Today’s social, mobile and gaming technologies offer new ways of supporting learning that is engaging, connected to the wider world, and tailored to specific interests, identities, and learning styles. Our research has found, however, that only the most activated digital learners are taking advantage of this potential. Young people are going online for informal and interest-driven learning, but with few connections back to school and academic subjects. What kinds of platforms, policies, and technologies can best connect between in-school and out-of-school learning and between adult and young people’s social and cultural worlds? Mimi Ito will describe her ongoing research on interest-driven and digitally enabled learning, and describe connected learning, as a framework for how to best support learning in a digitally connected era.
- Mizuko Ito, Professor in Residence and John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Chair in Digital Media and Learning at the University of California, Irvine
Mizuko Ito is a cultural anthropologist of technology use, examining children and youth’s changing relationships to media and communications. She is Professor in Residence and John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Chair in Digital Media and Learning at the University of California, Irvine, with appointments in the University of California Humanities Research Institute, the Department of Anthropology, the Department of Informatics, and the School of Education. She chairs the MacArthur Connected Learning Research Network and is Research Director of the Digital Media and Learning Hub. Her co-authored book, Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Youth Living and Learning with New Media describes new opportunities for interest-driven learning fueled by games, social media, and digital tools.
[/hidepost]