Science 2.0: Supporting a Doctoral Community of Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning using Social Software

The STELLAR European network of Excellence (NoE) (http://www.stellarnet.eu) represents the effort of leading European institutions and projects in Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) to unify their diverse and sometimes fragmented community. The Network is executed via a series of integration instruments designed to increase the research capacity of European TEL at all levels. One level is that of early career researchers, and in particular doctoral candidates, who are seen as key in establishing sustainable research capacity in TEL. This paper focuses on the ways in which STELLAR supports doctoral candidates through the establishment of a Doctoral Community of Practice (CoP) in Technology Enhanced Learning as a STELLAR doctoral integration instrument for the doctoral stakeholder community. This TEL Doctoral CoP (DoCoP), officially established in Autumn 2009, is also instrumental in bringing together actors of engineering education research in academic institutions, as proposed in the USA by Streveler [1]. The paper discusses possible ways in which the DoCoP could be developed through the innovative use of Web 2.0 technologies, by outlining the characteristics of one such technology and describing the ways in which an imaginary PhD candidate might use the technology in their PhD journey.