Orit Shaer describes her research developing interaction techniques and software tools for next generation user interfaces. Over the past two decades, Human-Computer Interaction research has generated a broad range of interaction styles that move beyond the desktop into new physical and social contexts. Key areas of innovation in this respect include tabletops, tangible, and embodied user interfaces. These interaction styles leverage users' existing knowledge and skills of interaction with the real non-digital world, thus are often referred to as reality-based interfaces. By drawing on exisiting skills, reality-based interfaces offer the promise of a natural, intuitive, and often collaborative form of interaction. In this talk we will examine the impact of applying reality-based interaction to enhance collaborative discovery and learning.