Daniel Laughlin
Biography
Dr. Daniel Laughlin received his PhD in Education from American University in 2001. His area of focus was information technology in education and he did research in cognitive science, experimenting with methods to explicitly teach critical and scientific thinking skills. Before joining the Goddard Earth Science and Technology Center in 2002, Dr. Laughlin taught for 14 years at a number of institutions including American, Loyola, and Villanova Universities. From 1997 to 2002, he taught pre-service and in-service teachers to use computers and the Internet in their own classroom.
Dr. Laughlin is currently the NASA Learning Technologies (NLT) project manager at Goddard Space Flight Center. NLT supports the research and development of cutting-edge educational tools that combine NASA mission content with innovative technology and best teaching practices. The office has sponsored the development of tools that have been featured on the covers of science and technology magazines and receive international recognition for their contributions to learning. NLT is primarily focused on the research and development of educational immersive synthetic environments and leads the games research effort for NASA’s Education Office. Dr. Laughlin’s research interests include information technology management, cognitive science, educational technologies, and the use of computer and videogames as educational tools. He is co-author of the NASA eEducation Roadmap: Research Challenges in the Design of Persistent Immersive Synthetic Environments for Education & Training (2007).