Biography

Dr. Maria Perifanou is an academic and researcher specializing in Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) & Computer Assisted Language Learning. She is an adjunct academic staff member at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of English, where she teaches "Educational Technology" in both undergraduate and Master's courses. She also teaches the same subject at the Hellenic Open University in the TESOL Master's Programme. Additionally, she is an adjunct academic staff member at the International Hellenic University, School of Science & Technology, and a visiting professor in the Master's programme Information Systems at the University of Macedonia (GR). Furthermore, she works as a senior researcher at the Smart and Mobile Learning Environments (SMILE) Lab at the University of Macedonia, focusing on CALL and TEL.

Maria is the Vice-President of the European Association of Technology Enhanced Learning - EATEL (2022-2025) and is also a board member of the International Alliance to Advance Learning in the Digital Era (IAALDE).

Maria holds a Master's degree in ICT and Foreign Language Education from Ca’ Foscari, University of Venice, (IT), and a Ph.D. from the University of Athens, (GR), in the field of Applied Linguistics.

Her research interests include CALL, iCALL TEL, AIED, MOOCs, OERs, FLL, Teachers' Training, and more.

Over the last 10 years, she has collaborated with various European research institutions on more than 35 EU-funded research projects in the field of Technology-Enhanced Learning, notably LangMOOC, Evolution of reading in the Age of Digitization (E-READ). Furthermore, she worked for 3 years as a TEL consultant and project coordinator at the Open Education Europa portal for the Commission's Directorate-General for Education and Culture. Her recent research is connected to various Erasmus+ projects: TRinE, PASTILLE, DETEL, FeSTEM, DC4LT, OPENLangNET, and Back2Basics and national projects CARAT, AITRinLL-21skills (Artificial intelligence and telepresence robots in enhancing FLL & 21st-century skills) in which she holds the roles of projects’ initiator, scientific manager, and senior researcher.

Maria is the chair of EATEL's Special Interest group (SIG) Educational Robots & Robotics - SIG EduRobotX.

She is the author of over 120 articles that have been published in peer-reviewed journals, conferences, and books. She is also a member of different European TEL research networks and communities and has also been awarded several international and national scholarships and fellowships for her research (by STELLAR, UNESCO, EATEL, GRnet).