Sandra S. Abrams

Sandra Schamroth Abrams, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Adolescent Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the School of Education at St. John’s University in New York. Her research of videogaming focuses on adolescents' identities and practices developed, maintained, and modified in online and offline social and academic settings. Her close examinations of power structures, gaming principles, and spatial design provide insight into agentive learning located in collaboration, variation, iteration, and ideation. More specifically, her longitudinal ethnographic study of videogaming in public libraries has revealed a layering of literacies deeply rooted in the seamless movement among modalities and resources across online and offline spaces. These discoveries of students' evolving knowledge landscapes have informed additional qualitative and mixed methods research of adaptive resources, adolescent learning, and technological integration. Overall, Abrams's work suggests that the nuances of digital worlds and practices can disrupt convention and provide new avenues for pedagogical discovery. Her recent work has appeared in Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Journal of Literacy Research, and Educational Media International. Her books include Integrating Virtual and Traditional Learning in 6-12 Classrooms: A Layered Literacies Approach to Multimodal Meaning Making (Routledge), and with Hannah R. Gerber, Bridging Literacies with Videogames (Sense). Along with Hannah R. Gerber, Jen Scott Curwood, and Alecia Magnifico, Abrams co-authored Qualitative Methods for Researching Online Learning (SAGE). Forthcoming books include Videogames, libraries, and the feedback loop: Learning beyond the stacks (VOYA) and Managing educational technology: School partnerships & technology integration (Routledge).Games-Based Pedagogies, Adolescent Education, Cross-Literate Practices Digital Literacies, Videogames, Multimodalities, Game-based Learning, Digital Media and New Literacies, Digital Culture

Courses Taught