The Connected Learning Alliance is looking forward to our community of progressive educators, researchers, and technologists gathering to exchange learnings and ideas in the upcoming Connected Learning Summit.  It is an annual gathering of innovators harnessing emerging technology to expand access to participatory, playful, and creative learning. This year’s summit will be held from October... Read more »

The post Announcing the Keynotes for the 2023 Connected Learning Summit appeared first on Connected Learning Alliance.

From the moment I joined the Digital Media and Learning Research Hub over 12 years ago, I knew I had found a special place that perfectly melded my education, professional experience, and values. The camaraderie, shared passion for our work, and unwavering support from each and every one of you that I have met along... Read more »

The post A New Chapter: Reflections on 12 Years With the DML Hub and Connected Learning Lab appeared first on Connected Learning Alliance.

The Equitable Futures Innovation Network (EFIN) is a project of the Connected Learning Lab at UC Irvine, focused on fostering career equity in asset-based and identity-affirming ways (Nasir 2012). For the past three years, this project has engaged in research-practice partnerships with career development organizations to surface, describe, and co-develop programmatic approaches and orientations that... Read more »

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This blog is the fourth of a series of case studies based upon the work of the Equitable Futures Innovation Network. The network brings together scholars and practitioners to identify cutting-edge practices for promoting racial equity within youth career development programs. Career development historically can get reduced into dialogues of how to increase access to... Read more »

The post Timbuk2 Academy: Navigating Healthy Tensions to Build Partnership With Youth appeared first on Connected Learning Alliance.

With widespread consumer adoption of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Dall-E, public awareness has been growing about potential risks and opportunities for young people’s learning and development. From the first flush of concerns about ChatGPT-generated student essays to fears about AI powered social media driving youth mental health problems, debates over young people’s... Read more »

The post A New Edited Collection from MIT Press: Algorithmic Rights and Protections for Children appeared first on Connected Learning Alliance.

There’s a growing body of research exploring the relationship between play and learning. From anthropology to cognitive science to evolutionary biology, evidence shows that play offers powerful opportunities for children’s cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development. When children are playing, they are in a state of mind conducive to learning – they are engaged, relaxed,... Read more »

The post A Pedagogy of Play: Supporting Playful Learning in Classrooms and Schools appeared first on Connected Learning Alliance.

“Bresee helps the youth and those who are most disadvantaged. Serving Koreatown, a primarily Hispanic community, and advocate for the need of bringing peace to our community. By focusing on the youth, Bresee is able to build a better future where everyone is given equal opportunities and leads them to a successful future.” – Youth... Read more »

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The positive benefits of youth interacting with technology are often ignored while the negatives are emphasized. It’s time for that to change. In a commitment to this effort, the Connected Learning Alliance, along with the Connected Learning Lab at the University of California, Irvine, have launched the Connected Wellbeing Initiative. This collaboration focuses on amplifying... Read more »

The post The Connected Wellbeing Initiative: Building Understanding and Action Regarding Teens’ Technology Use and Their Mental Health appeared first on Connected Learning Alliance.

InventTeams In 2019 I stumbled upon the field of invention education when I joined a Lemelson-MIT (LMIT) research project examining how high school teams were using computer science to create technological solutions that would improve the lives of others. As part of the research, I attended EurekaFest, where I met high school student teams and... Read more »

The post When Learning is Irresistable: An Invitation to Foster Inventive Mindsets appeared first on Connected Learning Alliance.

“As a child that’s one thing that my parents really instilled in us as children is to know who you are and identify with what is most connected to you…We are Black people. We are of African descent. That is the culture. That’s how I was raised. That’s what I know. That’s who I am.... Read more »

The post Timbuk2 – Anchored in a Historical Legacy of Care and Spirituality appeared first on Connected Learning Alliance.

On behalf of the Connected Learning Summit Conference Committee, we are pleased to announce the publication of the Proceedings of the 2022 Connected Learning Summit.  It is our honor to share with you a proceedings that celebrates participatory, playful, and transformative learning. In 2021, the Connected Learning Summit became a fully online event, supporting inclusive,... Read more »

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They’re coming to us, without any work experience because of discrimination and lack of opportunities. Or with having had some work experience, but having struggled to successfully retain the job because of hostile employment settings. Or having experienced racism on the job and negotiating professional standards that are unwritten but expected. – Maddie Deegan Davenport,... Read more »

The post Responding to Race in Youth Career Development Practice appeared first on Connected Learning Alliance.

I’ve been researching technology’s role in child development for nearly twenty years. For most of that time, whenever a non-researcher asked me for the verdict – is tech good or bad for kids? – I dutifully replied that it’s complicated, because it is.   And as research continues to accumulate, one could argue things have only... Read more »

The post Technology’s Child: Making the Complex More Concrete for Research on Kids and Tech appeared first on Connected Learning Alliance.

The first and second authors of this blog post were teens in the the middle 2010s and the early 2000s, respectively. We experienced a media landscape vastly different from each other as well as the present day. Media devices were more limited, Internet connections were constrained; user-generated content or social media was barely on the... Read more »

The post Mobilizing Teen-Centered Research Findings for Teen-Oriented Storytelling appeared first on Connected Learning Alliance.

New research from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center shows the power of involving young people in community organizations as partners, not just beneficiaries. Gen Z in the Room: Making Public Media By and With Youth for the Future, by Mary Madden and Elizabeth Rood, details findings gathered through in-depth interviews with young people and professional... Read more »

The post The Power of Participatory Projects: Public Media and Gen Z appeared first on Connected Learning Alliance.

Call for proposals now open for the sixth annual Connected Learning Summit, which will run entirely online from October 26 to 28, 2023. Submissions open: March 6, 2023 Deadline for submissions: June 23, 2023 Notifications: August 2023 We invite submissions of Research Papers and Showcases that focus on digital technologies for learning, educational and commercial... Read more »

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Educators are urged to teach “computer science for all!” In our new book, based on ten years of work at YR Media, we respond with a question: “Code for what?” What if emerging creators approached computer science as an expansive medium for storytelling and social justice? How would they use it to produce digital content... Read more »

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For the last seven years, I’ve been working with a talented and committed group of researchers and library practitioners on the ConnectedLib Project, a research-practice partnership focused on bringing connected learning to public libraries across the United States. With support from the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), our team at the University of... Read more »

The post ConnectedLib Toolkit 2.0: Bringing Connected Learning to Small and Rural Libraries appeared first on Connected Learning Alliance.

Let me take you inside a conversation at a recent board meeting for Susan Crown Exchange, a national foundation that supports organizations working at the intersection of adolescent well-being and technology. Two young people were invited to share their experiences as participants in a research study conducted by our partners at Erikson Institute: Q: “Does... Read more »

The post Who Has The Solutions For Thriving In A Digital World? Young People.  appeared first on Connected Learning Alliance.

Fiber craft textiles have played an important role in the development of technology and the advancement of STEM areas. Crochet contributed to the transformation of non-Euclidean geometry due to the consolidation of hyperbolic planes. Our work has led us to design activities with the intention of recovering fiber crafts as a means of learning and... Read more »

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