Gigi Carlson

Director, Synapse Institute

Gigi is an educator, author, theater and multimedia producer with a passion for creating learning environments that integrate experiential pedagogy with an integrated arts approach and creative media technology. She is the director of Synapse Institute, Six Seconds' "lab school" for innovative learning.

Gigi developed a learning strategy called Helical Learning, which enables students to achieve subject matter mastery in a supported interactive learning structure of four parts: play, explore, integrate, and imagine.

Gigi is the author of Digital Media for the Classroom: Strategies for 21st Century Learning, which garnered five stars at amazon.com. She taught a professional development course at the Digital Media Academy at Stanford University called “Digital Media in the Classroom.”

Gigi also specializes in integrating digital media software in active learning environments. These include Adobe Premiere Pro, Premiere Elements, Photoshop, and Photoshop Elements, Inspiration, MS Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and the Internet. She has a master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on Special Education and a master’s degree in Southeast Asian Studies.