Mit Morningside Academy for Design (Mad) partner Ketleen Morris is an architect, artist, researcher and teacher who has studied psychology and used online learning tools to teach coding and other skills to himself. He is a soft -spoken observer in which people use space and respond to their environment. By combining its observation skills with active community engagement, it works at the intersection of technology, education and human connections to improve the digital learning platform.
The villagers grew up in New York in a family of Morris makers. He learned to sew, cook and make things with wood at an early age. One of his earlier memories is that of a small handsone he made – with the help of his father, a professional carpenter. There were wooden handles on both sides to see for him.
Later, when she needs to learn something, she turns to project-based communities rather than books. He taught himself to code late at night, taking advantage of the community-oriented platforms, where people answer questions and post sketches, allowing him to see the code behind the objects that people are created.
“For me, it was a very big, awake moment such as there was a way of expression that was not a traditional computer science class,” she says. “I think partly I feel so emotional about what I am doing now. It was a big change: to be available to that community in a really personal, project-based manner.”
Subsequently, Morris has joined community-based learning in various ways: he is the co-organizer of MIT Media Lab’s Festival of Learning; She leads the creative coding community meatup; And he is active in open-source software community development.
Morris said, “My years of organizing and organizing learning communities – both personal and online – have been shown to me for the first time how powerful social interactions can be for inspiration and curiosity.” “My research is actually about recognizing which elements of that social magic are the most essential, so we can design a digital environment that better support those dynamics.”
Even in his artwork, Morris sometimes works with a collective. He contributed to the creation of about 10 large art installations, including movement, sound, imagination, lighting and other technologies to immerse the visitor in the experience of developing some aspects of nature, such as water, flying birds, or crowded canntex. These amazing establishments are commanding and calm at the same time, possibly because they focus on the mind, eye and sometimes ear.
MIT graduate student and Mad Fellow Caitlin Morris contributed to the concept design, design development, electrical design and engineering, firmware development, and fabrication “Defusion Choir”, Artist Associates with an installation from Hypersonic -with an installation in Socolimated and Playbian Design.
Video: Hypersonic
He did a lot of work with a company of New York -based hypersonic, artists and technologists who specialized in large kinetic establishments in public places. Earlier, he earned BS in Architectural Building Sciences from BS in Psychology and Renseseller Polytechnic Institute, then an MFA in design and technology from Parsons School of Design at New School.
During, the middle, later, and sometimes concurrently, he taught designs, coding and other techniques at high schools, graduates and graduate levels.
“I think I was tilted on teaching, the way I learned as a child, it was not the same in class,” Morris explains, “I was not the same.” “And I later saw this in many of my students. I realized that the common way to learn things was not working for them. And he thought it was his fault. They did not really feel really welcome within the traditional education model.”
Morris says that when he worked with those students, separated the tradition and said instead – “You know, we are just going to do this animation. Or we are going to make this design or this website or in graphics, and we are going to contact it completely differently”
“For me, it was hook, it’s magic. Because I was coming from that experience of detecting those unlock mechanisms for myself, it was really exciting that they should be able to share with other people, those unlock moments.”
For his doctoral work with the Fluid Interface Group of MIT Media Lab, he is focusing on personal space and emotional intervals related to learning, especially online and AI-Assisted Learning. This research creates on the experience of increasing human relations in physical and virtual learning environment.
“I am developing a structure that combines AI-managed behavioral analysis with human expert evaluation to study social learning dynamics,” she says. “My research checks how curiosity in learning social contact patterns affects development and internal motivation, especially on understanding how these dynamics vary between real peers and AI-supported environment.”
The first step in his research is determining which elements of social contact are not replaced by the AI-based digital tutor. After that evaluation, its goal is to build a prototype platform for experienced learning.
“I am creating devices that can simultaneously track observable behaviors – such as physical actions, language signal and interaction patterns – while capturing the subjective experiences of learners through reflections and interviews,” Morris explains. “This approach helps to add how people feel about their learning experience.
“I aim to make two primary contributions: first, analysis tools to study social learning dynamics; and second, prototype equipment that display practical approaches to support social curiosity in digital learning environment. These contributions can help to flourish the difference between efficient in-power learning.”
His goals make Morris absolutely fit for MIT Mad Fellowship. A statement in the mission of Madle is: “Away from traditional education, we promote creativity, important thinking, create and cooperation, discovered a series of dynamic approaches to prepare students for complex, real -world challenges.”
Morris wants to help community organizations deal with rapid AI-managed changes in education, once she completes her doctorate in 2026. “What should we do with this ‘Physical Location vs. Virtual Space’ divide?” She asks. This is the place that currently captivates the ideas of Morris.
