Brian K. Smith is an associate professor of Information Sciences and Technology and Education at Pennsylvania State University

Pennsylvania State University

The Pennsylvania State University, commonly referred to as Penn State or PSU, is a public research university with campuses and facilities throughout the state of Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1855, the university has a threefold mission of teaching, research, and public service...

. He is the principal investigator for the Medical Informatics Research Initiative and Director of the Solutions Institute.
Smith has received recognition from a number of different areas, including but not limited to the Faculty Career Development Award from the National Science Foundation

National Science Foundation

The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...

 in 2000. He has also had an appearance on the cover of Black Issues In Higher Education in February 2002, and received the Jan Hawkins Award for early career contributions to Humanistic Research and Scholarship in Learning Technologies from the American Education Research Association.

Research

Before coming to Pennsylvania State University, Smith was an associate professor of Media Arts and Sciences in the MIT Media Laboratory where he conducted research on software for use in education, particularly software incorporating multimedia with an emphasis on visual features and design. His research during this time covered different aspects of education, including but not limited to Music, Biology, and History. His research during this time also included concerns outside of the classroom, with publications in the medical field examining the potential benefits of a multimedia approach to patient counseling and education.

While at the Pennsylvania State University, Smith has continued to conduct educational multimedia software research, branching out into studies of physically active computer gaming and Fantasy basketball

Fantasy basketball

Fantasy basketball was inspired by fantasy baseball. Originally played by keeping track of stats by hand, it was popularized during the 1990s after the advent of the Internet. Those who play this game are sometimes referred to as General Managers , who draft actual NBA players and compute their...

.

Educational Background

Smith received his Ph.D in Learning Sciences

Learning sciences

The term Learning Sciences refers to an interdisciplinary field that works to further scientific understanding of learning as well as to engage in the design and implementation of learning innovations, and improvement of instructional methodologies...

 from Northwestern University

Northwestern University

Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....

, and his Bachelors of Science in Computer Science

Computer science

Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...

 and Engineering at UCLA.

Journal articles

• Smith, B.K., Frost, J., Albayrak, M., & Sudhakar, R. . "Facilitating narrative medical discussions with computer visualizations and photography." Patient Education and Counseling, 64: 313-321. (2006)
• Smith, B. K., Frost, J., Albayrak, M., and Sudhakar, R. " Improving diabetes self-management with glucometers and digital photography. " Personal and Ubiquitous Computing.
• Smith, B.K., Sharma, P., & Hooper, P. (2006). Decision making in online fantasy sports communities." Interactive Technology & Smart Education, 4: 347-360.(2006)
• Smith, B.K. "Design and computational flexibility." Digital Creativity, 17(2): 65-72.(2006)
• Smith, B.K. "Physical fitness in virtual worlds." IEEE Computer, 38(10): 101-103. (2005).
• Smith, B.K. & Reiser, B.J.). "Explaining behavior using video for observational inquiry and theory articulation." The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 14(3): 315-360. (2005)
• Blankinship, E., Smith, B., Holtzman, H., and Bender, W. "Closed caption, open source." British Telecom Technology Journal, 22(4), 151-159. (2004).
• Smith, B.K. & Blankinship, E.. "Justifying imagery: Multimedia support for learning through explanation." IBM Systems Journal, 39(3&4): 749-767. (2000)
• Smith, B.K., Blankinship, E., & Lackner, T. (2000). "Annotation and education." IEEE Multimedia 7(2): 84-89. (2000)

Other publications

• Reiser, B.J., Tabak, I., Sandoval, W.A., Smith, B.K., Steinmuller, F., & Leone, A.J. "BGuILE: Strategic and conceptual scaffolds for scientific inquiry in biology classrooms." In S.M. Carver & D. Klahr (eds.), Cognition and Instruction: Twenty Five Years of Progress (pp. 263–305). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.. (2001)