I am lecturer in Interaction Design at Open Lab, Newcastle University. I am leading the educational technology research at Open Lab and my research in this area focuses on the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of processes and technologies than can bridge the gap between schools and their communities as well as to enhance learning and the learning experience. My research and interest in the area of interaction design, on the other hand, ranges from improving our experience in interacting with digital surfaces, spaces and the IoT to rethinking the design of, and interaction patterns with, online platforms and services.
I am also the director of Reflective Thinking, an educational technology start-up. I founded Reflective Thinking to realize the impact of my PhD by commercializing ‘Digital Mysteries’ (a tool for collaborative learning and thinking skills development). Digital Mysteries is now a platform for releasing topic-specific apps on the Apple store. Currently there are about 30 apps covering different educational topics and different age groups with more than 500,000 downloads from over 60 countries.
https://sites.google.com/site/ahmedkharrufa/Home