Oren Zuckerman, a PhD student at the MIT Media Lab, is developing new digital learning blocks that make abstract concepts visible and manipulable. Inspired by the wooden objects developed by Maria Montessori, used around the world to learn abstract concepts such as number and shape, Oren is creating computationally enhanced blocks that simulate advanced concepts such as accumulation, probabilistic behavior, feedback, and exponential growth. In addition, Oren is studying what children learn by playing with the blocks, and what misconceptions they hold about the behavior of complex systems. Prior to MIT Oren was recognized as one of the World Economic Forum�s 100 Technology Pioneers for the year 2000, as the founder of an Internet startup that developed an asynchronous group collaboration layer over the Web. Oren did his undergraduate in computer science at the Academic College of Tel Aviv, Israel.