Combining technology, education and relationships to improve online learning | MIT News

MIT Morningside School of Design (MAD) Caitlin Morris is an architect, artist, researcher and educator who studies psychology and uses online learning tools to teach his own coding and other skills. She is a soft-spoken observer who is very interested in how people use space and respond to their environment. Combining her observational abilities with active community engagement, working at the intersection of technology, education and human connections to improve digital learning platforms.

Morris grew up in a manufacturer’s family in rural New York. She learned to sew from wood at a very young age, cook and build things. One of her earlier memories was the little hand saw she made – a professional carpenter with the help of her father. It has wooden handles on both sides, making it easier for her to saw.

Later, when she needed to learn something, she would turn to a project-based community, rather than books. She taught herself to code late at night, leveraging a community-oriented platform where people answer questions and post sketches so she could see the code behind objects people make.

“For me, it was a huge, awakening moment, like there was a way to express it wasn’t a traditional computer science classroom,” she said. “I think that’s part of why I’m so passionate about what I’m doing right now. It’s a big shift: In this truly personal, project-based way to use that community.”

Morris then participated in community-based learning in a variety of ways: she was a co-organizer of the MIT Media Lab Learning Festival; she led creative coding community gatherings; she has been active in open source software community development.

“I have organized learning and built communities over the years (both in person and online), and have shown me how powerful my social interaction is to motives and curiosity,” Morris said. “My research is actually to determine which elements of this social magic are most important, so we can design digital environments that better support these dynamics.”

Even in her work, Morris sometimes works with the group. She contributed to the creation of about 10 large art installations that combine motion, sound, imagery, lighting and other technologies to trap visitors in an experience that evokes natural aspects such as flowing water, birds in flight, or crowd dynamics. These wonderful devices direct and calm at the same time, probably because they bring together the mind, eyes, and sometimes even ears.

She has done a lot with New York-based Hypersonic, a company of artists and technicians specializing in large dynamics installations in public places. Prior to this, she received her Bachelor of Psychology and Bachelor of Architecture and Architecture Science from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, followed by an MFA in Design and Technology from the new school Parsons School of Design.

In middle school, sometimes at the same time, she teaches design, coding and other technologies at high school, undergraduate and graduate levels.

“I think what kind of teaching I’m obsessed with is that the way I learned as a kid is different from the way I did in the classroom,” Morris explained. “And then I saw this in a lot of students. I felt that the normal way of learning didn’t work for them. They thought it was their fault. They just weren’t really welcomed in the traditional model of education.”

Morris said when she worked with those students, she threw away tradition and said, “You know, we’re just going to do this animation. Or we’re going to make this design, this website or these graphics, and we’re going to handle it in this completely different way” – she saw people “seeing people” “a little bit unlocked, like my god.”

“For me, that’s the hook, that’s the magic. Because I’m from those experiences that have to figure out these unlocking mechanisms for myself, it’s really exciting to be able to share with others, those unlocking moments.”

Working in her PhD in the Fluid Interface Group at the MIT Media Lab, she focuses on personal spatial and emotional gaps associated with learning, especially online and AI-assisted learning. This study is based on her experience in increasing human connections in both physical and virtual learning environments.

“I am developing a framework that combines AI-driven behavioral analysis with human expert assessment to study social learning dynamics,” she said. “My research investigates how social interaction patterns affect curiosity development and intrinsic motivation for learning, focusing especially on understanding how these dynamics differ between actual peers and AI-supported environments.”

The first step in her research is to determine which elements of social interaction cannot be replaced by AI-based digital mentors. After the evaluation, her goal was to build a prototype platform for experiential learning.

“I’m creating tools that can track observable behaviors simultaneously, such as body movements, verbal cues, and interaction patterns, while capturing the learner’s subjective experience through reflection and interviews,” Morris explained. “This approach helps connect people to their feelings about their learning experiences.

“My goal is to make two main contributions: first, an analytical tools that study social learning dynamics; second, the prototype tools demonstrate practical approaches to support social curiosity in digital learning environments. These contributions can help bridge the gap between the efficiency of digital platforms and the rich social interactions that occur in effective in-person learning.”

Her goal makes Morris perfect for the MIT MAD scholarship. A sentence in MAD’s mission is: “Far from traditional education, we cultivate creativity, critical thinking, creation and collaboration, and explore dynamic approaches to prepare students for complex, real-world challenges.”

Morris wants to help community organizations complete their doctorate post-processing education in 2026. she asked. That is the space that currently enchants Morris’s thoughts.