The focus of my research is on designing and implementing computer based systems to be used in Education. I have designed scaffolding (both software-supported and paper-based) to help students develop metacognitive skills in learning from texts, and to help students reason while they are learning science 'by design'. My current research project, CoMPASS, aims at designing nonlinear, interactive, online resources for middle school science students.

My interest in design experimentation comes from my experience in designing software and seeing it work in classrooms. The role of the different agents in the environment (classroom) such as the teacher, the curriculum, the resources, etc. all affect how the software is used. This suggests that aspects of the environment need to systematically modified and we need to look into the 'whole' environment, rather than individual parts. My specific interest is in examining how the environment (software, teacher, resources, peer interactions) affect the process of learning, as reflected in external representations such as concept maps. More details about my work are on my home page.