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Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Catalina Laserna

Lecturer on Anthropology
Department of Social Anthropology
Tel: 617-230-8541
Email: laserna@fas.harvard.edu
Website: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~laserna

Education

D.Phil. Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England

D.E.A. Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies (one level above Master’s Degree) in Psycho-biologie et Comparative, Université de Paris X, Nanterre, Paris, France

M.Ed. Harvard University Graduate School of Education (GSE), Cambridge, MA

Special Student Sociobiology, Harvard University FAS, Cambridge, MA

B.S. Biology, Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia

Professional Experience

2016-date Parenting Journey
Training facilitator for Parenting Journey, a non-profit innovator of high-impact programs primarily for immigrant parents to help build stronger families.

2013-14 Harvardx Senior Fellow / course developer.
June, 2013 recipient of Golden Bit Award from the Harvard University CIO Council for “significant contributions to major progress on Harvard University’s IT Strategic Initiative on Online Learning”

2011-2012 Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University
Research Fellow, writing a book titled Cybercy

2004-present Department of Social Anthropology, Harvard University
Lecturer on Anthropology

2010 Harvard University Summer School
Directed Study Abroad Program in Montevideo, Uruguay
Taught 8-unit course with Dr. Claudia Urrea: An Anthropological Perspective on Media in Education  — the Case of the XO Computer

2008-2011 Harvard University Extension School
Senior Research Analyst and Director Office for Online Teaching and Learning (see TA portal) and
Director, Master of LIberal Arts in Educational Technologies Program

2008 Harvard University Summer School
Directed Study Abroad Program in San Jose de Costa Rica
Taught 8-unit course: An Anthropological Perspective on Media in Education — the Case of the Classmate Computer in the Public Schools of San Jose de Costa Rica

March 2003-June2005 Harvard University Extension School
Principal Investigator on a Harvard University Presidential Distance Learning Pilot grant to evaluate the initiative through which Harvard College courses are offered online to Harvard Extensions School students for credit.  Results of this study informed policies to grow and improve the program.

March 2002-June2004 Pittsburgh Public Schools 
Principal Investigator for the Emerging Links project, which provided a creative way to bridge the digital divide.  In return for getting a home computer, families participated in a curriculum designed to improve measurable educational outcomes by creating an engaging climate of greater partnership between families and schools, and integrate technology into the curriculum.

June, 2004 Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA
Onigaming, Canada
Principal Investigator (acting) in Gathering Strength through Teknannajii:  Toward a Socio-Culturally Grounded Technology Infusion Strategy in a First Nation Ojibway School.   The  overall approach entailed fostering a community of intentional innovators (FCII) capable of utilizing, managing and innovating with new technologies to support the school’s mission and vision.

March 2002-April 2011 Harvard University Extension School
Educational Technologies Program (Founder and Director)
The CTE program was designed for educators both formal and non-formal, wishing to improve their capacity to plan and implement innovative ideas in their respective learning environments.  The program combined courses in leadership, education theory and practice, and information technologies.

2001, 2005 Harvard Graduate School of Education
Lecturer on Education

March 2000-March 2001 Harvard Extension School
Consultant
Principal Investigator in the evaluation of the distance education program of the Harvard Extension School, in light of other distance education designs at Harvard.  Founder and lead developer of the Certificate in “Technologies of Education” for the Harvard  Extension School. This program was geared to high school and middle school teachers.  Teaching for Understanding was one of the courses offered.

March 2000-Dec. 2000 Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID)
Development Associate
Research, project management, proposal development and grant writing consisted of work on educational issues and systemic reform in international settings.  Specific themes addressed technology policy and school-based innovation, bi-lingual education, constructivist pedagogy in the classroom and adult education. Developed and taught qualitative methods courses for educational research. Designed and gave teacher training workshops.  Built and oversaw teams of domestic and international consultants. Projects included:

  • El Salvador Education Reform. Carried out research on school readiness factors to adopt technology including “technophobia” among teachers, on organizational determinants of successful schools and on how to use Teaching for Understanding framework to incorporate technology across the curriculum. Supervised local researcher working on the impact of national Education Reform at the level of the classroom.  Taught Qualitative Methods for Education Policy Research course with focus on observation and interview techniques, and use of software (NUDIST, Nvivo) for analysis. Advised Ministry of Education on technology policy.
  • Telecommunication and childrearing. Wrote a concept paper on the use of television and telecommunication systems to promote social change in child rearing practices (for the Colombian Ministry of Education).  Project initiative taken by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
  • District of Bogotá. Principal Investigator of the diagnostic evaluation of the “Technology in the Classrooms” program.
  • Paraguay Education Reform. Principal Investigator of $1 million project to establish Ministry of Education’s policy analysis unit; offer technical advice on design of bilingual education policy, curriculum and distance training of bilingual teachers; and support the adult education component of the educational reform.

