Publications

--2009--

• Bers, M. & Horn, M. (In Press). Tangible programming in early childhood: Revisiting developmoental assumptions through new technologies. In I. R. Berson & M. J. Berson (Eds), High-tect tots: Childhood in a digital world. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.
• Bers, M & Chau, C. (In Press). The virtual campus of the future: stimulating and simulating civic actions in a virtual world. Journal of Computing in Higher Education.
• Horn, M., Bers, M., & Jacob, R. (2009). Tangible programming in education: A research approach. Presented at CHI'09, April 2009, Boston, MA.
• Beals, L. & Bers, M.U. (2009). A developmental lens for designing virtual worlds for children and youth. The International Journal of Learning and Media, 1(1), 51-65.

--2008--

• Bers, M. U. (Accepted for Publication, Oct 2008). New Media for New Organs: A Virtual Community for Pediatric Post-Transplant Patients. Convergence: The Journal of Research into New Media Technologies.. Bedforshire, UK.
• Bers, M. U. (2008). Virtual Worlds as Digital Playgrounds. EDUCAUSE Review, 43(5), 80-81.
• Bers, M. U. (2008). A Palace in Time: Supporting Children's Spiritual Development through New Technologies. In Youth, Development & Spirituality: From Theory to Research . (Eds) Richard Lerner, Robert Roeser, & Erin Phelps. Templeton Foundation Press: West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.339-358.
• Bers, M. U. (2008). Civic identities, online technologies: from designing civic curriculum to supporting civic experiences. Civic Life Online: Learning how digital media can engage youth. Bennett, W. L. (Ed.). The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundations Series on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. 139-160.
• Bers, M. (2008). Engineers and storytellers: Using robotic manipulatives to develop technological fluency in early childhood. In O. Saracho & B. Spodek (Eds). Contemporary Perspectives on Science and Technology in Early Childhood Education.(pp. 105-125). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. (Order the book from Amazon.com)
• Bers, M. (2008). Blocks to Robots: Learning with Technology in the Early Childhood Classroom. Teachers College Press, NY, NY. (Order from Amazon.com)

--2007--

• Bers, M., Chau, C., Satoh, K., & Beals, L. (2007). Virtual Communities of Care: Online Peer Networks with Post-Organ Transplant Youth. Proceedings of the 2007 Computer Supported Collaborative Learning Conference, New Brunswick, NJ.
• Bers, M. (2007). Project InterActions: A multigenerational robotic learning environment. Journal of Science and Technology Education. 16(6 ), 537-552
• Bers, M. (2007). Positive Technological Development: Working with computers, children, and the Internet. MassPsych,51(1), 5-7, 18-19.

--2006--

• Bers, M., & Chau, C. (2006). Fostering civic engagement by building a virtual city. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(3). article 4.
• Bers, M (2006) The role of new technologies to foster positive youth development. Applied Developmental Science. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ, 10(4), 200-219.
• Beals, L. & Bers, M. (2006). Robotic Technologies: When Parents Put Their Learning Ahead of their ChildÂ’s. Journal of Interactive Learning Research. 17(4), 341-366.

--2005--

• Kahn, J & Bers, M (2005) An Examination of Early Elementary Student’s Approach to Engineering Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition, American Society for Engineering Education.
• Staszowski & Bers, M (2005) The Effects of Peer Interactions on the Development of Technological Fluency in an Early-Childhood, Robotic Learning EnvironmentProceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition, American Society for Engineering Education.
• Bers, M & Portsmore, M (2005) Teaching Partnerships: Early childhood and engineering students teaching math and science through robotics Journal of Science Education and Technology , vol 14, N1 pp 59-74 NY: Springer

--2004--

• Bers, M, New, B. & Boudreau, L (2004) Teaching and learning when no one is expert: Children and parents explore technology Journal of Early Childhood Research and Practice.

--2003--

• Bers, M (2003) Kaleidostories: Teachers and Students Creating a Cross Cultural Virtual Community through Narrative. Convergence: The Journal of Research into New Media Technologies. 9(2), pp. 54-8). Bedforshire:UK.
• Bers, M. (2003) We Are What We Tell: Designing Narrative Environments for Children In Narrative Intelligence. Edited by P.Sengers & Mateas. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
• Bers, M, Gonzalez-Heydrich,G., DeMaso, D. (2003) Use of a Computer-Based Application in a Pediatric Hemodialysis Unit: A Pilot Study. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 42:4, April 2003
• Bers, M, Gonzalez-Heydrich,G., DeMaso, D. (2002) Future of Technology to Augment Patient Support in Hospitals. Studies in health, technology and informatics . 80:231-44.

