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Melissa Koch

Senior Educational Developer

Melissa Koch designs and implements educational learning environments for teachers and students. She specializes in the development of collaborative technologies and technology-based curricula for learning in and out of school. She also designs and implements teacher professional development programs to support teachers in integrating technology into their practice. At SRI International, she leads the Build IT project, a curriculum in which middle school girls build information technology fluency through design. She also co-leads the design and management of the National Science Foundation's CLTNet and leads the teacher professional development program on several projects.

At RealCommunities, she led the development of Applications of Purpose, including a mentoring application, to be used in a variety of online environments to enable community members to learn from one another. She has developed several Internet products for the K-12 education market while working with organizations such as Computer Curriculum Corporation, The Learning Company, PBS, The Edison Project, and O'Reilly & Associates.

She has also written several articles on technology and education, and co-authored a book, NetLearning: Why Teachers Use the Internet. She has two patents pending: System and Methods of Providing Online Community Purposes and System and Methods of Enabling Extensible Online Community Management.

Education 

• M.A., Mass Communications; Telecommunications Science, Management, and Policy certificate, Northwestern University, 1992
• B.A., English; interdisciplinary concentration in Gender & Women's Studies, Grinnell College, 1990

Professional Experience 

• Senior Educational Developer, SRI International's Center for Technology in Learning, Menlo Park, CA (2006-present)
• Social Scientist, SRI International's Center for Technology in Learning, Menlo Park, CA (2001-2005)
• Senior Product Manager/Director of Applications, RealCommunities, Cupertino CA (1999-2001)
• Director of CCCnet, Computer Curriculum Corporation, Sunnyvale, CA (1998-1999)
• Internet Learning Specialist, The Learning Company, Fremont, CA (1997-1998)
• Creator and Editor of GNN Education Center, O'Reilly & Associates, Sebastopol, CA (1994-1997)
• Consultant on Educational Technologies, Koch Enterprises, San Francisco, CA (1993-1994)
• Research Associate on Technology, The Edison Project, Knoxville, TN (1992-1993)
• Research Intern, Federal Communications Commission, Office of Plans and Policy, Washington, D.C. (Summer 1992)

Research Areas at CTL

Learning Environments
Teacher Learning

Current Projects at CTL

• Build IT: Girls Building Information Technology Fluency Through Design (Leader)
• InnovaTE³ Girls Innovating with Technology as Entrepreneurial Environmental Engineers (Principal Investigator)
• ScribbleProv: Supporting disciplined improvisation during face-to-face discussion
• Tapped In^®
• Thinking With Data

Past Projects at CTL

• Bridging Professional Development ended 2009
• Building Social and Technical Infrastructure for Teacher Mentoring, Coaching, and Peer Support ended 2003
• Center for Embedded Networked Sensing Education Cyber-Infrastructure (CENSEI) ended 2008
• Center for Innovative Learning Technologies (CILT) ended 2003
• CLTNet: Centers for Learning and Teaching Network (Leader) ended 2008
• Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Educational Technology Interventions (EETI) ended 2007
• Transforming Instruction by Design in Earth Science (TIDES) ended 2009
• Wireless Handhelds for Improving Reflection on Learning (WHIRL) ended 2004

Publications

• Denner, J., Kareem, Z., Koch, M., & Peterson, K. (2008 March,). Girls and information technology: Innovative approaches to narrowing the gender gap. The Build IT portion of the presentation at AERA 2008. New York City, NY.
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• Koch, M. "Build IT Poster." (2008 February). ITEST Poster Session. Presented at NSF's ITEST PI Meeting. Washington, DC.
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• Koch, M. (2008 February). Build IT data summary. Presented at NSF’s ITEST PI Meeting, Washington, DC.
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• Koch, M., & Gorges, T. (2008 February). Scaling Build IT. Presented at NSF’s ITEST PI Meeting, Washington, DC.
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• Bryan, M., Nemes, O., & Koch, M. (2007 February). Girls in Build IT. Presented in Reaching and Teaching the New Learner at NSF’s ITEST PI Meeting. Washington, DC.
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• Courneya, J., & Koch, M. (2007 February). Sharing best practices in youth development. Presented at NSF’s ITEST PI Meeting. Washington, DC.
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• Koch, M. & Penuel, W.R. (2007 April). Designing for design learning. In CHI 2007 Conference Proceedings. Workshop on Converging on a Science of Design through the Synthesis of Design Methodologies. Reading, MA: ACM Press.
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• Koch, M. & Fusco, J. (2007, in press). Designing for Growth: Enabling Communities of Practice to Develop and Extend Their Work Online. In C. Kimble & P. Hildreth (Eds.) Communities of Practice: Creating Learning Environments for Educators. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing Inc.
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• Koch, M. et al. (August, 2007). Build IT: Girls Developing Information Technology Fluency through Design. Annual Report Year 2. Menlo Park, CA: SRI International.
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• Koch, M., & Nemes, O. (2007 October). Introduction to Build IT workshop. Presented at Girls Incorporated Region III Conference 2007. Providence, Rhode Island.
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• Koch, M. (2006) Build IT curriculum. Featured in Consumers Guide to After School Science Resources at http://www.sedl.org/cgi-bin/mysql/afterschool/science.cgi?location=search&show_resource_id=45
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• Koch, M. (April, 2006). Build IT: Girls Building Information Technology Fluency Through Design In M. Koch, J. Denner, D. Emery, & R. London (presenters) BayCHI-Kids Event: Developing girls' technology fluency. Menlo Park, CA: SRI International
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• Koch, M. (October, 2006) Infusing IT/STEM skill standards in informal ITEST learning ITEST Webcast
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• Koch, M. et al. (August, 2006). Build IT: Girls Developing Information Technology Fluency through Design. Annual Report Year 1. Menlo Park, CA: SRI International.
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• Koch, M., & Sackman, M. (2004, September). Assessment in the palm of your hand: Handheld computers transform the assessment process. Science and Children, 33-37. Available online at http://www.nsta.org/main/news/pdf/sc0409_33.pdf
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• Information Literacy: Where Do We Go from Here? Technos (Spring 2001) Agency for Instructional Technology, Vol. 10 No. 1.
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• Learning from Civilization LiNE Zine (Winter 2000)
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• Curriculum Integration Guide for Compton’s Encyclopedia Online: Information Literacy (1998) The Learning Company, Inc.
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• NetLearning: Why Teachers Use the Internet (1996) O’Reilly & Associates and Songline Studios
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• "No Girls Allowed" Technos (Fall 1994) Agency for Instructional Technology, Vol. 3 No. 3.
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• Educators Online: Three Case Studies (1994) CompuMentor.
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• The Care and Feeding of Online Networks for Nonprofits (1994) CompuMentor.
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• Beyond the Light Bulb: The Promise of Technology in The Edison Project Technos (Spring 1993) Agency for Instructional Technology, Vol. 2 No. 1.
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