Skip to content Skip to navigation
Paulo Blikstein at Undergraduate Minor Event

Faculty members

Blikstein, Paulo

Paulo Blikstein
Academic Title 
Assistant Professor
Other Titles 

Assistant Professor of Computer Science (by courtesy)

Contact Information
(650) 736-0966
(847) 571-4538
CE 232
Program Affiliations 
DAPS
(MA) ICE/IEPA
(MA) POLS
(MA) MA/MBA
(MA) LDT
Assessment
Educational Equity
Equity
Equity in the Development of Technological Fluency
Latino Concerns in Education
Learning Design
Mathematics Education
Models in the Social and Behavioral Sciences
Multicultural Education
Problem-based Learning
Research Design
Science Education
Technology and Literacy
Technology in Teaching and Learning
Urban Education
Virtual Classroom

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning

Digital Fabrication for education, FabLabs, and the Makers' Movement, open source hardware.

Multimodal learning analytics, big data in education

Bifocal Modeling, modeling and simulation for science learning

Constructionist, project-based learning.

Low cost educational technologies for developing countries (ICT4D).

Cognitive computational modeling, agent-based modeling, complexity sciences.

Equity, technological fluency, critical pedagogy, computational literacy.

"I posit that whereas envisioning new pedagogies is about the art of thinking “big,” implementing these pedagogies is a science of details. A Freirean pedagogy can only survive if it permeates the mundane. Grand discourses about emancipation are not enough. The most significant part of students’ learning experiences resides in the small power struggles, the minute decisions, the microscopic choices of what to teach and what to value, who has voice, who ultimately decides. It is precisely in those apparently insignificant pedagogical and personal transactions that the essence of the atmosphere is constructed."

Blikstein, P. (2008). Travels in Troy with Freire: technology as an agent for emancipation. In P. Noguera & C. A. Torres (Eds.), Social Justice Education for Teachers: Paulo Freire and the possible dream (pp. 205-244). Rotterdam, Netherlands: Sense.

  • Ph.D. (Learning Sciences), Northwestern University, 2009
  • M.A. (Media Arts & Sciences), MIT Media Lab, Future of Learning Group, 2002
  • M.Eng. (Electrical Engineering), University of São Paulo (Brazil), 2000
  • B.S. (Metallurgical Engineering), University of São Paulo (Brazil), 1998

Visiting Scholar, MIT Media Lab, Future of Learning Group

Consultant, UNDP (United Nations Development Program)

Consultant, National Program for the Eradication of the Digital Divide, Brazil

  • EDUC 236x/CS 402 - Beyond Bits and Atoms: Creative technologies for off/online learning [website]
  • EDUC 211X/CS 402L - Beyond Bits and Atoms: Designing Open Source Toolkits for Education [website]
  • EDUC 390/CS424 - Learning Analytics and Computational Modeling in Social Sciences [website]
  • EDUC 404 - Topics in Brazilian Education [website]

Paulo Blikstein. (R&R) Computational alchemy via representational magic: epistemic affordances of re-presenting complex scientific phenomena. Journal of the Learning Sciences.

Blikstein, P., Worsley, M., Piech, C., Sahami, M., Cooper, S. & Koller, D. (2014). Programming pluralism: using learning analytics to detect patterns in novices' learning of computer programming. Journal of the Learning Sciences.

Blikstein, P. (2013). Digital Fabrication and ’Making’ in Education: The Democratization of Invention. In J. Walter-Herrmann & C. Büching (Eds.), FabLabs: Of Machines, Makers and Inventors. Bielefeld: Transcript Publishers.

Worsley, M. & Blikstein, P. (2013). Towards the development of multimodal action based assessment. In Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge (LAK '13), Dan Suthers and Katrien Verbert (Eds.). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 94-101.

Blikstein, P. (2013). Multimodal learning analytics. In Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge (LAK '13), Dan Suthers and Katrien Verbert (Eds.). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 102-106.

Blikstein, P., & Wilensky, U. (2009) An atom is known by the company it keeps: Constructing Multi-Agent Models in Engineering Education. International Journal of Computers for Mathematical Learning, Netherlands: Springer.

Blikstein, P. (2008). Travels in Troy with Freire: Technology as an Agent for Emancipation. In Noguera, P. and Torres, C. A. (Eds.), Paulo Freire: the possible dream. Rotterdam, Netherlands: Sense.

Blikstein, P., & Wilensky, U. (2008). Implementing Multi-Agent Modeling in the Classroom: Lessons from Empirical Studies in Undergraduate Engineering Education. In Jacobson, M. J. (Organizer), Complex Systems and Learning: Empirical Research, Issues, and “Seeing” Scientific Knowledge with New Eyes. Proceedings of the International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS), Utrecht, Netherlands.

Blikstein, P., Abrahamson, D., & Wilensky, U. (2008). The classroom as a complex adaptive system: an agent-based framework to investigate students’ emergent collective behaviors. In Proceedings of the International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS), Utrecht, Netherlands.

Blikstein, P. & Wilensky, U. (2007). Bifocal modeling: a framework for combining computer modeling, robotics and real-world sensing. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA 2007-SIG ATL), Chicago, USA.

Blikstein, P. (2007). New technologies in environmental education: changing the way we teach and learn in schools (“As novas tecnologias na educação ambiental: instrumentos para mudar o jeito de ensinar e aprender na escola). In Soraia Silva de Mello (Ed.), Concepts and Practices in Environmental Education (pp. 106-112). Brasília, Brazil: Ministry of Education.

Blikstein, P., Abrahamson, D. & Wilensky, U. (2007). Multi-Agent Simulations as a Tool for Investigating Cognitive-Developmental Theory. In D. Abrahamson (Organizer), U. Wilensky (Chair), & R. Lesh (Discussant), Learning Complexity: Agent-based modeling supporting education research on student cognition in social contexts. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA 2007), Chicago, USA.

Blikstein, P. & Zuffo, M. K. (2004). The mermaids of electronic teaching (“As sereias do ensino eletrônico”). In Silva, Marco (Ed.), Educação Online: teoria, prática, legislação e treinamento corporativo. (“Online Education: theory, practice, legislation and corporate training.”). (pp. 10-37). Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Ed. Loyola. Chosen by the Brazilian Literary Academic as one of the 10 best books in education in 2005.

Sipitakiat, A., Blikstein, P. & Cavallo, D. (2004). GoGo Board: Augmenting Programmable Bricks for Economically Challenged Audiences, Proceedings of the International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS), pp. 481 – 488, Los Angeles, USA.