1992-1997 Bolt, Beranek, & Newman, Inc. (BBN), Cambridge, MA
Scientist
Worked two years on Co-NECT, a systemic restructuring project: during the design phase as part of the assessment team; during the implementation phase, produced report on the initial implementation of the model in first round of schools; during the scale-up phase, produced formative video-cases to mediate reflection on practice amongst teachers and developed the methodology for training teachers to do observations and interviews in the Co-NECT Critical Friends Program (the collective action research component of Co-NECT design www.co-nect.com/Schools/Info/CFdescription.html)

  • Researched the Community of Explorers, an electronically mediated community of high school science teachers, administrators and researchers , implementing computer simulations in high school science teaching (funded by NSF).
  • Wrote the role of telecommunications in promoting various kinds of school-community partnerships (National Testbed Projects, nsn.bbn.com/ funded by NSF).
  • Contributed with the perspective of “classroom as a cultural system” in both the production of video material and in developing the method to use the video for professional development in the Mathematics Inquiry Through Video-project  (funded by NSF).

1990-1992 Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Research Associate,  Teaching for Understanding project
Worked on a project to teach for disciplinary understanding at the high school level.  Conducted collaborative research with teachers of history and social studies; organized mini-conferences with experts.   Overall responsibility for coordinating the direction of the team’s research and development of curricular units. Working closely with Dr. Peter Buck (Dept. of History of Science at Harvard), developed a perspective on teaching history for understanding.

1991 Education Matters, Cambridge, MA
Consultant
Conducted fieldwork for a process evaluation of the Comer Model in inner-city public schools of Hartford, Connecticut.  Comer’s situated leadership approach to systemic reform stood out in my observations and interviews.

1991 Harvard Institute for International Development  Cambridge, MA
Consultant
Participated in the design of a study on the factors associated with school failure and grade retention for the Colombian Ministry of Education.

1990-93 Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia
Research Director
Carried out ethnographic research aimed at understanding how the recent curriculum reform efforts had transformed classroom practice, designing qualitative research studies and piloting classroom interventions based on such studies.

1980-1983 Bolt, Beranek & Newman,  Cambridge, MA
Social Scientist
Worked on Project Intelligence: The Development of Procedures to Enhance Thinking Skills in Venezuela.  Designed curriculum materials, carried out formative evaluation and participated in teacher training in Venezuela. 

1979-1980, 1983 Departamento del Cauca, Colombia
Independent Fieldwork
As a doctoral candidate, designed and carried out 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork towards dissertation.  This research was carried out in two rural villages in the Cauca region of Colombia; it compares and contrasts the way children learn in the context of  domestic chores and at school. 

1976-1977 Centre des Recherches de Médecine Aeronautique, Paris, France
Research Fellow
Designed and conducted an ethnological study of aggressive behavior in Rhesus monkeys.

1976 Harvard University Graduate School of Education
Research Assistant
Carried out research agenda for Dr. Carol Feldman. Administered Piagetian cognitive tests to school children in Hawaii and assisted in data analysis.

