Connected Learning Summit 2018: Full Schedule

8:30am

AM Coffee + Pastries

Come enjoy some coffee/tea and pastries before the featured event!

Wednesday August 1, 2018 8:30am - 9:30am
Media Lab - 6th Floor Foyer

8:30am

Quiet Work Room + Charging Station

This is a place to re-charge your batteries (literally!). If you need to hold a meeting, please do so in the common areas, we are reserving this space for those that need to work in an environment with minimal distraction.

Thank you!

Wednesday August 1, 2018 8:30am - 5:00pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-061 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA

9:30am

Keynote: Baratunde Thurston & Joi Ito in Conversation

The Connected Learning Summit kicks off with a Q&A with comedian and tech innovator Baratunde Thurston, hosted by Joi Ito, director of the MIT Media Lab. Join us for a lively conversation on interest-driven learning, the power of comedy to open minds, and the limits and promise of tech fueled activism.

About Baratunde

Baratunde Thurston is a futurist comedian, writer, and cultural critic who helped re-launch The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, co-founded Cultivated Wit and the About Race podcast, and wrote the New York Times bestseller How To Be Black. Baratunde is is a highly sought-after public speaker, television personality, and thought leader who has been part of noteworthy institutions such as Fast Company, TED, the MIT Media Lab, The Onion, and the gentrification of Brooklyn, New York. Baratunde has an uncanny ability to crack the shell of any uncomfortable topic through a personal, accessible, and intelligent point of view.

The ACLU of Michigan honored Baratunde “for changing the political and social landscape one laugh at a time.” He was nominated for the Bill Hicks Award for Thought Provoking Comedy. The Root named him to its list of 100 most influential African Americans, and Fast Company listed him as one of the 100 Most Creative People In Business. He has advised the Obama White House and serves on the National Board of BUILD, an organization that uses entrepreneurship-based experiential learning to propel underserved youth through high school on to college and career success. He also serves as an advisor to Civic Hall Labs and the Data & Society Research Institute.

About Joi

From TED.com

Joichi "Joi" Ito is one of those names threaded through the history of the Internet. From his days kickstarting Internet culture in Japan at Digital Garage, his restless curiosity led him to be an early-stage investor in Twitter, Six Apart, Wikia, Flickr, Last.fm, Kickstarter and other Internet companies, and to serve on countless boards and advisory committees around digital culture and Internet freedom.

He leads the legendary MIT Media Lab as it heads toward its third decade, and is working on a book with Jeff Howe about nine principles for navigating whatever the changing culture throws at us next. As he told Wired, "The amount of money and the amount of permission that you need to create an idea has decreased dramatically." So: aim for resilience, not strength; seek risk, not safety. The book is meant to be a compass for a world without maps.

Wednesday August 1, 2018 9:30am - 10:30am
Media Lab - Multi-purpose Room, 6th Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Feature

10:30am

AM Coffee/Tea

Wednesday August 1, 2018 10:30am - 11:00am
Media Lab - 6th Floor Foyer

Break

11:00am

Learning Creative Learning: How We Keep Tinkering With MOOCs

Learning Creative Learning (LCL) is a free online course designed to share principles and strategies on how to engage people in creative learning experiences, i.e. working on projects that they are passionate about, in collaboration with peers, within a playful environment that encourages experimentation. Although LCL is organized and presented as a six-week online course, its ultimate goal is to cultivate an ongoing learning community in support of creative learning around the world. Through our two past edition of the course in 2013 and 2014, we identified three design tensions to achieve this goal: offering a course while developing a community, supporting multiple pathways into a shared experience, and supporting both local and global communities. This spotlight presentation describes the design choices that we made in the latest edition, as a way to negotiate those tensions. In addition, we share some ideas for future directions.

Speakers

Lily Gabaree

Learning Experience Designer, MIT Media Lab

Yumiko Murai

Postdoctoral Associate, MIT

Carmelo Presicce

MIT Media Lab

Moran Tsur

Learning Developer, BrainPOP

Wednesday August 1, 2018 11:00am - 11:30am
Whitaker College, E25-111 Classroom, Building E25 45 Carleton St Cambridge, MA 02142

Spotlight

11:00am

The Aquarius Project: Using Narrative and Hands on Science to Drive Youth Innovation

It often takes more than the right tech to activate authentic youth engagement with science exploration. Through “The Aquarius Project,” brand new makers found the inspiration to engage in hands on science by joining a story bigger than themselves.

Months ago, a sonic boom shook the residents of the Midwest. A meteor traveling at 38,000 miles an hour entered our atmosphere and exploded with a force equal to 10 tons of dynamite. Weather radar spotted the end of its journey as it splashed down into Lake Michigan. There is little known about the lake bottom in this region. It is this combination of knowns and unknowns that has inspired high school students and science professionals from across Chicago to mount, “The Aquarius Project.” This multidisciplinary endeavor is the first student driven attempt at underwater meteorite retrieval.

Speakers

Chris Bresky

Teen Programs Manager, Adler Planetarium

Chris Bresky is a trained artist and educator who currently works at the Adler Planetarium finding creative ways for the public to engage with science. He is interested in using story and narrative to inspire exploration. He has been awarded the Jon Lipsky Award for Excellence in... Read More →

Wednesday August 1, 2018 11:00am - 11:30am
MIT Tang Center, E51-149 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA 02142

Spotlight

11:00am

Voyage: A Collaborative Classroom-Scale Virtual Reality Experience

Voyage is about using collaborative mobile VR to bring a virtual field trip to the classroom. We talk about our process in designing a multiplayer, educational, VR experience, the questions we were trying to solve and lessons that we learned from building it.

Speakers

Sijia He

Na-yeon Kim

Graduate Student, Entertainment Technology Center, Carnegie Mellon University

Julian Korzeniowsky

Voyage

Rajeev Mukundan

Scott Stevens

Wednesday August 1, 2018 11:00am - 11:30am
MIT Tang Center, E51-372 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Spotlight

11:00am

Hall of Failure

The Rise and Fall of Digital Corps
Ani Martinez, Thomas Akiva

The Digital Corps (DC) was a county-wide initiative in 2014-2015 to equip digital savvy adults to conduct technology-based workshops with youth ages 9-12 in existing out-of-school time programs. The program boasted numerous successes: DC trained and deployed 82 adult corps members to 53 locations, engaging over 500 young people, and provided outreach to another 1,000 children and families through events. Moreover, a majority of participating organizations reported an increase in youth participation; these were very cool workshops in robotics, programming, and web development! However, the program was discontinued after a very short time and we seek to understand why. Possible reasons include the cost (e.g., paying educators a livable wage) and the nature and infrastructure of OST (e.g., irregular attendance). Perhaps we failed to communicate the successes well. We hope that understanding what happened will help us and others learn from this initiative.

Learning on the Move: Lessons from a Research-Practice Partnership Focused on Evaluating, Assessing, and Reflecting on Connected Learning
Nathan Phillips, Virginia Killian Lund, Wendy Gonzales, Emma Martell, David Bild, Ilana Bruton, Ani Schmidt, Jaclyn Carmichae, Shawndra Allen

In this Hall of Failure presentation our team of practitioners and researchers will discuss lessons learned from four years of design and iteration of a set of tools, methods, and activities for evaluating, assessing, and reflecting on connected learning “on the move.” Our development and implementation team consists of educators from a zoo, a nature museum, an after-school STEM initiative for middle school and high school girls of color, a history museum, and university-based learning scientists and researchers. Recently, we have completed a macro-cycle of iteration by producing and distributing a published facilitator guide so that teachers and mentors can utilize these tools and activities in their own work with youth and adult learners. The completion of this four-year cycle of iteration and design affords us an ideal opportunity to share what worked and didn’t work across our collaboration.

The School of Hard Rocks: Lessons Learned From Our Youth Digital Music Program
Tom Swanson

When students told us they wanted to learn about digital music production we were excited to explore how advanced technology could be used to empower creativity. We believed this class would be a huge hit, but we were wrong. It turned out to be far more difficult to engage students than we anticipated given the popularity of the subject among youth. We tried many different class formats and tools, yet still failed to get consistent attendance and follow-through. When things worked, the outcomes were fantastic, so we kept at it and iterated on our approach.

Today, we've used those hard lessons to build a program that's finally growing. As audio technology becomes more available, our goal is to share our mistakes to ensure that other educators can leverage what we learned and build programs that give students the power and access to be composers.

Speakers

Tom Akiva

Associate Professor, University of Pittsburgh

Shawndra Allen

David Bild

Coordinator, Teen and Young Adult Programs, Chicago Academy of Sciences / Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum

Ilana Bruton

Public Programs Manager, Chicago History Museum

Jaclyn Carmichael

Program Director, Project Exploration

Wendy Gonzales

Virginia Killian Lund

PhD Candidate, University of Illinois at Chicago

I'm interested in young people's composing processes with media, and with the communities and practices that support their work.

