SMU has greatly strengthened its investment in Technology Enhanced Immersive Learning (TEIL) by adding three new professors to the existing group of TEIL researchers at the Simmons School of Education and Human Development. While Drs. Corey Brady, Prajakt Pande and Kelsey Schenck are all new faces at Simmons, they are already hard at work in their respective areas of research
Dr. Brady is an Associate Professor who specializes in Mathematics Education and the Learning Sciences. He studies mathematical and computational modeling to better understand and support the collective and embodied learning of classroom groups in innovative, immersive learning environments. He has been PI or co-PI on ten NSF projects totaling over $15 million, and he is a participant in the NSF AI Institute for Engaged Learning. He and collaborators received the Outstanding Paper Award at the International Conference of Learning Sciences in both 2020 and 2023.
Dr. Pande is an Assistant Professor who specializes in the convergence of embodied cognition, technology-enhanced learning, and STEM education. His research focuses on developing and evaluating innovative technology interfaces such as immersive virtual reality (iVR), to facilitate embodied learning of scientific concepts and phenomena. He examines cognition and action such as bodily interaction with scientific models and representations using qualitative interviewing, interaction analysis, and eye-tracking techniques.
Dr. Schenck is an Assistant Professor whose research deals with embodied cognition, spatial reasoning, and STEM education. She is interested in using a grounded and embodied frame to understand the influence of the cognitive and affective aspects of spatial reasoning on students’ STEM learning and in the design of interventions with immersive technologies such as virtual and augmented reality. She also investigates the role of spatial ability and spatial anxiety in embodied mathematics, including geometry and proportional reasoning.