I first met Chris Dede when he served as my graduate advisor at George Mason University. Attending his courses were an immersion in the possibilities of technology for education. He moved on to the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1999, where he has continued his excellent work researching human cognition in virtual environments.

Chris pushes the current thinking about teaching and learning through a variety of multimedial technologies and virtual environments. His work contributes to the ongoing dialogue about educational policy and its provisions for constructivist, technology-rich learning experiences, including a popular State Policy Framework for Assessing Educational Technology Implementation. He aspires to develop a scalability index of educational innovation, and his ongoing interests include multiple user virtual environments (MUVEs), telementoring, and wireless mobile devices for ubiquitous computing.

What does ubiquitous computing mean? Chris describes it as "where the virtual world travels through the real world with you." Unlike sitting at a desktop and interacting with a device, "students walking through their own community can take advantage of a digital-camera attachment, or a probeware attachment measuring temperature or pressure or motion, or a graphing calculator to help them to understand something that's taking place within the community - and then bring that back inside the school setting. We're just beginning to understand the possibilities that handhelds present inside and out of schools."

Expanding on his notion of virtual worlds, Chris has explained, “Computer programs are gateways to engagement; what we put inside these programs can turn them into gateways to learning.” To this end, he has worked with a team of researchers and developers to create a digital middle-school science curriculum using Multi-User Virtual Environment Experience Simulators (MUVEEs). MUVEES enable a group of learners to move through virtual worlds as avatars, manipulating digital objects, interacting with one another and with computer-generated persons, working collaboratively to solve curriculum-based problems within real world contexts.

When I returned home to my native Massachusetts in 2003 I found Chris speaking at a state technology conference, continuing to share his vision for technology in education. The room was packed and the audience was mesmerized by his thoughtful, expansive ideas. It was good to reconnect with him again. For all of the educators he touches through his work, and for the quiet revolution he sparks with his vision of possibilities for all learners, it is my honor to recognize Dr. Christopher Dede as a truly exemplary online educator.

Walter McKenzie
The Surfaquarium