Emma Martell

Ani Martinez

Outreach Coordinator, Remake Learning

Nathan Phillips

Assistant Professor, UIC College of Education

Ani Schmidt

Public Programs Coordinator, Chicago History Museum

Tom Swanson

foundry10

Wednesday August 1, 2018 11:00am - 12:00pm
Media Lab - Lecture Hall, 6th Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Hall of Failure

11:00am

Research Paper Panel: Teched Out Libraries, Digital Parenting Inequities and Learning Badges

Technology Use in Rural and Urban Public Libraries: Implications for Connected Learning in Youth Programming
Katie Davis, Mega Subramaniam, Emily L. Romeijn-Stout

Public libraries represent fertile ground for promoting connected learning. However, there is great variation in public library systems across the United States, with important implications for the way connected learning is introduced and implemented in specific libraries. This paper examines variations in the way librarians in rural and urban libraries employ technology and enact connected learning in their youth programs. We conducted interviews with 46 youth librarians working in rural (22) and urban (24) public libraries across the US. Our analysis revealed differences between rural and urban libraries in the range of their community partnerships; the roles that librarians and youth assume in designing, leading, and evaluating youth programs; and sources of external support. We discuss the implications of these findings for designing professional development initiatives that are tailored to the distinct contexts in which public youth librarians work.

Reproducing digital inequality: wealthy and poor parents’ approaches to parenting in a digital age
Sonia Livingstone

In this paper we examine how parents’ access to resources – financial but also related resources including cultural and social capital – influence how they approach digital media in their own and their children’s lives. We detail two case study families, the Apaus (a low-income Ghanaian-British family) and the Thiebaults (a high-income French family living in London). Both families have sons who are learning to code, but how they pursue this interest and how they are supported by their parents illustrate how parental access to resources influences connected learning experiences. Contra the theories of Annette Lareau, we show how both families are actively turning to digital media to ‘cultivate’ their son’s interests, at great costs relative to their very different resources, but that this cultivation may well be unequally converted into opportunities in the future.

Using Digital Badges to Promote Student Agency and Identity in Science Learning
Katie Davis

We investigate the potential for digital badges to support youth agency and identity in an afterschool science program serving diverse high school students. We conducted contextual interviews with 36 students aged 14-19 participating in the program, inviting them to interact with a badge system prototype designed to help them track their progress through the program. Students recognized the potential for badges to provide visible learning pathways, connect learning across contexts, and establish the credibility of the skills they acquired in the program. They also raised challenges associated with sharing their badges with external audiences, such as the challenge of demonstrating the value of a badge and privacy concerns. This paper demonstrates how the design of a digital badge platform can successfully embody supports not only for student agency and identity in science learning, but also greater equity in and access to future learning and career opportunities.

Speakers

Katie Davis

Assistant Professor, University of Washington

Dr. Katie Davis is an Assistant Professor at The University of Washington Information School, where she studies the role of digital media technologies in adolescents’ academic, social, and moral lives. She also serves as an Advisory Board Member for MTV’s digital abuse campaign... Read More →

Sonia Livingstone

Professor, Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political

Sonia Livingstone is a full professor in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. She is author or editor of eighteen books, including Children and the Internet: Great Expectations, Challenging Realities (Polity 2009), Harm and Offence in Media Content: A review of the empirical... Read More →

Emily Romeijn-Stout

PhD Student, University of Washington iSchool

Mega Subramaniam

Associate Professor, College of Information Studies, University of Maryland

Mega M Subramaniam, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor and Associate Director of Information Policy and Access Center in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland. Dr. Subramaniam’s innovative research focusses on the use of school and public libraries as effective... Read More →

Wednesday August 1, 2018 11:00am - 12:00pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-145 - Lecture Hall, Building E51 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Research Paper

11:00am

Ghost Stories from Learning Game Design: Surprises! A lively storytelling session

The goal of this Symposia will be to facilitate a lively discussion between session attendees where the presenters and attendees all tell “ghost stories” from their experiences in designing games for learning. The four facilitators will start out by telling a few of our own stories, and then work to get everyone involved in telling their own.

Our theme will be surprises, good and bad – and particularly areas where what we learned from data or feedback differed from what our design instincts told us, or what we were expecting.

We’ll aim to host a lively discussion of practitioners – telling tall tales, sharing wisdom (and hairy moments) from the work. We expect many stories to be enlightening, and we’ll record audio of the session.

Speakers

Barbara Chamberlin

Professor, New Mexico State University

Barbara Chamberlin directs game and media development at New Mexico State University’s Learning Games Lab. The production team works on a variety of content and audiences, most recently completing Math Snacks games for mid school learners (mathsnacks.org). Dr. Chamberlin also conducts... Read More →

Caitlin Feeley

Learning Game Designer, MIT Education Arcade

Caitlin is a designer of award winning educational games. Her projects have included "Vanished," a transmedia science mystery game/event co-developed with the Smithsonian, as well as the financial literacy games “Farm Blitz,” “Bite Club,” and "Con 'Em if You Can" with Fablevision... Read More →

David Gagnon

Field Day Lab Director, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Dan Roy

Research Scientist, MIT Teaching Systems Lab

Bert Snow

Principal, Snow & Co

Wednesday August 1, 2018 11:00am - 12:00pm
MIT List Visual Arts Center, E15-070 Bartos Theater, Lower Level, Weisner Building E15 Wiesner Bldg, 20 Ames St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Symposia

11:00am

Learning from Failure: Debugging in Coding, Gaming and Making Activities

Most attention in learning research has focused on how to provide instruction that supports or scaffolds students’ learning and solving problems with success, ignoring that helping students understanding mistakes or overcoming failures can provide equally rich learning opportunities. In this symposium, we want to examine how failure is situated and perceived in different contexts, especially those in which learners design complex artifacts such as software, games or electronic textiles. Our presentations and discussions will focus on how learners and teachers talk about failure, how they overcome challenges, and what they can learn from their failures. We want to examine differences and similarities in approaches and mindsets that can help us include failure as a productive dimension in future learning designs.

Speakers

Karen Brennan

Harvard University

Deborah Fields

Associate Research Professor, Utah State University

Dr. Deborah A. Fields is a Temporary Assistant Professor in Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences at Utah State University and an independent research consultant. Deborah researches children’s connective learning and identity engagement through designing with digital technologies... Read More →

Paulina Haduong

Harvard Graduate School of Education

Gayithri Jayathirtha

Student, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania

yasmin kafai

Chair, Teaching Learning & Leadership Division, Universityt of Pennsylvania

Yasmin Kafai is Professor of Learning Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a researcher, designer, and developer of online communities and tools (ecrafting.org, stitchtfest.org, and scratch.mit.edu) to promote computational participation, crafting, and creativity across K-16. Book publications include Connected Code, Connected Play, The Computer Clubhouse, Textile Messages, and Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat. Kafai earned a doctorate from Harvard University while working wit... Read More →

Breanne Litts

Assistant Professor, Utah State University

Chase Mortensen

Research Assistant, Utah State University

Mike Tissenbaum

Research Scientist, MIT

Wednesday August 1, 2018 11:00am - 12:00pm
Media Lab - Multi-purpose Room, 6th Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Symposia

11:00am

Game Design and Coding in Minecraft

Creating opportunities for students to develop their own games provides an entry point to computer science that is relevant to the children we serve. Code Builder for Minecraft Education Edition brings block based coding to Minecraft. Programming environments including code.org, Microsoft MakeCode, Tynker, and Scratch connect to Minecraft allowing students to execute code they write directly in Minecraft. In addition, redstone and command blocks allow students to implement engineering and computational thinking concepts in their minecraft worlds. During this session, participants will see how two educators have brought computer science and game development to their students in grades 2 through 8. Participants will be guided through hands on activities related to game development and computational thinking. Ideas will be explored for educators can incorporate these tools to create exciting learning experiences with and for their students.

Speakers

Catherine Cheo-Isaacs

Insight2Execution

Steve Isaacs

Teacher, Bernards Township Board of Education

Steve has been a gamer since the days of Atari and his Apple II+. His parents were initially concerned with how consumed he was with technology. Now they chuckle as he has created a career around his passion. Steve has been teaching Video Game Design and Development for 15 years... Read More →

Wednesday August 1, 2018 11:00am - 12:00pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-151 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Workshop

11:00am

Resonant Games: Design Principles to Connect Hearts, Minds, and the Everyday

In the MIT Education Arcade, we design learning games that have deep connections with players’ lives—artifacts that could be a part of their lives in school and at home, that could rouse their curiosity and determination, that might even seep into their dreams and imaginations. Our games are designed to resonate with your life, with your passions, and with all the systems in which they are embedded. Our recent book, Resonant Games, is a compendium of principles we have used to design our learning games, illustrated by projects we have created with these principles in mind. In this workshop we plan to present the concept of resonant games and a selection of the principles to help participants apply them to their own work. We welcome educators and designers with any level of game experience to join us for design exercises that explore the idea of resonant design.

