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Dissertation Abstract
11 April 2008
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After having successfully defended my dissertation, I received my Ph.D. in Computer Science from Brandeis University in May, 2008.
Since then, I have been working at Grockit, a San Francisco web start-up building a platform for live collaborative learning games (and occasionally blog about what I'm working on.)
In my free time, I've been working on Sketchpad, a clever mashup of Etherpad and Processing.
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Boston Globe article
5 August 2004
SpellBEE intro
AIED-2005
BEEweb intro
ITS-2006
Assessing learning
AIED-2007
Evaluating Difficulty
EDM@AIED-2007
Using Expectations
TechReport-2008
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A bit about my dissertation research: In classroom-based studies, peer tutoring has proved to be an effective learning strategy, both for the tutees and for their peer tutors.
In seeking to translate the successes of peer-assisted learning from the classroom to the Internet, one major hurdle to overcome is that of motivation.
In my dissertation work, I examined the possibilities of motivating learning among peers by incorporating these interactions into a game. Games offer a valuable set of tools and techniques for affecting student participation, engagement, goals, and strategies.
In order to experiment with the real-world effects of game-based peer learning activities, I built SpellBEE. SpellBEE is a web-based game in which pairs of players engage in a two-person English language spelling activity. Since it was first released four years ago, thousands of students have actively participated. The SpellBEE activity later inspired and informed the development of
the BEEweb, a larger suite of synchronous, collaborative learning activities based on the same motivational structure as SpellBEE. Today, the BEEweb platform currently hosts PatternBEE, MoneyBEE, and GeograBEE, and more activities are currently in development.
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Visualization paper
AAAI Symposium-2005
Coevisualizer
Visualization app
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Earlier in graduate school, I examined methods for monitoring success and failure in coevolutionary algorithms. I developed the Coevisualizer (in Java) for experimenting with coevolutionary algorithms. I've since released this software, and plan to soon make the source code available, also.
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BEEweb Status
presence monitoring
Page Axe
webapp privacy
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I've released an assortment of applications, scripts, and code, primarily for Mac OS X. Among these,
Page Axe enables true data privacy in the context of personal web-based applications,
Berry (never released) lets me access functionality on my Mac using my very low-tech cell phone, and BEEweb Status Menu monitors the presence of players in BEEweb games.
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2004 hike
summer solo
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I have a few albums online with pictures from travels and
hiking trips over the past few years.
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