James Diamond

Dean's Fellowship, Educational Communications and Technology

For James Diamond, the future of education is at a three-cornered cross road at the intersection of technology, psychology and design.

He graduated from Boston University with a B.A. in History and pursued a master's degree in Media and Technology at the same school.  Here at NYU, he hopes to "explore new media and technologies as tools with which learners may alter, create anew or even transcend the existing environment.  I am defining environment in the broadest sense: physical surroundings, imagined constructs, the psychological and emotional atmosphere, and a learner's internal perception of self and world."

"I want to encourage teachers to move away from their traditional role as instructors and view themselves as 'instructional technologists' and 'educational ecologists.' With new technologies, we are expanding our ability to create holistic learning environments, arenas in which learners are provided with the freedom and the tools to develop their own integrated and meaningful concepts of the world."

Technology, however, is not necessarily the only answer to a pedagogue's prayers.  There is always a place for imagination.  Diamond had to rely on imagination when he taught third grade science at a struggling inner city Boston school.  "In order to understand the activities of tiny organisms within the human body," James recalls, "we performed a battle scene between cells and virus in which some children played the role of aggressive viruses attempting to break through the circle of other, hand-clasping children playing the cell membrane.  While studying the solar system, we unrolled toilet paper down the hallway.  The distance of each astronomical body was marked by the number of toilet sheets from the beginning of the roll, the sun."

Diamond's primary focus, however, is on the development of "mind tools."  In order to develop these tools, he wants to study the nature of the relationship between a learner and the learning medium.  "Using digital technology," he asks," can we create environments that allow learners to immerse themselves in learning? Do technologies foster the development of individual cognitive skills that will remain when the tools are removed?"

Diamond is particularly happy about being located in New York City where he feels he has "an incredible opportunity to engage with the largest and most diverse public school system in the country, allowing me to understand the needs of its students and teachers as I explore new ways to create constructivist learning environments in the classroom."

Written by Ed Goodgold