Speakers

Jason Haas

Cambridge, MA, United States, Scheller Teacher Education Program

Jason is a Research Assistant and PhD candidate in The Education Arcade and the Center for Mobile Learning in the MIT Media Lab. He is also an Early Career Scholar at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in the Spencer New Civics Education Program.His research focuses on designing... Read More →

Eric Klopfer

Professor, MIT STEP/TEA

Dr. Eric Klopfer is Professor and Director of the Scheller Teacher Education Program and The Education Arcade at MIT. Klopfer’s research focuses on the development and use of computer games and simulations for building understanding of science and complex systems. His research explores... Read More →

Scot Osterweil

Creative Director, MIT Education Arcade

Scot Osterweil is Creative Director of the Education Arcade in the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program. He has designed award-winning games in both academic and commercial environments, focusing on what is authentically playful in challenging academic subjects. Designs include the... Read More →

Louisa Rosenheck

Ed Tech Designer and Researcher, MIT Scheller Teacher Education Program

Louisa is a Research Manager in the MIT Scheller Teacher Education Program. She manages the design, content, and development of educational games and simulations to be used with middle and high school students. She also oversees the research done on these projects exploring how games... Read More →

Wednesday August 1, 2018 11:00am - 12:00pm
Media Lab - Silverman Skyline, 6th Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Workshop

11:00am

Tell Data Stories Using Paper Circuit Visualizations With the Open Data/Open Minds Project

In this hands-on workshop, participants will get a taste of how to support learners in developing compelling scientific stories using open data and illuminating infographics using paper circuitry.

Speakers

David Cole

Program Director, NEXMAP

Elisabeth Sylvan

Wednesday August 1, 2018 11:00am - 12:00pm
Media Lab - E14-240, 2nd Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Workshop

11:30am

Let’s Challenge how we Think VR 360°Videos in Education

360-videos resemble traditional videography in some of their affordances but are still genuinely different when it comes to innovative storytelling, playful learning elements or strategies for directing the gaze-attention of learners. At our New Media Lab, we are currently developing six innovative 360-videos, following a process of co-design in multidisciplinary teams of teachers, learning experience designers, media designers and researchers. The projects cover a variety of educational topics including remote sensing, dementia, lab security, archaeology, classroom conflict management and a critical meta-media inquiry into VR. All VR-videos have different learning goals, such as promoting problem solving skills, identifying important signals, finding cues in a new environment and experiencing consequences of actions and wrong choices. We will explain our design decisions, incorporating both the media affordances and educational perspective, discuss our successes and failures of the 360-video pilot and elaborate on aspects such as kinaesthetic movements, interactivity, affordances, framing and guidance.

Speakers

Jeanine Reutemann

Researcher, Leiden University, New Media Lab, Centre for Innovation

Jeanine Reutemann is a (Audiovisual) Researcher at the Centre for Innovation at the Leiden University, with a background in film, education and media sciences. Main research interests: Science, Education & Film, MOOCs, VR, AI & Film, Digital Education, Embodiment Theory, Gesture Studies... Read More →

Monique Snijder

Wednesday August 1, 2018 11:30am - 12:00pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-372 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Spotlight

11:30am

Localized! Leveraging Global and Local Data Sets to Build a Statewide System for Connected Climate Learning

This session will report on a work-in-process to create a system of technology-enabled, data-rich, localized climate learning experiences. Since 2005, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute has brought ~70% of Maine’s 5th/6th grade cohort annually to our marine research lab for a 2.5-hour exploration of ecosystem complexity. We are now renovating the program’s technology and learning experiences to combine global data sets (sea surface temperature), local data sets (lobster landings), and multitaction technology to enable students to investigate the impacts of climate change in the Gulf of Maine. By completion of the project, we will have extended this informal learning experience through connected learning experiences in the classroom, in regional science centers, in public libraries, and through teacher professional development. A digital Field Notebook enables assembly of student-created assets from across these environments, as well as from experiences chosen by students themselves.

Speakers

Leigh Peake

Chief Education Officer, Gulf of Maine Research Institute

GMRI is focused at the intersection of informal and formal learning, working primarily in the spaces of data literacy and climate literacy. Our two statewide programs include a citizen science program and a data-rich, tech-enabled informal science learning experience. Talk to me about... Read More →

Wednesday August 1, 2018 11:30am - 12:00pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-149 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA 02142

Spotlight

11:30am

Open Learning ’17 and ’18: Connected Learning As Professional Development

This presentation spotlights the origin and development of the “Open Learning” connectivist MOOCs offered in 2017 and 2018. The project began as a Faculty Collaboratives initiative, sponsored by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, with project administration supplied by the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia (SCHEV) The project sought to create sustainable networks for professional development related to the AAC&U’s “Liberal Education and America’s Promise” (LEAP) signature program. We tell the story of designing and implementing Open Learning ’17 and ’18, highlight lessons learned, and encourage discussion of how national organizations, state government, and both private and public institutions of higher learning might work together to create connected learning platforms for professional development. The designers knew that merely reading about open learning would not effect change. To understand connected learning, one must practice connected learning.

Speakers

Gardner Campbell

Assoc.Prof. of English, Virginia Commonwealth University

Susan Erickson

Library Director, Virginia Wesleyan University

I've been on the Steering Committee for the OpenLearning '17 and OpenLearning '18 cMOOCs. For more info, go to the hub site: http://openlearninghub.net/

Wednesday August 1, 2018 11:30am - 12:00pm
Whitaker College, E25-111 Classroom, Building E25 45 Carleton St Cambridge, MA 02142

Spotlight

12:00pm

Lunch

We will provide a boxed lunch. Vegan and vegetarian options available.

Wednesday August 1, 2018 12:00pm - 2:00pm
Media Lab - 6th Floor Foyer

Break

2:00pm

A-Pops: Transforming Urban Spaces into Learner-directed Playful Learning Environments

A-pops is a networked learning experience that transforms urban spaces into playful and collaborative learning environments that give learners agency of their learning experience and the space itself. Piloted in Mexico City in December 2017, A-pops supports young learners in engaging in emergent and playful opportunities in and beyond their local communities. Popular and underutilized city spaces are embedded with technologies that allow learners to take agency over the space, and collaboratively explore the space’s potential while building their understanding in key domains (e.g. computational thinking). The primary objective of this project is to leverage underutilized central locations in the city to develop learning spaces that are creative, collaborative and public, and that a wide range of learners have the ability to easily and socially engage in transformative learning experiences that set the foundation for future learning in a range of domains.

Speakers

Jen Groff

PhD Candidate, MIT Media Lab & MIT Education Arcade

Leticia Lozano

Thomas Sanchez

Mina Soltengheis

Wednesday August 1, 2018 2:00pm - 2:30pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-372 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Spotlight

2:00pm

Digital Fabrication in Elementary Schools

In this session, the audience will learn about Elizabeth Forward School District's (K-12 Public School District in Elizabeth, PA) K-12 digital fabrication curriculum, K-5 design challenges, and what software and hardware is appropriate for K-5 students in an elementary FABLab. This session will also explore professional development approaches for elementary teachers and principals on how to implement digital fabrication in an elementary school, how to teach design thinking to K-5 students, how to teach Growth Mindset to K-5 students to help create a FABLab in an elementary school.

Speakers

Todd Keruskin

Assistant Superintendent, Elizabeth Forward School District

Mary Carole Perry

Elementary Principal, Elizabeth Forward School District

K-5 Digital Fabrication Curriculum | 1:1 iPads | Personalized Learning | Remakelearning.com | Makerspaces

Wednesday August 1, 2018 2:00pm - 2:30pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-149 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA 02142

Spotlight

2:00pm

Ready To Learn With Twin Cities PBS: Science + Literacy Digital Playlists For K-2 Learners

The Twin Cities PBS (TPT) Ready To Learn (RTL) project is a broad and engaging educational media initiative focused on early learning for elementary school children and their families. Funded by a cooperative agreement with the United States Department of Education, the program aims to improve the school readiness and academic achievement in science and literacy of children in grades K-2 nationwide. Project content centers on an innovative learning platform featuring thematic playlists comprised of: animated segments from the new PBS Kids television series (based on Aaron Reynold’s New York Times best-selling children’s book Superhero School and available in English and Spanish); complementary live-action videos; digital games, hands-on activities; non-fiction e-books; a digital science notebook for student writing and drawing; and embedded learning analytics and assessment dashboards (and hero themed badging system) that provide feedback to learners, educators, and parents. This approach integrates science and literacy to ignite children’s natural curiosity, engage them as scientists and communicators, and broaden their understanding of how the world works— specifically in life, earth and physical science. Our extensive outreach effort supports program dissemination nationally. Based on TPT’s successful SciGirls model, this train-the-trainer program engages children in tech-integrated informal science learning at libraries, Hispanic-serving organizations, afterschool providers, and community based organizations. Blended professional development workshops prepare educators for effective implementation in their communities. Parent engagement centers on a Family Science App, which encourages collaborative play between children and their parents. Developed using co-design methods, the Family Science App enhances science and literacy learning for children by involving the whole family. This kind of family co-play can help grow academic learning in school and after-school settings. Two playlists (including digital games), the learning platform, and the Family Science App will be in Beta for the Connected Learning Conference.

