Eric's Background
I am co-founder and lead designer at Inquirium. In this role, I focus on the design of innovative learning environments, primarily for science learning. I also have a strong interest in the use of digital media to support research on teaching and learning.
Prior to joining Inquirium, I was the Director of the Synergy Communities: Aggregating Learning about Education (SCALE) project, a NSF-funded effort based on the University of California at Berkeley that studies the related processes of designing innovative, technology-rich science curricula and adapting innovative curricula to meet local needs and constraints. Prior to working on the SCALE project, I was a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Center for Innovative Learning Technologies (CILT). At CILT, my interests centered on the uses of visualization and modeling technologies to support learning, as well as the study and practice of synergistic collaboration within the learning technologies field -- work that directly informed the SCALE proposal.
During this time, I also participated in the work of the Design-based Research Collective, a Spencer Foundation-funded effort to synthesize work within the area of design-based research, also known as design experiments, with the goal of articulating a core methodology for engaging in design-based work to learn about teaching and learning.
I received my Ph. D. in Learning Sciences from Northwestern University, where my dissertation research focused on creating learning environments, set in engineering design contexts, to support student engagement in scientific inquiry. My dissertation research was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (Materials World Modules, Dr. R. P. H Chang, PI) and a Dissertation Fellowship grant from the Spencer Foundation.
Prior to graduate school, I worked as a senior programmer at the Interactive Media Lab at Dartmouth Medical School, contributing to the design and development of educational software for undergraduate, medical student, and patient education.
I also maintain a weblog of items that relate to learning sciences and learning technologies.