Curiosity and motivation are integral to learning and creativity. But in today's world, individuals also need 21st-century skills and dispositions to thrive.  That is why you will see that much of my work integrates these critical areas. My name is Dr. Marilyn P. Arnone and I am a research professor and professor of practice at Syracuse University's School of Information Studies, also known as the iSchool. I serve as co-director of the Center for Digital Literacy and currently as interim associate director for Cotelco (North), the Collaboration Laboratory. I have been fortunate to work on many wonderful projects, both research and demonstration, for children and teens, teacher-librarians, and adult learners.

Research, Writing, Digital Media . . .

I enjoy researching, writing, and producing digital media for learners of all ages. My research interests include exploring motivational aspects of information behavior including perceived competence, autonomy, and social relatedness, central constructs of self-determination theory.  I’d like to do more studying of the connection between perceived competence and curiosity. I am interested in cyberlearning environments that promote learning motivation. See Scholarship for selected publications and funded research. 

I also want to mention that I have a passion for storytelling from the oral traditions to the many uses of digital storytelling in education and in business.  I’ve written several books for children [LINK]used by teacher-librarians to introduce students to information skills in the primary grades and to stimulate inquiry; each contains an educator’s guide. For many years I worked in children’s media as a performer, producer, researcher, and evaluator. Actually, I started pretty young with the performance part. I also enjoy puppetry. While there is no link on the main menu for this, I did create a page of nostalgic media moments [LINK]including working with the late Buffalo Bob Smith and Howdy Doody.

"[Curiosity] is the quality that moves us ahead, makes us more useful, even changes the world a bit. Without it we are condemned to be ordinary. With it we have a shot at being a part of the future."

--Weintrub, 1986, p. 160

from "Curiosity and Motivation in Scholarship." In The Journal of General Education, 38 (3), 159-166.

A Labor of Love

Today, one of my major labors of love is developing Curiosity Creek, a web site for children with a Parent/Educator companion site.  It’s coming along but I always feel I have tons more work to do on it.  Right now we are working on making it more accessible. For the past several years, I’ve worked with another professor, Dr. Tiffany A. Koszalka, utilizing Curiosity Creek as a publication venue for middle school children participating in an after-school club. The middle school children research and write stories on environmental topics to share with their younger counterparts.  We now are ready to share our after-school club facilitation guide with librarians and other educators who want to start their own after school clubs focusing on learning technology skills in the context of science and nature. Feel free to contact me if this is of interest to you. I plan to open this up to interested educators on a limited basis. Some time down the road, I’d like to expand to more educators.

When Not Working

Other things I love include music, martial arts, coastal creeks and waterways, and spending time with my family and friends, even if there is never enough time to do it all.

Note: On my Resources page, educators can find useful tools and media for use with their students, plus links to my research papers, and more.