Ph.D. Program Information

Concentration in New Technologies and Human Development

The Ph.D. concentration in New Technologies and Human Development is intended to prepare students to use, design and evaluate new technologies for young people; to participate and direct the implementation of programs aimed at using new technologies to foster children's personal, social, emotional, spiritual, linguistic and intellectual development; and to acquire technical skills and theoretical knowledge that will contribute to their development as researchers and/or practitioners in this emergent field. This concentration also pre-pares students for careers in higher education, research, and applied settings.

This transdisciplinary concentration requires students to take courses in different departments such as Child Development, Education, Computer Science, Engineering, Psychology, Urban Environmental Planning and Policy and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and to complete an internship and/or thesis in this area.

The course requirements for the Ph.D. concentration in New Technologies and Human Development and are as follows:

1. Core developmental courses:
   Students need to choose two courses out of the following six courses. The two selected courses need to be in different domains or special consent of the advisor is required.
   • CD 151 Advanced Intellectual Development
   • CD 155 The Young Child's Development of Language
   • CD 161 Advanced Personal-Social Development
   • CD 211 Contemporary Perspectives on Child Development
   • CD 251 Advanced Seminar in Intellectual Development
   • CD 261 Advanced Seminar in Personal-Social Development

   CD 143 Technologies of the self
   CD 145/ED182 Technological Tools for Thinking and Learning
   Independent Study: Advance seminar on Technology and Human Development [9]
   CD 270 Sociocultural perspectives on teaching and learning

2. Research methods courses:
   Students need to choose three courses out of the following courses, or special consent of the advisor is required [10].
   • CD 142 Problems of Research: Methods and Design
   • CD 144 Qualitative and Ethnographic Methods
   • CD 247 Program Evaluation
   • CD 140 Statistics
   • CD 285 Advanced Research Methods in Applied Developmental Science
     
3. Computer Science courses:
   Students must choose two courses out of the following courses, or special consent of the advisor is required [11]
   • comp 0272 User Interface Software
   • comp 0020 Multimedia Programming
   • comp 0010 Computer Science Primer
   • comp 0171 Human-Computer Interaction
   • CMP 2031-01Multimedia Computing [12]
   • CMP 2027-01Making Art on the World Wide Web [13]
   • CMP 2037 C1 Introduction to Java Programming [14]
     
4. Engineering and Engineering Psychology courses:
   Students must choose one course out of the following courses, or special consent of the advisor is required [15]
   • ME 102 - Inventive Design
   • ENP 166 - Applied Design of Software User Interfaces
   • PSY 53 - Engineering Psychology:
   • PSY 130 - Advanced Engineering Psychology:
   • EN10 Prototyping Robots
   • Robotics in Education [16]
     
5. Concentration electives:
   Students must choose three electives from the course offerings of the Dept. of Child Development, the Dept. of Education, the School of Engineering, the Program on Urban Environmental Planning and Policy or the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (Computer Arts area) [17].
   
6. Internship
   
7. Two qualifying papers
   
8. Doctoral Dissertation

Internship components
Students will have the possibility of a field experience doing internships in settings where technology is used, designed and evaluated with respects to children and youth. For example, at a local or international computer clubhouse (this might be combined with a study abroad program), at different research institutions and companies developing technologies for children, at schools that have a strong educational technologies component and at hospital implementing technology programs for children.. Students will also have the possibility to do their internships at the Curriculum Lab at Eliot-Pearson, the Center for Reading and Language, and at the Center for Educational Engineering Outreach (CEEO) at Tufts University.

Uniqueness of the concentration
This concentration is unique in the U.S. Most of the programs including the study of children and technology are specifically focused on educational technology, and therefore are housed in schools of education. Other programs are mostly focused on the development and implementation of new technologies for children and therefore are housed in schools of Computer Science or related disciplines. These programs require students to have a strong computer background.

This concentration at Tufts University, housed in the Department of Child Development, focuses on the use, design and study of new technologies to support the positive development of children and youth. It takes a psychosocial approach to technology and includes, but is not limited to, the use of technology for teaching and learning. The concentration prepares students to understand and work towards the positive role that technology can play in all aspects of human development.

[1] All students must check with their advisers to determine which of the Research methods courses best fits their program goals.

[2] All students must check with their advisers to determine which of the Research methods courses best fits their program goals.

[3] Depending on students 's familiarity with programming they might choose to take comp 11 or 15, which are the next two levels up.

[4] Taught at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts

[5] Taught at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts

[6] Taught at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts

[7] All students must check with their advisers to determine which of the Research methods courses best fits their program goals.

[8] All students must check with their advisers to determine which of the Research methods courses best fits their program goals.

[9] This independent study will be directed by Prof. Marina Bers, according to the student's research interest.

[10] All students must check with their advisers to determine which of the Research methods courses best fits their program goals.

[11] All students must check with their advisers to determine which of the Research methods courses best fits their program goals.

[12] Taught at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts

[13] Taught at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts

[14] Taught at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts

[15] All students must check with their advisers to determine which of the Research methods courses best fits their program goals.

[16] This course is in the process of being developed.

[17] All students must check with their advisers to determine which of the Research methods courses best fits their program goals.

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