Julie Coiro

  • Professor
  • Literacy Education
  • Phone: 401.874.4872
  • Email: jcoiro@uri.edu
  • Office Location: Chafee Hall, Rm 615

Biography

Dr. Julie Coiro teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in reading, digital literacy and research design and directs URI’s Graduate Certificate in Digital Literacy. She also holds a Docent in Education position at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland with a focus on teaching and learning in digital environments. Julie has worked closely with over 1,000 educators from around the world to support their understanding of digital inquiry and leadership at URI’s annual Summer Institute in Digital Literacy. Julie’s vision of Personal Digital Inquiry reveals the powerful learning that is possible when you integrate purposeful technology use that promotes active participation, critical reflection, and creative expression with digital texts and tools.

Julie has received several awards for her work, including the Early Career Achievement Award (2011) from the Literacy Research Association; the Early Career Faculty Research Award in Social Science, Arts, and Humanities (2011) and the Outstanding Scholarship Award (2012) from University of Rhode Island; the Erwin Zolt Digital Literacy Game Changers Award (2019) from the International Literacy Association; and the Divergent Award for Excellence in Literacy in a Digital Age Research (2022).

Research

An internationally known scholar, Julie conducts research about the new literacies of the Internet, online reading comprehension strategy instruction, collaborative knowledge building during inquiry, and effective practices for technology integration, digital assessment, and professional learning. Julie’s work appears in journals such as Reading Research Quarterly, Journal of Literacy Research, The Reading Teacher, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Educational Leadership, and The Journal of Education. She co-edited the Handbook of Research on New Literacies (2008) and co-authored Teaching with the Internet K-12: New Literacies for New Times (2004). In 2019, she co-authored her most recent book, From Curiosity to Deep Learning: Personal Digital Inquiry in Grades K-5.

Education

  • Ph.D., Educational Psychology: Cognition and Instruction, University of Connecticut, 2007
  • M.Ed., Curriculum and Instruction with Reading Focus, University of New Orleans, 1993
  • B.S., Special Education, K-12, University of Connecticut, 1989

Selected Publications

Coiro, J. (2021). Toward a multifaceted heuristic of digital reading to inform assessment, research, practice, and policy. Reading Research Quarterly 56(1), 9-31.

Kiili, C., Lakkala, M., Ilomäki, L., Toom, A., Coiro, J., Hämäläinen, E., & Sormunen, E. (2021). Designing classroom practices for teaching online inquiry: Experiences from the field. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 65(4), 297-308.

Coiro, J., Dobler, E., & Pelekis, K. (2019). From curiosity to deep learning: Personal digital inquiry in grades K-5. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

Coiro, J., Sparks, J., Kiili, C., Castek, J., Lee, C., & Holland, B. (2019). Capturing dimensions of collaborative online inquiry and social deliberation with multiple-source inquiry tasks in face-to-face and remote contexts. Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice.

Hobbs, R. & Coiro, J. (2018). Design features of a professional development program in digital literacy. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 62(4), 401-409.

Coiro, J., Castek, J., & Quinn, D. (2016). Personal inquiry and online research: Connecting learners in ways that matter. The Reading Teacher, 69(5), 483-492.

Kiili, C., Coiro, J., & Hämäläinen, J. (2016). An online inquiry tool to support the exploration of controversial issues on the Internet. Journal of Literacy and Technology, 17(1).

Coiro, J., Coscarelli, C., Maykel, C. & Forzani, E. (2015). Investigating criteria seventh graders use to evaluate the quality of online information. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 58(7), 546-550.

Coiro, J., Knobel, M., Lankshear, C., & Leu, D. J. (Editors). (2008). Handbook of research in new literacies. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Coiro, J. & Dobler, E. (2007). Exploring the online comprehension strategies used by sixth-grade skilled readers to search for and locate information on the Internet. Reading Research Quarterly, 42, 214-257.