Implementing Virtual Learning Environments: Looking for Holistic Approach

The implementation of innovative pedagogical/educational practices is a response to the social needs for educational change. Such needs emerge from the massive request and access to post-secondary education, the necessity to increase competitiveness mainly through the increase of the human potential and the need to take into account new approaches to learning in a world highly mediated by technology where becoming a democratic, tolerant and responsible citizen is proving to be more difficult than becoming a highly trained worker or professional. The recent technological developments and the possibilities they offer provide useful tools in the introduction of educational innovations. With the same token however the implementation of technology in educational environments and in the learning process, in formal education or in more informal learning structures, poses a real challenge for the education and training institutions undertaking it.