--2002--

• Bers, M, Ponte,I, Juelich, K, Viera, A, Schenker, J (2002) Teachers as Designers: Integrating Robotics in Early Childhood Education" Information Technology in Childhood Education. (2002), AACE 123-145

--2001--

• Bers, M. (2001) Identity Construction Environments: developing personal and moral values through the design of a virtual city. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 10 (4) pp 365-415. NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
• Bers, M, Gonzalez-Heydrich,J., DeMaso, D. (2001) Identity Construction Environments: Supporting a Virtual Therapeutic Community of Pediatric Patients undergoing Dialysis. In Proceedings of Computer-Human Interaction (CHI'01) ACM. pp. 380-387
• Bers, M, Gonzalez-Heydrich, J., Raches, D., DeMaso, D. (2001) Zora: A Pilot Virtual Community in the Pediatric Dialysis Unit. Amsterdam: IOS Press, pp 800-804.

--2000--

• Bers, M. & Urrea, C (2000) Technological Prayers: Parents and Children Exploring Robotics and Values. In Robots for Kids: Exploring New Technologies for Learning Experiences. Edited by A. Druin & J. Hendler. NY: Morgan Kaufman, pp. 194-217.
• Bers, M & Cassell, J. (2000) Children as Designers of Interactive Storytellers: Let Me Tell You a Story about Myself In Human Cognition and Social Agent Technology.Edited by Kerstin Dautenhahn. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 61-83
• Bers,M., Gonzalez-Heydrich,G., DeMaso, D., Corsini, E. & Harmon, W. (2000) Zora: A Pilot Virtual Community in the Pediatric Dialysis Unit Abstract accepted for American Society for Pediatrics meeting in Boston, MA. May 2000.

--1999--

• Bers, M. (1999) Zora: a Graphical Multi-user Environment to Share Stories about the Self. In Proceedings of Computer Support for Collaborative Learning (CSCL'99), pp. 33-40.
• Bers, M. & Best, M. (1999) Rural Connected Communities: A Project in Online Collaborative Journalism. In Proceedings of Computer Support for Collaborative Learning (CSCL'99), pp. 41-46.
• Bers, M. (1999) Narrative Construction Kits: Who am I? Who are you? What are we?. In Proceedings of Narrative Intelligence Fall Symposium, AAAI'99. pp. 44-51.
• Bers, M. &Urrea C. (1999) Con-science: Parents and Children Exploring Robotics and Values. In Proceedings of EUROLOGO'99, Sofia, Bulgaria, pp. 356-366.
• Bers, M & Cassell, J.(1999) Interactive Storytelling Systems for children: using technology to explore language and identity. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, volume 9 (2), AACE,pp. 603-609.

--1998--

• Bers, M. (1998) A constructionist approach to values through on-line narrative tools. In Proceedings of International Conference for the Learning Sciences (ICLS'98), AACE, pp 49-55.
• Bers, M & Bergman, S. (1998) A constructionist perspective on values: a response to postmodern fragmented identity. Identity, formation, dignity: The impacts of Artificial Intelligence upon Jewish and Christian Understandings of Personhood"(4/ 30-5/2 1998)conference organized by The Boston Theological Institute, MIT AI Lab and Center for Faith and Science Exchange.
• Bers et al (1998) Interactive Storytelling Environments: Coping with Cardiac Illness at Boston's Children's Hospital (with Ackermann, E.; Cassell, J.; Donegan, B.; Gonzalez-Heydrich, J.; DeMaso, D.; Strohecker, C.; Lualdi, S.; Bromley, D.; Karlin, J.)In Proceedings of Computer-Human Interaction (CHI'98) ACM, pp. 603-609.
• Gonzalez-Heydrich J, Bromley D, Strohecker C, Marks J, DeMaso DR, Ackermann E, Gibson S, Shen C, Umaschi M. (1998) Experience journals: Using computers to share personal stories about illness and medical intervention." MedInf'98, 9th World Congress on Medical Informatics. IOS Press. 1998, pp. 1323-1327.

--1997--

• Umaschi, M & Cassell, J (1997) Storytelling Systems: Constructing the Innerface of the Interface. Cognitive Technologies Procedings '97, IEEE, pp.98-108.
• Umaschi, M (1997) Soft Toys with Computer Hearts: Building Personal Storytelling Environments Published in CHI'97 Proceedings, ACM, pp. 20-21 (HTML format)
• Glos, J & Umaschi, M (1997) Once Upon an Object: Computationally-augmented Toys for Storytelling ICCIMA '97 Conference Proceedings; Gold Coast, Australia. pp. 245-249.

--1996--

• Umaschi, M (1996) SAGE Storytellers: Learning about Identity, Language and Technology. Published in Proceedings of ICLS '96 , AACE, pp.526-531.
• Umaschi, M (1996) Rabbi: exploring the inner world through stories. Published in AAAI 96 Proceedings, Student Abstracts, Volume II, MIT Press, pp. 1413 (ps format).