of the workplace and the skills and knowledge required of individuals in order to succeed in today’s society. Thus, there has been a shift in workers’ needs in terms of lifelong learning. Informal and non-formal training models, which appear to allow for professional development opportunties that are better suited to recipients’ needs, have become increasingly popular. The use of social networks and other means of bringing people together have grown in popularity, especially with the advent of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), thereby expanding the horizons for lifelong and lifewide learning.

Within this setting there emerge complex sets of contexts, comprised of activities, resources, and relationships, which provide new opportunities for learning in both physical and virtual spaces. These sets of contexts are referred to as ecologies of learning. With this in mind, and with the aim of focusing our research on one particular group of professionals, i.e., primary and secondary school teachers, we set out to provide answers to the following questions: What role do ecologies of lifelong learning play in teachers’ training and professional development? What are the elements that make up teachers’ lifelong and lifewide learning ecologies? What role do each of the elements play and how do ICTs contribute? What benefits do teachers find in the various components that make up learning ecologies beyond those of traditional development schemes?

The aim of the project is to analyze and understand the ways in which learning ecologies contribute to the development and improvement of the professional activities of primary school teachers. To achieve this goal, our general objectives are:

1. To analyze the ways in which primary school teachers shape and use learning ecologies for their professional development and to examine the role of ICTs role in this process.
2. To understand primary school teachers‟ perception of how, via learning ecologies, ICTs can contribute both to their professional development and their classroom practice
3. To establish guidelines which can facilitate teachers‟ professional development via learning ecologies

To achieve these general objectives, we propose the following specific or operational objectives:

1. To identify and describe the components that shape the learning ecologies of primary school teachers, with particular emphasis on those aspects related to ICTs.
2. To explore teachers‟ perceptions of the ways in which the use of these learning ecologies can have a positive effect on their professional development and classroom practice.
3. To diagnose those strategies currently being used by primary school teachers in their professional development and training, in order help us to identify the most common traits.
4. To compare specific, individual examples of how, via the use of ICTs, learning ecologies can be used for professional development and for improving educational practice, with the situation relevant among the majority of primary school teachers
5. To suggest strategies and actions which will optimize and generalize the potential of learning ecologies for the professional development of primary school teachers, not only for the teachers themselves and also in relation to political decisions related to the educational system as a whole.