As I mentioned earlier, it
has always been a privilege to be involved in TEL community (EATEL, JTELSS) and I try to participate in the events
organized by them. Great researchers and experts from across Europe and
the rest of the world are coming together to make constructive discussions and
conversations around TEL topics which provide great support especially to
doctoral students and researchers in TEL. Continuing from TEL summer school in Malta, I planned to attend the doctoral consortium of 9th European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning (EC-TEL 2014) 16-19 September 2014 in Graz, Austria. I submitted my doctoral research project to the consortium to be reviewed by expert reviewers and other doctoral student fellows. I was quite surprised by the review results I received on my proposal both the number of people who have reviewed my manuscript (ten reviewers!) and the quality of comments and feedback they provided. In addition to the reviews of the proposal, we (six doctoral students) presented at the doctoral consortium and received more feedback from the senior researchers and professors present at the conference. I should thank professor Mike Sharples from the Open University UK for his valuable and really constructive comments he provided both in the review process and during my presentation.
Keynoter Etienne Wenger elaborated on the latest development of social learning theory in regards to open learning and teaching which was the theme of the conference.
