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Margarita Dekoli is a computer engineer that has experience in
designing and developing educational software. She has worked as
a developer for a number of software environments for children and
novices. Her recent work was with the Scratch
team at the Lifelong
Kindergarten Group of the Media
Laboratory at MIT.
Scratch is a programming environment for youth at Computer
Clubhouses to create their own games, animations and interactive
art. Prior to working on Scratch, Margarita worked at the Computer
Technology Institute in Greece developing software and tools
for educators and learners. She was part of the E-Slate
development team, which she used along with internet related technologies
to design -among other software products- the Xenios
software for foreign language learning in Greek high schools, with
many users today all around Greece.
Margarita earned a Master of Science in Media Arts and Sciences,
from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology in 2003 working with the Grassroots
Invention Group at the Media Laboratory. Her thesis project,
CodaChrome was used with 10-year
old students to create programmable, interactive, dynamic jewelry
and wearable art with tricolor LEDs.
She earned her bachelor in Computer Engineering from the Computer
Engineering and Informatics department, of the Unversity of
Patras, in Greece. Her bachelor thesis involved the use of geographic
information systems (GIS), databases and hypermedia in the use of
the process and documentation of an archaeological excavation. A
variation of that system called SATEP
has been used in the neolithic archaeological excavation in Dispilio,
Kastoria in Greece, since 1998.
Margarita has worked in a variety of multidisciplinary teams, whether
consisting of high school teachers or artists and engineers, and
has led many such teams in the all the stages of a product development.
She has worked with middle school and high school students, teachers,
and researchers during workshops and user studies. She has also
been a mentor for kids -especially girls- using Scratch in Computer
Clubhouses in the Boys and Girls Club of Charlestown and Chelsea
in Boston, Massachusetts. |
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