Berkman Luncheon Series >

dec
2
2008

Immersive Interfaces for Learning: Opportunities and Perils

Professor Chris Dede of the Harvard Graduate School of Education

Tuesday, December 2, 12:30 pm
Berkman Center, 23 Everett Street, second floor
RSVP required (rsvp@cyber.law.harvard.edu)
This event will be webcast live at 12:30 pm ET.

Virtual worlds (e.g., Internet games, Second Life) and augmented realities (mobile wireless devices that overlay a virtual simulation on the real world) are entering the educational landscape. Like Alice in Wonderland, students who are 'immersed' encounter both opportunities and perils. This talk with Harvard's Timothy E Wirth professor of Learning Technologies, Chris Dede, illustrates research on learning and assessment in immersive interfaces in order to foster a discussion of the policy and legal issues that the rabbit hole raises.

About Chris

Chris Dede is the Timothy E. Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education.  His fields of scholarship include emerging technologies, policy, and leadership.  His funded research includes four grants from NSF and the US Department of Education to explore immersive and semi-immersive simulations as a means of student engagement, learning, and assessment.  In 2007, he was honored by Harvard University as an outstanding teacher. 

Chris has served as a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Foundations of Educational and Psychological Assessment, a member of the U.S. Department of Education’s Expert Panel on Technology, and International Steering Committee member for the Second International Technology in Education Study.  He serves on Advisory Boards and Commissions for PBS TeacherLine, the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills, the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center, and several federal research grants.  In addition, Chris is a member of the Board of Directors of the Boston Tech Academy, an experimental small high school in the Boston Public School system, funded by the Gates Foundation.  His co-edited book, Scaling Up Success: Lessons Learned from Technology-based Educational Improvement, was published by Jossey-Bass in 2005.  A second volume he edited, Online Professional Development for Teachers: Emerging Models and Methods, was published by the Harvard Education Press in 2006.

Links

• The River City Project
• Handheld Augmented Reality Project
• Chris Dede's homepage