EC-TEL 2014 doctoral consortium in Graz, Austria

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. 

#ectel2014

TEL summer school in Malta

This year in late spring, I had a chance to once gain attend the 10th European Summer School on Technology Enhanced learning held from 27 April to 2 May in Malta. 

It was great that I could participate this year after three years (last time was in Crete, Greece, 2011) to meet friends from previous summer school and making news friends. Since I joined TEL community through EATEL and took part in this summer school, I like it and I enjoy networking, interactions and friendship in this community. 

There were different lectures and workshops which I enjoyed amongst them:  from PLE to MOOC by Denis Gillet and  Basics of paper writing and publishing in TEL by Michael Derntl and colleagues. 

I also enjoyed a lot the excursions organized  by #JTELSS14 committee in Malta and Seabank resort which was a very nice place. 

TEL Summer School 2011

Last week (May 29-June 4) I attended JTELSS11; the 7th Joint European Summer School on Technology Enhanced Learning in Crete island, Greece. It was supported by PROLEARN Academy , EATEL, TELeurope and STELLARNET. It was such a great event for doctoral students and researchers in TEL to come together to exchange their ideas and build also a TELeurope doctoral community of practice. There were about 42 doctoral students from 22 EU countries (with different nationalities). 

The summer school program included verities of activities such as plenary sessions, workshops, group-working on different topics of interest e.g. web 2.0 in research and learning, PLE, augmented reality, adaptive learning systems and other areas of TEL research. The main part of the program was everyday group-working and interactive discussions between PhD students   to discuss and share their research issues such as methodologies, theories and other topics and techniques in PhD research. It was a unique opportunity to meet people in TEL research, fellow researchers to exchange our thoughts and develop our professional networking. 

In addition to a good scientific program, there were also some leisure activities. The location of the summer school was a great beach resort which provided participants with possibility of doing various activities such as swimming, beach volleyball, and other sports activities. The day before the summer school we had an excursion to south-western of Crete from a very glorious mountainous road. Then in the last day we also had another excursion to some villages in eastern part of Crete and a good-looking lake where we somehow got relaxed after a one-week intensive working.

On the whole, it was such a wonderful experience to benefit both from the excellent program of the summer school and to visit attractive Crete.  

Here is a video of the JTELSS11:

My plan for conferences this year!

 This year I am planning to participate in one (or two) of the following conferences.

- ED-MEDIA 2011;World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications, June 27-July 1, 2011 in Lisbon, Portugal. Deadline for submission is April 12th. We will have a paper with my colleagues about blended learning and using wikis in higher education. Two keynotes of the conference : Alec Couros  and Erik Duval  will be speaking about interesting topics of today's learning; openness and networked learning. This conference I will attend for sure and looking froward to seeing Alec and Erik and other keynote speakers' contributions. There will be a doctoral consortium in this conference which I am interested to attend.

But between the two conferences below, I may attend just one . I'd like to participate in both but it depends on the situation then!  I am now preparing my proposals for both of them which is focused on self-directed learning, personalization of learning and personal learning environments.

- 6th European Conference on Technology- Enhanced Learning  ( EC-TEL 2011), 21-23 September 2011 in Palermo Italy. Proposal deadline is April 4th. The conference theme for this year is " Towards Ubiquitous Learning" with two keynotes talking about issues related to emerging technologies and ubiquitous learning.. There will be some workshops and also a doctoral consortium in the conference.


        - PLE Conference , conference on Personal Learning Environments (PLE), 11-13 July 2011, Southampton, UK. Deadline for submission is now extended until April10th. This conference is a good venue for my research and good themes related to PLE where I can also meet some researchers in this area.