Judah L. Schwartz

I am currently Visiting Professor of Education and Research Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Tufts University. I am also Emeritus Professor of Engineering Science and Education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Emeritus Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. I was trained in theoretical physics and mathematics and did research for some years in the area of atomic physics. In the course of that research, my colleagues and I developed a variety of computer graphics techniques that proved to be useful in the teaching of mathematics and science. My current research interests include the design of microcomputer software environments to improve the teaching and learning of science and mathematics and the application of cognitive science techniques to the study of mathematics and science education.

I have been a visiting Professor at universities in France, Italy and Israel, have consulted and lectured widely in this country and abroad and published extensively in the area of educational technology. I am the author or co-author of many software environments including The Semantic Calculator, The Algebraic Proposer, M-SS-NG L-NKS, What Do You Do With A Broken Calculator?, The Geometric Supposer Series, The Geometric superSupposer, Calculus Unlimited, Sir Isaac Newton's Games, The Calculus Toolkit, The Function Analyzer, The Newtonian Sandbox, The Function Supposer Series, Div, Grad, Curl & almost All That!, Unsolving..., The Function Family Register, What Shape is That Color?, and the in COMMON Series.

I have a long standing interest in alternative modes of assessment and have edited reports entitled "The Prices of Secrecy: The Social, Intellectual and Psychological Costs of Current Assessment Practice" and "Assessing Mathematics Understanding & Skills Effectively" [available from Educational Technology Center, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA ]. My most recent major publications are a book-length case study of educational reform entitled "The Geometric Supposer; What Is It A Case Of?" [published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates 1993] and "Software Goes to School: Teaching for Understanding in the Age of Technology" [published by Oxford University Press 1995 ], a book co-edited with colleagues from the Educational Technology Center at Harvard.