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About Me: I am a fourth year PhD student in the Education in Mathematics, Science, and Technology Program in the Graduate School of Education. My background is in computer science (also U.C. Berkeley) and computing in education (Columbia University). I am an amateur photographer (focusing on black-and-white documentary works) and enjoy scuba diving.

Research Interests: Three streams of research I am interested in are: mathematics cognition, computer supported learning environments, and critical pedagogy. At the intersection of these streams I identify resources for empowering students as mathematics learners and doers. Probing these resources, I use the lens of mathematical agency (Veeragoudar Harrell, 2007) to study students' potential for empowerment in mathematics discourse and problem-solving situations. Working in innovative learning settings of my design, I elicit data of student activity so as to illuminate cognitive, affective, technical, and social factors nurturing or inhibiting mathematical agency.

For my dissertation I am conducting a design-based research study to investigate and compare mathematical agency in the real world and virtual worlds. For example, I am exploring potential reciprocity between individual students' identity construction in real and virtual environments. How does being a mathematical learner in the virtual world affect one's mathematical identity in the real world? What design factors support development of mathematical agency and specifically, positive mathematical identity construction? To explore these questions, I have built an online, computer-supported constructionist learning environment called Fractal Village wherein students engage collaboratively in mathematics problem solving activities through which they also develop programming skills. I currently have two separate collaborations underway for this project. The first is with the Berkeley Technology Academy and Professor Jabari Mahiri and the second is with the University of Ghent, Belgium (Professor Martin Valcke).

More broadly, I am interested in the potential impact of new media on STEM learning. In an earlier research project I studied multi-modal aspects of high-school students' geometrical problem solving (utterance, gesture, and artifact construction/manipulation) to inform an articulation of design principles for computer-based learning tools. The study revealed the roles of artifacts in mathematical reasoning as well as students' affective dispositions toward imaginative mathematical inquiry (read more).