Academic Panels and Conferences

Sample Workshops with Teachers and Presentations to Policymakers

  • “Using Teaching for Understanding as a pedagogical framework for technological infusion,”  El Salvador.  Week long workshop for principals, technology coordinators and classroom teachers.  First round San Salvador 1999, second round in San Miguel, El Salvador. 2000
  • “The Trojan Mouse,” presentation to high level policy makers of El Salvador. HIID, Cambridge Massachusetts Summer. 1998
  • “Orality, Literacy and Cybercy in the Classroom,” workshop for the National Institute of Community Innovations,  Providence, R.I. Summer, 1999
  • “Inquiry Math, what does it look like?” workshop on Inquiry Mathematics using the video cases as part of the Telementoring in Inquiry Math- Summer Institute, Syracuse. July,1999
  • “Orality, Literacy and Cybercy in the Classroom,” workshop for teachers at Syracuse University, as part of the Telementoring in Inquiry Math Summer Institute, Syracuse, NY. July, 2000
  •  “Towards a Strategy for the Systematic Incorporation of Thinking Skills into the Primary School Curriculum.”  (with David Perkins)  Ministry of Education, Bogotá, Colombia. January 10-17, 1986
  • “Project Intelligence” Workshop for ministry technical staff, Ministry of Education, Bogotá, Colombia. (1985)
  • “Project Intelligence,” led workshop/seminar on at the Department of Psychology, Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia. 1985
  • Consultant to the Ministry of Education of Colombia.  Contract included gathering bibliography about teaching thinking, and conducting a 2 week workshop for curriculum designers on how to incorporate thinking skills into the Colombian school curricula.  1983
  • “Inventive Thinking Lessons.” Co-presenter with Prof. David Perkins at The Teaching of Thinking Skills conference. Harvard Graduate School of Education. 1984
  • Co-director (with David Perkins) of workshop on the incorporation of Knowledge as Design in remedial pre-college student training.  Universidad de los Andes and the Gimnasio Moderno, Bogotá, Colombia. 1983

Languages

  • Fluent in English, Spanish, German and French

Professional Services

  • Reviewer for MIT Press and HIID in fields of anthropology, development, education  and technology
  • Reviewer for research proposals submitted to the “Research, Policy and Practice” Division at National Science Foundation  (1997, 1998)
  • External Examiner in Ph.D. thesis from Sydney University, 1997
  • Co-advisor to ALM thesis at Harvard Extension, 1997- 2010
  • Organized field experience for HGSE student at HIID, 1999

References

  • Prof. Harry R. Lewis, Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Maxwell Dworkin 237, 617-496-2424, lewis@harvard.edu
  • Prof. David Malan, Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Computer Science, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Maxwell Dworkin 308, 617-523-0925, malan@harvard.edu
  • Prof. Robert Lue, Richard L. Menschel Faculty Director of The Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Faculty Director of HarvardX and Professor of the Practice of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University. The Biological Labs, Harvard University, 16 Divinity Ave 617-495-9924, robert_lue@harvard.edu
  • Prof. Elisa New, Powell M. Cabot Professor of American Literature, Harvard University, 148 Barker Center, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA  O2138. 617-496-2552, lisanew3@gmail.com
  • Prof. Robert Kegan, The William and Miriam Meeham Professor in Adult Learning and Professional Development, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Longfellow Hall 205, 617-495-1963, robert_kegan@gse.harvard.edu
  • Dr. Trisha Craig, Executive Director at Wheelock College in Singapore, 617-642-4860, trisha.h.craig@gmail.com
  • Prof. Greg Nagy, Francis Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature; Senior Fellow of the Society of Fellows; and Director of the Center for Hellenic Studies, Boylston Hall 228, 617-495-1941, gnagy@fas.harvard.edu
  • Prof. Stephen Marks, Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Professor of Health and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Health, Bldg 1, 665 Huntington Ave, Boston MA 02115, 617-432-4316, smarks@hsph.harvard.edu
  • Prof. William Fash, Bowditch Professor of Central American and Mexican Archaeology and Ethnology, Peabody Museum 11D, 11 Divinity Ave, wfash@fas.harvard.edu
  • Prof. Charles Nesson, Weld Professor of Law, Hauser Hall 404, 1575 Massachusetts Avenue, 617-495-4609, nesson@law.harvard.edu
  • Dr. Jason Jay, Lecturer on Sustainability, MIT Sloan School of Management, E62-362, 617-253-0594 , jjay@mit.edu
  • Dr. John Richards, Adjunct Lecturer on Education (and President, Consulting Services for Education), Harvard Graduate School of Education, 13 Appian Way, 617-470-9663, john_richards@gse.harvard.edu
  • Prof. Fernando Reimers, Ford Foundation Professor of International Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Gutman 461, 6 Appian Way, 617-496-4817, fernando_reimers@gse.harvard.edu
  • Prof. Michael Mitzenmacher, Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science; Area Dean for Computer Science, Maxwell Dworkin 331, 617-496-7172, michaelm@eecs.harvard.edu
  • Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute, Columbia University, 405 Low Library, MC 4335, 535 West 116th Street, New York, NY 10027, (212) 854-3830, sespeut@ei.columbia.edu
  • others available upon request