Brigid Barron

Dr. Barron is a developmental psychologist who studies processes of collaborative learning in and out of school. Her research investigates interest-driven learning with a focus on how digital technologies can serve as catalysts for collaborative learning across home, school, and community settings with the goal of creating more equitable opportunities for the development of expertise. The theoretical goal of this work is to articulate conditions that lead to the diversification of a child's learning ecology through increasing activity in learning activities across settings. Current projects include the longitudinal documentation of learner pathways to engagement, studies of families as technology-supported learning teams, and the roles that personal learning networks play in catalyzing and sustaining interest-driven learning She is founder of the YouthLAB at Stanford, and a co-lead of TELOS, a Stanford Graduate School of Education Initiative to investigate how technologies can provide more equitable access to learning opportunities. She was a lead researcher in the NSF-funded LIFE Center (Learning in Informal and Formal Environments), investigating the social foundations of learning across diverse communities, contexts, and domains.