Speakers

Joan Freese

RTL Project Executive Producer, Twin Cities Public Television

Joan Freese is an Emmy Award winning educational technologist at Twin Cities PBS, | in St. Paul, Minnesota, focusing on projects for K-8 students, parents, and educators. | She is digital producer of SciGirls, a transmedia enterprise that encourages tween girls | in STEM, and principle... Read More →

Dr. Momoko Hayakawa

Ed Research & Analytic Specialist, Twin Cities PBS

Momo Hayakawa is a Education Research and Analytics Associate for the Ready to Learn (RTL) project at Twin Cities PBS (TPT). She oversees RTL’s external evaluation conducted by WestEd and manages the design, implementation, and evaluation of the program. Her research interests... Read More →

Dennis Ramirez

Digital Program Manager, Twin Cities Public Television

Dennis Ramirez is the Digital Program Manager at TPT PBS, and an award winning educational game designer. Dennis is interested in how new technologies are used in, and out, of the classroom to support learning. His main area of research focuses on how failure impacts learning, especially... Read More →

Wednesday August 1, 2018 2:00pm - 2:30pm
Whitaker College, E25-111 Classroom, Building E25 45 Carleton St Cambridge, MA 02142

Spotlight

2:00pm

Research Paper Panel: Web Annotation and Exemplary Connected Learning in Saudi Arabia and India

The Connected Learning Framework: Exemplified by Saudi Arabian educators via Twitter
Melissa Vervinck

The Connected Learning framework can be used to observe and analyze participant’s learning over time and in a variety of spaces. This framework has typically been applied to youth and not to adult learners, but learning does not stop at any particular age. This paper argues that Connected Learning can be repurposed so that it applies to adult learners. One group of educators who exemplify being connected learners are from Saudi Arabia. Through analysis of the technological trail of posts on Twitter this paper demonstrated how they are colleague-supported, inquiry-driven and improvement-oriented; the three spheres of learning as suggested by Eidman-Aadahl for adults. These spheres of learning are ones all educators must embody in order to prepare themselves and their students to achieve personal and career goals in the 21st century.

Developing a blended course for in-service science teachers in India and its reception by the teachers
Prayas Sutar, Latha K

‘Interactive Science Teaching’ is a blended practice based course for in-service high school teachers offered as part of a large scale field action project called ‘Connected Learning Initiative’ (CLIx: https://clix.tiss.edu). The course is offered to science teachers from government teachers from four states: Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Telangana. A total of 712 teachers registered for the course. Here we will report the process of developing the course and its reception by the teachers. Our main observations are: teachers did not engage with the online part of the course (which was to be covered during the distance period) mainly because of lack of time and difficulty in accessing digital material. The module (blended pedagogic material) implementation part was better received. Finally, we will document some of the revisions we are planning to undertake after the experience of the first run of the course.

Open Web Annotation as Connected Conversation in CSCL
Francisco Perez, Remi Kalir

Research has yet to explore how the social and technical affordances of open web annotation (OWA) can mediate connections between educators in service of their professional learning. This study examined educator participation in the Marginal Syllabus, a computer supported collaborative learning environment that encouraged connected conversation via OWA. Multiple quantitative methods, including text sentiment and social network analyses, were used to discern key discursive characteristics among the nine conversations of the 2016-17 Marginal Syllabus (1,163 annotations authored by 67 educators). Key discursive characteristics include: (a) generally positive sentiment; (b) educators who annotated most prolifically also authored the greatest percentage of annotations with neutral sentiment; and (c) conversations of at least four annotations tended to demonstrate a greater percentage of negative sentiment. The sentiment trends and study limitations are addressed in the final discussion.

Speakers

Latha K

PhD Scholar, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai

Remi Kalir

Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Denver

francisco perez

PhD student, University of Colorado Denver

PRAYAS KUMAR SUTAR

Research Associate, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai

Melissa Vervinck

Doctoral Candidate, Central Michigan University

Working with international students and educators is a passion. I stay connected with people from around the globe through social media and enjoy learning how to improve what I do in the classroom while also providing support for others by sharing my own successes and failures... Read More →

Wednesday August 1, 2018 2:00pm - 3:00pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-145 - Lecture Hall, Building E51 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Research Paper

2:00pm

Connecting Learning Across Generations and Contexts: Designing For Family Learning

Connected learning emphasizes the significance of youth learning through engagement with personally meaningful content and digital technologies while supported by a network of peers, teachers, and families across settings. Western schooling often limits opportunities for intergenerational learning, yet it was the primary way through which learning occurred prior to the introduction of formal schooling. We are just beginning to understand the role of digital media in family learning, especially for non-dominant families. This session brings together scholars studying intergenerational learning across school and out-of-school contexts. It is broadly guided by the following research questions: (1) How can we engage families in learning together? (2) What activities, strategies, and tools are promising for engaging families in intergenerational learning? Participants will share their research through a structured poster session format and demonstrate a tool or activity from their research.

Speakers

June Ahn

Associate Professor, University of California, Irvine

Breanne Litts

Assistant Professor, Utah State University

Jasmine Ma

Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education, New York University

Annie McNamara

Graduate Student, University of Pittsburgh School of Education

Ricarose Roque

Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Boulder

Elizabeth Starks

Research Scientist, UW Bothell

Keisha Varma

Associate Professor, University of Minnesota

Wednesday August 1, 2018 2:00pm - 3:00pm
MIT List Visual Arts Center, E15-070 Bartos Theater, Lower Level, Weisner Building E15 Wiesner Bldg, 20 Ames St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Symposia

2:00pm

Making Computing Meaningful: Computational Action for Formal and Informal Computing Education

This symposium brings together a set of research agendas that aim to reframe computing education away from its traditional focus on the fundamentals of programming, such as variables, loops, and conditionals, towards one of computational action. Computational action is the idea that youth should be learning about, and creating with, computing in ways that provide them the opportunity to have direct impact in their lives and that of their communities. Each presentation explores computational action through a different cross-section of the computing education world: a formal computing classroom in an urban high school; community and classroom makerspaces; an informal world-wide app competition for young women; and an afterschool youth educational organization. Through its rich variety of educational settings, learning goals, and curriculum designs, this symposium will inspire and inform others who wish to develop their own computational action-focused learning interventions.

Speakers

Hal Abelson

Allison Colyer

Curriculum Devloper, IRIDESCENT

Kayla DesPortes

Betsy DiSalvo

Associate Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology

Clifford Lee

Rachel Nicoll

Programs Director, MassTLC Education Foundation

Technovation! CS EdWeek!

Rusty Nye

Asha Richardson

Josh Sheldon

Associate Director, MIT App Inventor

Mark Sherman

Postdoctoral Research Associate, MIT

Elizabeth Soep

Senior Editor and Innovation Lab Founding Director, Youth Radio

Mike Tissenbaum

Research Scientist, MIT

Wednesday August 1, 2018 2:00pm - 3:00pm
Media Lab - Multi-purpose Room, 6th Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Symposia

2:00pm

Game Design Studio: Designing With and For Teens

In Game Design Studio teens play, analyze, and design games as a way to deeply engage in social and emotional learning in personal and meaningful ways. We use game design techniques to engage teens in thinking critically about—and experimenting with—the systems that impact their lives. Game Design Studio provides teens with the tools and support they need to be the drivers in their own learning. In this way, we recognize that teens are experts of their own experience. Workshop participants will join Game Design Studio and engage in the design experience we create with teens. Participants will collaborate to create to some core elements of a game using inspiration drawn from real-world data from teens who have participated previously in game design studio sessions. Participants will learn how to engage teens in design practices as a method for deep, authentic engagement between and amongst teens and adults.

Speakers

Susan Rivers

Gabrielle Schlichtmann

Executive Director/Chief Scientist, EdTogether

Wednesday August 1, 2018 2:00pm - 3:00pm
Media Lab - Silverman Skyline, 6th Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Workshop

2:00pm

Tangible and Playful Connected Learning

Learn how making and computationally-enabled design can support connected learning experiences. When design tools are computationally-enabled, interactions can be more participatory, accessible, and engaging of learners' creativity and agency.

This workshop brings together three perspectives on making, tinkering, and computationally-enabled design to show novel ways in which youth and educators are engaging in meaningful production-centered activities. Participants will create dynamic sculptural artworks that visualize sensor data from scientific phenomena, interact with sensing and responding paper machines, and/or make cardboard pets. After playful interaction and “messing around”, participants join a reflective discussion of key design features that support tangible, interactive and playful connected learning. The session ends with time for participants to continue messing around with the interactive materials.

Speakers

Colin Dixon

Lila Finch

Graduate Student, University of Colorado Boulder

Sherry Hsi

Executive Vice President, Concord Consortium

Dr. Sherry Hsi is both a learning designer and education researcher with a background in engineering (bio and mechanical), science education, and the learning sciences at the Concord Consortium. With experience working in science centers and schools, she builds innovative technology-enhanced... Read More →

Mike Petrich

Director, Informal Learning, Exploratorium

R. Benjamin Shapiro

University of Colorado Boulder|Boulder|CO |United States

Karen Wilkinson

Wednesday August 1, 2018 2:00pm - 3:00pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-151 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Workshop

2:30pm

Designing a Better World: Engaging Youth in STEM for Good

Mouse Design League is a diverse team of high school tinkerers and innovators from across New York City public schools who come together weekly over the course of a full school year to design, prototype and build a new technology product that addresses a social need using the Human Centered Design process.
This year, Design League students have been working closely with volunteers with disabilities from Adapt Community Network (formerly United Cerebral Palsy of New York) to prototype new assistive and adaptive technology solutions with the aim of improving the lives of their users.
We would like to present select student assistive technology inventions (ideally, though not necessarily with young people as the presenters) and showcase our Design League program, the student led design process and our digital badging platform along the way. We would also like this project to be considered for a Tech Demo!

