Sandra S. Abrams

Sandra Schamroth Abrams, Ph.D., is Professor of Adolescent Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at St. John's University in New York. Abrams’s investigations of digital literacies, videogaming, and technology integration reveal layered meaning making and agentive learning. As she focuses on the intersection of digital and nondigital literacies and practices, what comes to the fore is the powerful meaning making that exists in and across the blurred boundaries of these spaces. Her work has been featured in leading research journals, including Teachers College Record, Journal of Literacy Research, the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Language & Linguistics, and Educational Media International. She is the author of Integrating Virtual and Traditional Learning in 6-12 Classrooms: A Layered Literacies Approach to Multimodal Meaning Making (Routledge), co-author of Conducting Qualitative Research of Learning in Online Spaces (SAGE), Managing Educational Technology: School Partnerships and Technology Integration (Routledge), Writing in Education: The Art of Writing for Educators (Brill), Videogames, Libraries, and the Feedback Loop: Learning Beyond the Stacks (Emerald), and An Integrated Mixed Methods Approach to Nonverbal Communication Data: A Practical Guide to Collection and Analysis in Online and Offline Spaces (Routledge, forthcoming). She is co-editor of Bridging Literacies with Videogames (Sense) and Child-Parent Research Reimagined (Brill). Abrams is the recipient of the 2019 USDLA Distance Learning Quality Paper Award for the article, Gamification and Accessibility. In 2019, she also was awarded the Outstanding Achievement Medal from St. John's University. Abrams was an AACTE Outstanding Book award finalist, and she received an AECT journal article award for her work on peer review and power structures in online spaces. Abrams’s work also has been featured in mainstream media, such as Edutopia, The New York Times, Tech Times, Parents Magazine, and THE Journal. Furthermore, Abrams has served as a Technology Consultant and Assessment Coordinator for a number of projects, including a New York City Department of Education Award: Learning and Technology Grant. Abrams serves on a number of journal editorial boards and is an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches. From 2018-2020, she served as the Program Chair for the American Educational Research Association’s Media, Culture, and Learning special interest group.Qualitative Research Methods, Nuanced Technology Integration, Videogaming and Learning, Cross-Literate PracticesDigital Literacies, Videogames, Multimodalities, Adolescent Meaning Making, Gaming and Learning, Digital Media and New Literacies, Digital Culture

Courses Taught