Dr. Laura Beals

Manager for Research, Evaluation & Instructional Technology, Aspire Institute , Connected Beginnings

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Laura Beals is the Manager for Research, Evaluation and Instructional Technology at Connected Beginnings Training Institute. Since April of 2011, she has overseen research and evaluation activities at Connected Beginnings, examining the implementation, impact and effectiveness of CBTI’s professional development and training on individuals, programs and practices. In addition, her primary areas of expertise are in the design and evaluation of technology, particularly virtual worlds, to support youth development, integration of technology into classrooms and innovative technology-based research and evaluation methods for use with children and adolescents.

Prior to joining Connected Beginnings, Laura was a senior member of the Developmental Technologies Research Group at Tufts University and worked at the Center for Engineering Educational Outreach (CEEO). She has published several articles focusing on virtual worlds technology for youth and has presented at national conferences on topics including robotics, online peer networks, and interactive technology programs for children and adults. Laura completed her Ph.D. (2011) and MA (2006) at the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University, with her doctoral dissertation focusing on the design and evaluation of virtual world programs for preadolescent youth and her master’s thesis focusing on a new technology and methodology for observing early childhood classrooms. She graduated summa cum laude in an innovative multidisciplinary program combining Child Development with a BS from the College of Engineering at Tufts University.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/laurabeals

Selected Publications

• Beals, L., & Bers, M.U.. "A developmental lens for designing virtual worlds for children and youth," The International Journal of Learning and Media.
• Beals, L.. "A Framework for the Design and Evaluation of Virtual World Programs for Preadolescent Youth," Tufts University.
• Beals, L.. "Content creation in virtual worlds to support adolescent identity development," New Directions for Youth Development.
• Beals, L.. "Dyadic collaborative problem solving on engineering tasks in a first grade classroom," Tufts University.
• Beals, L., & Bers, M.U.. "Evaluating participation in an international bilingual virtual world educational intervention for youth," Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.
• Laura Beals, Marina Bers, Clement Chau, Keiko Satoh, Nauman Khan. "Virtual worlds for young people in a program context: Lessons from four case studies.," New Science of Learning: Cognition, Computers, and Collaboration in Education.