Brown Bag — Technology as a Catalyst for Interest-Driven Learning: Designing for Equity

Although access to the Internet is becoming more widespread, the use of digital communications as a learning tool varies widely. In her talk, "Technology as a Catalyst for Interest-Driven Learning: Designing for Equity," Brigid Barron explained why equity in access to digital learning opportunities is critical. A qualitative case study was presented to better understand the variability in how parents conceptualize the presence of media in their child’s life and how it enriches learning opportunities. The talk closed with a discussion of the need for an ambitious research agenda—one that can advance our capacity to design tools and catalyze cross-setting, interest-driven learning opportunities.  

Brigid Barron is Professor of Education at Stanford University and a developmental psychologist who studies processes of collaborative learning in and out of school. She studies how individuals work together to create joint products and how what is learned and created is related to the quality of their interactions. In a five year NSF supported CAREER award she documented adolescents' learning ecologies (e.g. learning opportunities across home, school, libraries, virtual communities, clubs, camps) for technological fluency development across diverse communities in the Silicon Valley region with the goal of understanding how to design more equitable opportunities for learning. She co-leads the LIFE center (Learning in Informal and Formal Environments), funded by the National Science Foundation in 2005. Barron is PI for a grant funded by the MacArthur Foundation that will follow students longitudinally as they participate in programs designed to develop their technological fluency through activities such as game design, robotics, and digital movie making. The theoretical goal of this work is to articulate conditions that lead to the diversification of a child's learning ecology through increasing activity in learning activities across settings.