Speakers

Maggie Muldoon

Design League Manager, Mouse

Wednesday August 1, 2018 2:30pm - 3:00pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-372 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Spotlight

2:30pm

Making In Schools: Envisioning and Sustaining Making In Learning

In 2016, the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh and Maker Ed joined together to create Making Spaces: Expanding Making in Schools Across the Nation, which aims to develop a national strategy to sustainably integrate making into schools across the country. The Making Spaces program employs an innovative model where a Regional Hub (such as a school district, library, museum, or community organization) works closely with 5-10 local schools to help jumpstart and sustain maker education in classrooms through crowdfunding, professional development, and community engagement. An accompanying toolkit of resources supports hubs and schools during their 2 years of planning and implementation. In this facilitated hands-on workshop, participants will leverage two of the tools to create concise, vibrant, and compelling visions for their maker-centered learning efforts, spaces, and culture.

Speakers

Lisa Brahms

Director of Learning and Research, Children's Museum of Pittsburgh

Lisa Brahms, Ph.D. is Director of Learning and Research at Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, as well as a visiting researcher with the University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out of School Environments (UPCLOSE). Lisa earned her PhD in Learning Sciences and Policy at the... Read More →

Stephanie Chang

Director of Impact, Maker Ed

Stephanie Chang is the Director of Programs at Maker Ed, where she is responsible for overseeing Maker Ed’s program and project offerings, including Maker Corps, Maker VISTA, Making Spaces, Young Makers, and the Open Portfolio Project. She also ensures cohesion between programs... Read More →

Lauren Penney

Program Manager, Making Spaces, Maker Ed

Wednesday August 1, 2018 2:30pm - 3:00pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-149 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA 02142

Spotlight

2:30pm

Using Tablet Apps and Hands-on Activities to Explore Preschoolers’ Computational Thinking

Public media producers from WGBH and Kentucky Educational Television, and researchers from the Education Development Center (EDC) have teamed up to explore young children’s computational thinking (CT) learning and preschool teachers’ CT understanding as they engage with playful prototype hands-on activities and digital tablet apps. The prototypes leverage a charming group of characters from the new media property Monkeying Around. This Spotlight will walk attendees through the exploratory research and development process: what was learned during prototyping and how these research findings informed the continual development of prototypes that promote the under-investigated area of preschoolers’ CT. Pictures, videos, and engagement with the prototypes themselves will allow for a lively presentation and discussion.

Speakers

Mollie Levin

Digital Production Coordinator, WGBH

Jillian Orr

WGBH

Wednesday August 1, 2018 2:30pm - 3:00pm
Whitaker College, E25-111 Classroom, Building E25 45 Carleton St Cambridge, MA 02142

Spotlight

2:30pm

The Logical Journey of Reimagining ZOOMBINIS: Adventure, Research, and Computational Thinking

This session shares the epic journey of the award-winning Zoombinis game. From genesis story, to game design mechanics, to an overview of the research involving students' learning of computational thinking, audience members will receive insight into how Zoombinis seeks to bridge formal and informal learning. Along with research and conversation, this session includes audience participation, perspectives from award-winning game designers and developers at TERC, MIT Education Arcade, FableVision Studios, and the research team from EdGE at TERC. The panel of experts will be moderated by FableVision Executive Producer Peter Stidwill, who formerly worked at Learning Games Network during the development and revitalization of the game. Ideal for game enthusiasts, researchers, and educators alike.

Speakers

Jodi Asbell-Clarke

Director, EdGE at TERC

I direct a team of game designers, researchers, and learning scientists who live and work on the edge of science and play.

David Libby

CTO, TERC

David is Chief Technology Officer at TERC, with responsibility for digital strategy, technology partnerships, digital product management and technology transfer, emerging technologies, and insights into the future of technology in K-12.

Scot Osterweil

Creative Director, MIT Education Arcade

Peter Stidwill

Executive Producer, FableVision Studios

Wednesday August 1, 2018 2:30pm - 3:00pm
Media Lab - Lecture Hall, 6th Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Well Played

3:00pm

PM Break

Wednesday August 1, 2018 3:00pm - 3:15pm
Media Lab - 6th Floor Foyer

Break

3:15pm

Choose your own adventure: Virtual Exchange and Connecting Youth Across Borders

In this hands-on, collaborative workshop, the Stevens Initiative and IREX will lead a discussion on the building blocks of virtual exchange. Our workshop will use interactive learning to explore the problem of increasing access to global communication and technology literacy for youth from under-resourced backgrounds. Virtual exchange – defined as online, international, collaborative learning - can extend access to opportunities for young people to develop essential skills for the global economy when factors such as time, money, and location were once prohibitive.Inclusion in the global economy is essential for stable societies, and increasingly the global job market requires workers to be culturally competent, which includes skills in cross-cultural collaboration, technology, and creativity and problem-solving.

Speakers

Mohammed Abdel-Kader

Executive Director, Aspen Institute Stevens Initiative

Ashley Grimes

Program Officer, IREX

Wednesday August 1, 2018 3:15pm - 3:45pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-372 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Spotlight

3:15pm

Empowering Girls: The Intersection of Design Thinking and STEAM Activities

Empowering girls in Japan is not an easy task. While other countries have implemented various efforts to promote girls' education, Japan has made little progress in improving the status of women. According to the World Economic Forum, Japan ranks 114th out of 144 countries in gender equality. In order to address this issue, we devised an educational intervention to empower the next generation of girls by employing design thinking to ignite their interests in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics (STEAM) fields. In this session, we explain the rationale for our intervention, describe the content of our curriculum, and share the preliminary results of our program.

Speakers

Rie Kijima

Marcos Sadao Maekawa

Wednesday August 1, 2018 3:15pm - 3:45pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-149 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA 02142

Spotlight

3:15pm

Research Paper Panel: The State of Maker Ed

Sites of Collision for Arts Education, the Maker Movement, and Neoliberal Agendas in Education
Alisa Reith

In recent years, the concept “making” has been claimed by “The Maker
Movement.” While making offers great potential (and resources) for art integration,
maker discourse is often intertwined with a neoliberal mission. For example,
movement leaders glorify Steve Jobs and hark on the myth that hobbies can be
transformed into wealth-generating endeavors. As art-making activities across the
U.S. intersect with the maker movement, prominent learning theories that contradict
this neoliberal philosophy may be repurposed or disremembered. This article
examines research from a multi-year empirical study. It provides a rich example of
how discourse around making fits into learning in arts education, showcasing
instances when neoliberal ideology collides with contradictory theories regarding how
and why people learn and make.

I Had The Slime Of My Life: No I Never Felt This Way Before
Anna Jordan-Douglass, Jessie Nixon

Since its release in 2010, Ito et. al’s Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out framework has been widely used to describe youth digital production from a variety of platforms from Facebook to YouTube. However, the recent influx of slime tutorials demands a new framework that incorporates maker practices, as through video production youth simultaneously make and document making. Our paper lays the groundwork towards a framework which accurately reflects the practices youth engage in while creating and producing slime videos; examines slime creators as a community of practice; and provides insight into the intersection between media production and maker practices.

Is Making all about Tinkering? A Case Study of High School Students’ Activities in Biomaker Workshops
Emma Anderson, Yasmin Kafai

Most research on making has focused on tinkering with tangible and digital materials and processes in STEM disciplines like computing and engineering. Few studies have explored making with living organisms. In biomaking, students design new materials and artifacts by genetically manipulating microorganisms such as yeast and bacteria that require particular conditions for growth and survival. In this study, we examined 34 high school students’ experiences and reflections on making biologos by growing color pigments and making biosensors by creating fluorescent reactions. Through observations of workshop interactions and interviews with focus groups, we found that biomaking primarily engages students with assembly, or step-by-step, processes rather than tinkering with materials. In the discussion we address the potential of assembly practices to promote rich learning experiences not just in biomaking, but also in other maker activities.

Speakers

Emma Anderson

Scheller Teacher Ed Program

Anna Jordan-Douglass

PhD Candidate, University of Wisconsin-Madison

yasmin kafai

Chair, Teaching Learning & Leadership Division, Universityt of Pennsylvania

Jessie Nixon

UW Madison

Alisa Reith

Wednesday August 1, 2018 3:15pm - 4:15pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-145 - Lecture Hall, Building E51 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Research Paper

3:15pm

Research Paper Panel: Virtual Learning Design and How Games Portray Empathy and Mental Illness

Learning and Identity in Virtual Learning Environments: Iterative Design and Implementation of Philadelphia Land Science
Mamta Shah, Aroutis Foster, Amanda Barany, Jessica Cellitti, Migela Duka, Zachari Swiecki, Amanda Siebert-Evenstone, Hannah Kinley, Peter Quigley, David Williamson Shaffer

In this study, we developed, implemented, and refined Philadelphia Land Science (PLS), a virtual learning environment (VLE) intended to support high school students' exploration of career roles in environmental science and urban planning as a future possible self. PLS was developed using Projective Reflection which frames learning as identity exploration over time to inform the design of games and game-based learning curricula to facilitate intentional change in learners' knowledge, interest and valuing, self-organization and self-control, and self-perceptions and self-definitions in academic domains/careers. PLS was built by modifying the Epistemic game Land Science. This paper explicates design iterations of PLS that were implemented in a science museum in Philadelphia. This work contributes to the burgeoning area of education research that seeks to unleash the potentials of VLEs to promote learning as an on-going process of identity exploration and change.

