Lansdown Centre

Magnus Moar has a BSc in Psychology, an MSc in Artificial Intelligence and a PhD in Educational Technology. He has worked as a consultant and New Media developer for several projects at The Open University and delivered INSET courses.

He has been on the Steering and Management groups for the VERTEX (http://www.vertex.mdx.ac.uk) and DARE (http://www.dareonline.org) projects.

Research Interests

My main research interest is in learning through making. This Constructionalist approach, which emphasises that learning can occur deeply and effectively though the public making of personally meaningful artefacts, informs most of my work with students. On the MA Design for Interactive Media, I find this approach is particularly appropriate for the project-based activities undertaken by the students.

These interests are pursued in my current research activities, which investigate how young learners use new media during project and cross-curricular work. This research is also informed by a Vygotskian perspective, which highlights the interplay between play, exploration and learning. The VERTEX project (see Projects, right) investigated how the Constructionalist and Vygotskian approaches can be used in helping children to design and construct Web based 3D worlds. This led to the National Maritime Museum's Fathom Project, looking at how children can make their own virtual islands and submarine worlds.