Education research (grad school at Georgia Tech)

As a student in the Problem Solving and Educational Technology laboratory, I worked in various areas of education research:

• Productive failure: Educators often argue about the amount of guidance students should be provided when learning - some believe that a high amount of guidance ensures that students learn exactly what they are supposed to learn, while others believe that allowing learners to explore with less guidance helps them to create more meaningful connections to the material. The productive failure instructional methodology posits that students will learn more effectively with low amounts of guidance initially as they explore the problem space, and high amounts of guidance later. During the initial period of less guidance, students will often fail to solve the problems in front of them, but the failure will require them to think in useful ways (e.g., connecting new information with pre-existing knowledge, attacking problems from many different angles) that will serve them better in the long run and when solving novel problems. In the later periods with more guidance, they can correct their misconceptions and thereby make powerful connections to their unique experiences during exploration.

• Interactive multimedia: Technology is fast becoming a large part of modern education, and with the rise in educational technologies is an increase in the use of interactive materials. People often assume that interactive materials are inherently better than non-interactive materials, but the effects of interactivity might depend on learning domains, task difficulty, and pre-existing individual differences in the users

• Metacognition: Metacognition, the monitoring of one's own learning, is one of the best ways a student can regulate his or her learning processes to achieve positive outcomes. However, there are many ways to facilitate learners' metacognitive processes, and the job of researchers is to find ways that are effective but not mentally burdensome.

• Paper vs. screen: The way we read has undergone drastic changes in recent years; where there used to be only printed books, now there are electronic forms such as e-readers. Does this change in delivery medium affect how we read? The answer might surprise you (Scientific American article on this topic, an article in HP's The Garage for which I was interviewed on this topic)