Open Questions for Empathy and Games
Karen Schrier, Matthew Farber

This paper provides a systematic overview of research related to empathy and games, including investigations on game elements that have been connected to empathy, such as communication, perspective-taking, and relationship-building. We identify initial questions and current gaps in the research related to using games for empathy, and make recommendations on next steps for this burgeoning field.

Representation of Mental Illness in Video Games
Kelli Dunlap

Portrayals of mental illness appear frequently in video games and have the potential to shape cultural attitudes towards psychopathology for better or for worse. Yet research on such portrayals is practically non-existent. The limited available research focuses almost exclusively on how specific characters fit into film and television mental illness tropes. Representations of mental illness in games are broader than this; for instance, they may include settings (e.g., insane asylums) and specific terminology (e.g., clinical diagnoses). Until now, there has been no framework to help identify and categorize the many game-based representations of psychopathology. This paper puts forth a new framework that does just that in an attempt to address the limitations of previous research and to offer guidance for future game researchers and developers on how to think critically about the representation of mental illness in games.

Speakers

Amanda Barany

Jessica Cellitti

Migela Duka

Kelli Dunlap

Matthew Farber

Assistant Professor, University of Northern Colorado

Matthew Farber, Ed.D. is an assistant professor of Technology, Innovation, and Pedagogy at the University of Northern Colorado. He has been invited to the White House, to keynote for UNESCO, and he has been interviewed about games and learning by NPR, Fox News Radio, USA Today, and... Read More →

Aroutis Foster

Hannah Kinley

Peter Quigley

Karen Schrier

Associate Professor/Director of Games, Marist College

#ethicsgames #gameswithapurpose #gamesforchange #empathyandcompassion #gamedesign #userexperience #playerexperience #edgames #historygames #teachingwithgames #learninggames | #knowledgegames | https://www.amazon.com/Knowledge-Games-Problems-Education-Technology/dp/1421419203/

David Williamson Shaffer

Mamta Shah

Postdoctoral Scholar, Drexel University

Mamta Shah is a postdoctoral scholar of Learning Technologies in the School of Education at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. She teaches and conducts research on the theoretical and practical applications of teaching, learning, and assessing with digital environments such as... Read More →

Amanda Siebert-Evenstone

Zachari Swiecki

Wednesday August 1, 2018 3:15pm - 4:15pm
Media Lab - Lecture Hall, 6th Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Research Paper

3:15pm

Authentic Esports, Enriched Curriculum

Esports, or professional competitive video games, are an already popular and rapidly growing medium with strong appeal to many students, especially young males. Presently, these games are under-utilized in academic contexts, disconnected from schooling or seen as a distraction to learning. In this project, we leverage student interest in esports by creating a new, authentic competitive high school esports league and to match this league development with rigorous academic content. By wedding student interest and participation in the robust esports community, our work will improve our understanding of competitive gaming, develop connections between game practices and school content (especially STEM), and improve esports communities through positive leadership and mentoring. In this symposium, we present our ongoing progress after six months of development, detailing key elements of the program including curriculum, coaching, league structure, and research.

Speakers

Alexander Cho

Postdoctoral Scholar, DML Hub

Design research, critical race theory, gender and sexuality studies, Tumblr, ethnography

Mark Deppe

Director, UCI Esports

Matthew Gaydos

Mizuko Ito

Director, Connected Learning Lab

Gerald Solomon

Executive Director, Samueli Foundation

Kurt Squire

University of California, Irvine

Constance Steinkuehler

Speaker, University of California-Irvine & HEVGA

Constance Steinkuehler is a Professor of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine where she investigates cognition and learning in multiplayer videogames in domains including literacy, scientific reasoning, mathematical reasoning, computational literacy, collective problem... Read More →

Tom Turner

Executive Director, Orange County Department of Education

I currently serve as the Executive Director of Educational Services with the Orange County Department of Education. In this role, I regularly interact with site administrators and district leadership in implementing professional learning and program development throughout Orange... Read More →

Wednesday August 1, 2018 3:15pm - 4:15pm
Media Lab - Multi-purpose Room, 6th Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Symposia

3:15pm

Beyond The Screen: Engaging Learners And Transforming Communities Through Augmented Reality Technologies

In "Beyond the Screen," we contribute AR design cases from diverse contexts as examples of implementations that connect learners beyond the screen through location- or place-based activities. The symposium is comprised of an interdisciplinary group of educators, researchers, and developers who are experimenting with the ways that AR technologies shift classrooms and communal knowledge through playful learning. The projects in this symposium range from teacher-created to learner-created experiences and from large scale (e.g. a major history museum project) to smaller scale class projects (e.g. augmenting a campus with cultural theory). By presenting a range of implementations, we hope that our interactive symposium structure will engage participants in a rich discussion around how to leverage AR to design location-based learning experiences that move beyond traditional barriers of walls and screens into local spaces such as nature preserves, museums, campuses, and neighborhoods.

Speakers

David Gagnon

Field Day Lab Director, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Laini Kavaloski

Lisa Larson

Learning Experience Designer, Lila Learning Designs

Breanne Litts

Assistant Professor, Utah State University

Susan Agger, M.Ed.

Cambridge Public School District

Susan Agger coordinates the Maynard Ecology Center for Cambridge Public Schools (Mass) and has taught elementary and middle grade science for fourteen years. She focuses her teaching work on access and engagement for all students using local outdoor resources. | She is interested... Read More →

Chase Mortensen

Research Assistant, Utah State University

Deborah Silvis

Teaching Assistant, University of Washington

Wednesday August 1, 2018 3:15pm - 4:15pm
MIT List Visual Arts Center, E15-070 Bartos Theater, Lower Level, Weisner Building E15 Wiesner Bldg, 20 Ames St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Symposia

3:15pm

Making, Playing, and Coding with Sound and Music

You can get started with coding by playing with sound! This workshop lets you experience an engaging introduction to coding. We’ll start with a group warm-up activity that sparks initial ideas, then dive into tinkering with interactive sound and music. In the process you'll learn about the new sound features you can use in the latest version of the Scratch creative coding environment. The new version of Scratch has new features for playing and creating with sound—including a simple sound recording tool, an expanded library of sounds, and new coding blocks for sound effects. These features make it easier than ever to make interactive sound projects and expand the possibilities for creative expression.

Speakers

Eric Rosenbaum

Wednesday August 1, 2018 3:15pm - 4:15pm
Media Lab - E14-240, 2nd Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Workshop

3:15pm

Scaling Connected Learning: Community-Based Solutions for Open Education Design

Open educational resources (OER) have not yet delivered on their potential to democratize and transform learning. Indeed, a central challenge with OER is access: often, widely available resources are not easily adaptable and community-developed resources are not widely accessible. We believe that this disconnect is a fundamental threat to developing high-quality connected learning programs. To address this challenge, we think it is critical to harness the power of community-based design to remix national open curricula to meet the needs of local learning communities.

In this highly interactive 60-minute workshop, the presenters will engage participants in human-centered design activities to imagine how diverse stakeholders might collaborate to address this challenge to open education design in their local contexts. Following the session, participants will be invited to collaborate and continue the conversation through an online community dedicated to this work.

Speakers

Aria Chernik

Director, OSPRI (Open Source Pedagogy, Research + Innovation), Duke University

Aria Chernik, JD, PhD, is a Lecturing Fellow in the Social Science Research Institute at Duke University and Director of OSPRI (Open Source Pedagogy, Research + Innovation), a Duke-Red Hat partnership project that integrates open source principles and methodologies into teaching and... Read More →

Patricia Monticello Kievlan

The Sprout Fund

Patricia Monticello Kievlan, EdM, is Houston-based instructional designer, project manager, and writer who loves helping people find collaborative solutions to complex problems. Tricia has worked for the last several years fostering collaboration and developing communities of practice... Read More →

Connected Learning Summit Round Robin pdf

Connected Learning Summit Concept Poster pdf

Connected Learning Summit 2018 Chernik & Kievlan pdf

Wednesday August 1, 2018 3:15pm - 4:15pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-151 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Workshop

3:45pm

Board Game for Peace: Integrated Game-Based Learning and Activation Program to Counter Violent Extremism

Board Game for Peace is an integrated game-based learning and activation program targeted youth to strengthen the inclusivity of Indonesian society by promoting tolerant, open, and peaceful religious values through interactive media (board game). The program which currently run in 5 cities in Indonesia: Bandung, Solo, Surabaya, Padang, and Makassar is also designed to enhance public awareness and motivate active participation in order to Counter Violent Extremism (CVE) throughout Indonesia. The whole program is also supported by simple gamification process utilizing the social media platform. The pre and post analyst has shown a significant increment in term of awareness regarding peace values and counter violent extremism movement. Until December 2017 the Board Game for Peace program has reached more than 1700 youth in 5 cities in Indonesia and we expect to reach more than 3000 in March 2018

Speakers

Eko Nugroho

CEO/Co-Founder, Kummara

Eko is Kummara’s founder and CEO who believes that game is a powerful media that bring positive impact for the society. He also the lead game designer in Kummara and take a role as mentor for all game designer team. Eko also known by his capability of implementing game design approach... Read More →

Wednesday August 1, 2018 3:45pm - 4:15pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-372 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Spotlight

3:45pm

SciGirls CODE: Connected Learning for Middle School Girls in Out-of-School Time

Funded by the National Science Foundation, SciGirls CODE is a pilot program that seeks to address this situation using the principles of connected learning, a learner-focused, equity driven approach that harnesses the advances and innovations of our connected age to serve learning, with 16 STEM outreach partners nationally to provide 160 girls and their 32 leaders with computational thinking and coding skills. Project implementation, between September 2017–May 2018, includes a 9-month curriculum with 3 strands (Mobile Apps, Robotics, E-Textiles); role model training for female technology professionals; professional development for science, technology engineering and math (STEM) educators; and a research component that investigates the ways computational learning experiences impact the development of computational thinking as well as interest and attitudes toward CS. SciGirls Code will serve as a model for supporting girls’ pursuit of CS in out-of-school time, and is collaboration between Twin Cities PBS (TPT), the National Girls Collaborative, and the University of Minnesota.

