Prof. Julie Coiro, University of Rhode Island, USA

Fields of expertise

Dr. Coiro is an expert on online reading comprehension, online inquiry pedagogies, and teacher professional development in digital literacy.
Her co-authored book, From Curiosity to Deep Learning: Personal Digital Inquiry in Grades K-5 published with Stenhouse (2019), introduces educators to a practical framework for integrating purposeful uses of technology into a classroom culture that values inquiry and engaged learning.
Her most recent work also focuses on advancing a framework of Anytime/Real-Time Learning to support educators in navigating the complex hybrid nature of teaching and learning amidst a global pandemic while designing learning spaces that leverage digital texts and tools to foster curiosity, relationship building, and knowledge construction through conversation and creation.
She implements and refines both frameworks as co-director of the annual Summer Institute in Digital Literacy, now in its 10^th year at the University of Rhode Island. 

Research & Projects

Dr. Coiro has completed work on several funded research projects.  She served as Co-PI on a three-year project with colleagues from Finland and the United States to explore and assess how students work together to conduct collaborative online inquiry funded by NCES (2016-2019). Before that, she completed work on two US Department of Education federally funded research projects; one to develop interventions in online reading for middle school students (2005-2008) and a second, as Co-PI, to develop a series of valid and reliable assessments of online reading comprehension (2009-2014).

Publications

Dr. Coiro has published widely in venues such as Reading Research Quarterly, Journal of Literacy Research, The Reading Teacher, Educational Leadership, Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Theoretical Processes and Models of Reading and more. 
She is co-editor of the Handbook of Research on New Literacies (2008) and co-author of Teaching with the Internet K-12: New Literacies for New Times (2004). You can learn more about Julie’s publications at her Academia website.

Awards

Dr. Coiro was awarded the International Literacy Association’s Early Career Achievement Award in 2011; the Computers in Reading Research Award in 2015, and the inaugural Erwin Zolt Digital Literacy Game Changers Award in 2018.

Institution / Country

Dr. Coiro is a Professor of Literacy in the School of Education at the University of Rhode Island, in Kingston, RI, USA. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Special Education from the University of Connecticut, her master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of New Orleans, and a doctorate in Educational Psychology from the University of Connecticut. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in reading, digital literacy, and research design and she co-directs the Ph.D. in Education program and the Graduate Certificate in Digital Literacy. See Faculty Page

Languages

English

Memberships

• American Educational Research Association
• Literacy Research Association
• International Literacy Association (Past Board of Directors)
• Association for Curriculum and Development
• ELINET