Short Bio

Dr. Tom Murray is an Senior Research Fellow in the Computer Science Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Currenlty his primary research is in the are of supporting social deliberative skills in online contexts. He has also done research in the areas of Cognitive Tools, Adaptive Computer Learning Environments, Online Collaboration, Ethics, and Knowledge Engineering. He is also publishes scholarly papers in the field of Integral Theory realted epistemology and applied philosophy. Murray has degrees in educational technology (EdD, MEd), computer science (MS), and physics (BS). He is on the editorial review boards of two international journals, the International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, and at Integral Review as an Associate Editor.

Academic Bio (and see Curriculum Vitae)

Dr. Murray has been researching, publishing, consulting, and leading workshops on the subjects of online communities, intelligent tutoring system (ITS) authoring tools, simulation-based inquiry learning environments, adaptive hypermedia, cognitive tools, discourse ethics, and knowledge acquisition/representation for advanced technology instructional systems since 1985. He has directed a number of educational software projects in industry and in university/college research contexts. His projects include MetaLinks (adaptive hyperbooks), Eon (ITS authoring tools), SimForest (glass box simulation based learning environments for inquiry learning), and RASHI (tools scaffolding inquiry learning), Digital Newsroom (service learning project with college students mentoring inner city youth in creating a web site and newsletter by and for the youth of the city), and Perspegrity (a project on collaborative software supporting depth, integrity, perspective in on-line communication, collaboration, and decision making). Other areas of interest and publication include process-based learning metrics (ZPD), ITS ontologies, ITS interoperability and reusability, teacher professional development, distributed models of curriculum, software evaluation methods, example-based strategies for teaching concepts, and the representation of instructional strategies. In addition to his consulting and R&D activities, Murray has taught graduate and undergraduate courses at Hampshire College and the University of Massachusetts.  From 1998-2001 he founded and directed the Digital Design Center at Hampshire College, which supported student-centered projects in software and ‘new media’ areas.  Past experience includes working at the Center for Knowledge Communication (CKC), and the Scientific Reasoning Research Institute (SRRI) at the University of Massachusetts; and industry work designing intelligent multimedia training systems (Senior Software Engineer and Project Manager, Asea Brown Boveri PPL Laboratories).