Speakers

Joan Freese

RTL Project Executive Producer, Twin Cities Public Television

Cassie Scharber

Associate Professor of Learning Technologies, University of MN

Wednesday August 1, 2018 3:45pm - 4:15pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-149 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA 02142

Spotlight

3:45pm

That’s Horse S#!T: Connected Learning Through Compost, Weather Balloons & Other Projects

This spotlight session will feature an overview of one public school district’s work to increased opportunities for students to participate in connected learning experiences. The presentation will showcase four projects that connect students, technology, and community members to make learning engaging and relevant. Examples include:
- a revenue-generating equine composting system,
- a student-designed high altitude balloon launch with video recording
- a Grade 3 PSA that raised awareness & took action to reduce marker landfill waste
- the Nipmuc 21C bi-annual event where students, teachers & community members collaborate to host interest-driven learning seminars.

Presenters will outline how connected learning shapes these and future projects. In closing, the session will highlight the Inspired Learning Project, an open web platform that connects educators via monthly Zoom sessions and a blog to share practices that have led to inspiring learning moments for students.

Speakers

Atakan Kadi

David Quinn

Director of Tech and Integration, Nipmuc Regional High School

Dave Quinn is the Director of Technology Integration for the Mendon-Upton Regional School District in Massachusetts, and works directly with teachers and students in grades K-12 to reimagine learning experiences through the meaningful use of technology. He is also a candidate in the... Read More →

Wednesday August 1, 2018 3:45pm - 4:15pm
Whitaker College, E25-111 Classroom, Building E25 45 Carleton St Cambridge, MA 02142

Spotlight

4:15pm

PM Break

Wednesday August 1, 2018 4:15pm - 4:30pm
Media Lab - 6th Floor Foyer

Break

4:30pm

Ignite Talks

Ignite talks are radically different from traditional conference talks. You will be dazzled by humor, wit, energy and inspiration packed into one powerful five-minute talk.

Ignite Talks will be hosted by Sam Dyson.

GGJNext: A Global Game Jam for Children
Matthew Farber

BLOCKCHAIN U.
David Preston

Sparking A Revolution in Teacher Education: The Birth of the CLinTE (Connected Learning in Teacher Education) Network
Kira Baker-Doyle

Rising Tide: Six Design Studios and What Makes Them Good
Barbara Chamberlin

Queering Up Games Through an Inclusive Game Design Workshop
Jeremy Dietmeier

Data Science Education: A Gateway to Connected Learning
Chad Dorsey

The Hero of Your Own Story: A Crash Course In Live Action Roleplaying Games for Educators
Caitlin Feeley

The Future of Immersive Storytelling: The Birth of a New Medium
Maya Georgieva

The Rise of Monitorial Citizenship
Erhardt Graeff

Affinitive PIES in Overwatch: Collaborative Knowledge Building in Beyond-game Culture
Yu Jung Han

Connected Learning Environments
Mirek Hancl

Make,Design,Compose: A Cautionary Tale
Kim Jaxon

Hacking Our Perception: MERGE-ing The Physical And Digital
Jeremy Kenisky

Speakers

Kira Baker-Doyle

Associate Professor, Arcadia University School of Education

Barbara Chamberlin

Professor, New Mexico State University

Jeremy Dietmeier

University of Iowa

Chad Dorsey

President and CEO, The Concord Consortium

Chad Dorsey is President and CEO of the Concord Consortium, which has been an innovation leader in researching and developing STEM educational technology for the past twenty years. Chad's experience ranges across the fields of science, education, and technology. In addition to overseeing... Read More →

Matthew Farber

Assistant Professor, University of Northern Colorado

Caitlin Feeley

Learning Game Designer, MIT Education Arcade

Maya Georgieva

Director, Digital Learning, The New School

Co-Founder of Digital Bodies https://www.digitalbodies.net

Erhardt Graeff

Assistant Professor, Olin College of Engineering

Yu Jung Han

Ph.D. Student, University of Rochester

Mirek Hancl

Osnabrück University

Kim Jaxon

Associate Professor, English, CSU, Chico

I'm an associate professor of English (Composition & Literacy) at California State University, Chico. I received my Ph.D. at UC, Berkeley in the Language & Literacy, Society & Culture program in the Graduate School of Education. My research interests focus on theories of literacy... Read More →

Jeremy Kenisky

David Preston

Teacher, Santa Maria Joint Union High School District

After careers in management consulting & higher education, I began teaching H.S. courses in 2004. Over time I developed strategies & practices that have become known as Open Source Learning. I look forward to meeting CLS educators, researchers, developers, & entrepreneurs who want... Read More →

Wednesday August 1, 2018 4:30pm - 5:30pm
Media Lab - Multi-purpose Room, 6th Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Feature

5:30pm

2018 Tech Demos + Opening Reception

Welcome to the 2018 Tech Showcase and Opening Reception. The Tech showcase is festive science fair like event that takes place during our opening reception. We have a terrific line-up of demos, make sure to check them out! (P.S. We are preparing a flyer that will include descriptions for the demos. We will attach it below as a pdf.)

A Collaborative Classroom Videogame for Learning Quantum Mechanics
Aditya Anupam, Azad Naeemi, Nassim Jafarinaimi

Unplatform and Open Embedded Assessments for Rural India
Kirky DeLong

Hurl the Harasser: Making Games at the Pace of News
Lindsay Grace

Getting Started with Teaching E-Textiles
Caroline Hardin

SynthSync – Decoding Music Together
Anna Jordan-Douglass, Vishesh Kumar, Peter Woods

BBC Academy Studio Directing Experience
Charles Miller

Watch your Tendons Stretch as you Kick – a Foot-Controlled MR Experience
Jeanine Reutemann

Non-Profit Innovators Must Make Things
Meredith Summs

MiTi Robot: A Chat Bot For Teacher PD In India
Louisa Rosenheck, Brandon Hanks

Measuring Implicit Learning through Analysis of Eye Movements
Jodi Asbell-Clarke, Ibrahim Dahlstrom-Hakki, Elizabeth Rowe, Eric Anderson

Participatory Design of a Collaborative Emotion Recognition Game with and for Autistic Individuals: Connecting through Kinect
Deborah Sturm, Michael Kholodovsky, David Shane Smith, Pavel Asanov, Louis Pisicolo, Rayan Arab, Joseph Hayes, Kristen Gillespie-Lynch

City Data Dashboards: Paper Circuit Pop-Ups to Engage Youth in Creative Exploration with Open Civic Data
Elisabeth Sylvan, David Cole

Improving spatial reasoning through a mobile game
Nicolaas VanMeerten

Reflections on Workforce and Career Exposure through Youth-led Immersive Storytelling
Aparna Wilder, Ali Momeni

Ramp It Up: Gamified Financial Readiness
Nick Maynard

Illustrating Group Theory: A Coloring Workshop
Alexandra Berke

Tiles for Tales Project
Margaret Low, James Alexander Johnston

Playing the Procedural Sonnet
Corey Sparks

What can liberal arts students learn to program in one semester?
Angela Chang

Virtual Mentors in the (S)Partners Website
Leticia Cherchiglia, Rabindra Ratan

Gem Spinner: Teaching Probability With An Idle Game
Ira Fay

Lost & Found: A Game Series for Religious-Legal Literacy
Owen Gottlieb, Ian Schreiber

Chibitronics Love to Code: Paper Craft Meets Programming
Jie Qi, K-Fai Steele, Natalie Freed, Andrew "bunnie" Huang

Learning Analytics In A Teacher Dashboard To Facilitate Inquiry-Based Instruction
Joseph Reilly, Vishesh Kumar, Shari Metcalf, Matthew Berland

Learning Through Movement And Play: Creative Gamification In Energetic Alpha, an iPad App for Preschoolers
Gretchen Rinnert

Trash Traders: Synchronized Sustainability for Students
Jacob Rosenbloom, Mai Ao, Longyi Cheng, Kacey Eichen, Zhenhao Xiong, John Dessler

Circulating Voices: A System for Hybrid Listening
Benjamin Stokes

DIALOGOS - Fishbowl Conversation Online
Teemu Leinonen

linkreducation.com: a Global Educational Network that links students, teachers and institutions
Gabriel Flacks

"TimeWalk.org: Building History in 3D”
Ted Barnett

Realism: gamified 3D science labs
Steven Wang

Speakers

Aditya Anupam

Georgia Institute of Technology

Mai Ao

Rayan Arab

Pavel Asanov

Jodi Asbell-Clarke

Director, EdGE at TERC

I direct a team of game designers, researchers, and learning scientists who live and work on the edge of science and play.

