His general area of research is Human-Computer Interaction, with a current focus on technologies that support children's creativity, mobility, and collaboration. The primary goals of Dr. Fails current research is to leverage technology to encourage children to engage with their environment and with one another (two things technology is blamed for doing the exact opposite), and to engaging children in generative activities as opposed to consumer oriented activities. As part of this, Dr. Fails leads a collaborative effort Geotagger which enables children to make and share environmental observations.