Alexandra Berke

Matthew Berland

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Angela Chang

Independent researcher, Affiliated with Emerson College, MIT

computational creativity, digital poetry, electronic textiles, rapid prototyping, teachable moments, small group communication

Longyi Cheng

Leticia Cherchiglia

PhD Student, Michigan State University

David Cole

Program Director, NEXMAP

Ibrahim Dahlstrom-Hakki

Director, LCIRT, Landmark College

Kirky DeLong

Assistant Director, Special Projects, MIT Open Learning, J-WEL Research & Projects

John Dessler

Kacey Eichen

Ira Fay

Associate Prof. of Computer Science & Game Design, Hampshire College / Fay Games

Kristen Gillespie-Lynch

CUNY

Owen Gottlieb

Faculty, RIT MAGIC Center

Owen Gottlieb, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Interactive Games and Media at RIT. He is the the founder and lead researcher at the Initiative in Religion, Culture, and Policy at the RIT Center for Media, Arts, Games, Interaction, and Creativity (MAGIC) magic.rit.edu/rcp Jewish... Read More →

Lindsay Grace

Professor, American University Game Lab

Brandon hanks

Scheller Teacher Education Program

Caroline Hardin

Joseph Hayes

Andrew "bunnie" Huang

James Johnston

Software Engineer, AHDB

Anna Jordan-Douglass

PhD Candidate, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Michael Kholodovsky

Vishesh Kumar

UW Madison

Teemu Leinonen

Associate Professor, Aalto University

http://teemuleinonen.fi

Margaret Low

Professor, University of Warwick

Nick Maynard

Commonwealth

Shari Metcalf

Senior Researcher and Project Director, Harvard Graduate School of Education

I'm a Senior Researcher at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Project Director for past and current EcoLearn projects - EcoMUVE, EcoMOBILE, EcoXPT, and EcoMOD. My research centers on the design and evaluation of computer–based tools for learning through scaffolded, immersive... Read More →

Charles Miller

Producer, BBC

BBC producer, here to demo the VR project he made for the BBC Academy. The Studio Directing Experience gives trainee directors a chance to practice timing and the correct use of language when following a script in the director's seat in a studio. | Also here to report on the Summit... Read More →

Ali Momeni

Co-founder, IRL Labs

Azad Naeemi

Louis Pisicolo

Jie Qi

Rabindra Ratan

Assistant Professor, Michigan State University

Joseph Reilly

Jeanine Reutemann

Researcher, Leiden University, New Media Lab, Centre for Innovation

Gretchen Rinnert

Associate Professor, Kent State University

Rinnert is an associate professor in the School of Visual Communication Design at Kent State University. She teaches interaction design, motion design, as well as visual ethics, and design theory. She is a graduate of North Carolina State University’s College of Design. As a researcher... Read More →

Jacob Rosenbloom

Louisa Rosenheck

Ed Tech Designer and Researcher, MIT Scheller Teacher Education Program

Lisa Ruan

Ian Schreiber

Assistant Professor, Rochester Institute of Technology

David Smith

CUNY

Corey Sparks

Assistant Professor, California State University, Chico

K-Fai Steele

Chibitronics

Benjamin Stokes

Assistant Prof., American University

Benjamin Stokes is a civic media scholar and designer at American University in the School of Communication and Game Lab. His designs for cities have introduced neighbors, retold local history, and rebuilt payphones. Previously, Benjamin co-founded Games for Change, the movement hub... Read More →

Deborah Sturm

Meredith Summs

Director of Youth Engagement, Mouse

Elisabeth Sylvan

Mike Tissenbaum

Research Scientist, MIT

Nicolaas VanMeerten

Director of Research, GLITCH

Anything! :)

Steven Wang

Aparna Wilder

Co-founder, IRL Labs

Peter Woods

Zhenhao Xiong

Wednesday August 1, 2018 5:30pm - 6:30pm
Media Lab - 6th Floor Foyer

Feature

8:30am

AM Coffee + Pastries

Come enjoy some coffee/tea and pastries before the featured event!

Thursday August 2, 2018 8:30am - 9:30am
Media Lab - 6th Floor Foyer

Break

8:30am

Early Career Scholars' Network Mixer

This is a public networking event. Meet with your colleagues, who are post terminal degree, pre-tenure and in or pursuing research and design positions. Organized by Owen Gottlieb (RIT)

Speakers

Owen Gottlieb

Faculty, RIT MAGIC Center

Thursday August 2, 2018 8:30am - 9:30am
Media Lab - E14-240, 2nd Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Networking, Networking

8:30am

North America Scholastic Esports Federation Networking Meeting

Informational meeting to onboard interested teachers and partners.

Speakers

Constance Steinkuehler

Speaker, University of California-Irvine & HEVGA

Tom Turner

Executive Director, Orange County Department of Education

Thursday August 2, 2018 8:30am - 9:30am
Media Lab - Lecture Hall, 6th Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Networking

8:30am

Quiet Work Room + Charging Station

Thursday August 2, 2018 8:30am - 5:00pm
Media Lab - E14-359, 3rd Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Working Space

8:30am

Quiet Work Room + Charging Station

Thursday August 2, 2018 8:30am - 5:00pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-061 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA

Working Space

9:30am

Plenary: Michelle King

Michelle King
Learning Instigator. Love Activist. Transformer.

Michelle King is a learner first and foremost and as well as an instigator of learning. Professionally, she is a middle school teacher aka a professional hostage. She learned and honed her craft in Mt. Lebanon with a fantastic crew of educators and students for over 16 years. In her quest to instigate courageous conversations about learning and children, she has ventured to The Environmental Charter School and their principles (Catalyst. Character. Collaboration. Commitment.) She co-taught Cultural Literacy, an integrated social sciences and English/Language Arts course. She constantly seeking to create dynamic learning experiences and opportunities that inspire wonder, discovery, contradictions, frustrations, and joy. In making connections locally and globally, Michelle pushes the envelope and boundaries of where learning should occur for all students. Her current interests are in game based learning, design, restorative justice, equity, social justice, and teacher empowerment. Through her partnerships with the Western Pennsylvania Writing Project, Green Building Alliance, SocialVR, Carnegie Science Center, Hear Me, the Remake Learning ecosystem, ThinkZone Games and other provocateurs; Michelle is helping to create equitable, empathetic, learning experiences for all Pittburghers.

Current Conundrums: How might we create empathetic institutions that remind us of our humanity? How might we re-design for equity and social justice in and out of school learning? How might we design learning institutions to build connections? How might we allow those connections help us re-see the worlds we inhabit? How might we embrace silence in our lives?

Thursday August 2, 2018 9:30am - 10:30am
Media Lab - Multi-purpose Room, 6th Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Feature

10:30am

AM Coffee/Tea

Thursday August 2, 2018 10:30am - 11:00am
Media Lab - 6th Floor Foyer

Break

11:00am

How Principles of Play Can Transform Your Research Practice

Play is a powerful means for youth to engage in problem solving, sense-making and learning. But can researchers and practitioners also apply principles of playfulness to the process of evaluation and assessment? This Spotlight features five game-like ways that Convergence Design Lab/Columbia College (Chicago) and Spy Hop (Salt Lake City), a digital media education organization, are conducting participatory action research for assessment, evaluation and audience impact storytelling. Civic Imagination Bingo, Re-capture the Flag, Mentor Identity Hats, Data Therapy and Map Your Journey are fun, dynamic and tested strategies that empower youth media organizations to conduct rigorous evaluation and capture and share their impact story with multiple communities. Presenters will invite participants to join in the play and participate in all the activities.

Speakers

Margaret Conway

Convergence Design Lab

Mindy Faber

Director, Convergence Design Lab

Mindy Faber is the Program Director of Convergence Design Lab, an applied research center and design studio at Columbia College Chicago’s School of Media Arts that partners with organizations to prepare youth to become future-ready, media fluent and active participants in public... Read More →

Matt Mateus

Program Director, Spy Hop

Adam Sherlock

Community Partnership Director, Spy Hop Productions

Thursday August 2, 2018 11:00am - 11:30am
Sloan/Morris and Sophie Chang Building, E52-164 Classroom, Building E52 50 Memorial Dr, Cambridge, MA 02142

Spotlight

11:00am

iCivics and Filament Games: A Game-Based-Learning Partnership committed to Innovative Instruction for All Learners

In this session, Dr. Kelly Whitney, Ed.D., iCivics’ Chief Product & Partnerships Officer, and Dan White, Filament Games CEO, will discuss how their focus on purpose, process, practicality, and playability have contributed to the rapid adoption of iCivics’ civic learning games in classrooms, community centers and homes across the country.

Speakers

Dan White

CEO, Filament Games

Kelly Whitney

Chief Product & Partnerships Officer, iCivics

Thursday August 2, 2018 11:00am - 11:30am
MIT Tang Center, E51-149 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA 02142

Spotlight

11:00am

“Help Us Get Rid Of Surveys”: Emerging Findings From Capturing Connected Learning In Libraries

The Capturing Connected Learning in Libraries project addresses the urgent national need for evaluation approaches that reflect new emphases on digital, networked, and production-centered content, spaces, and programming. Libraries need evaluation resources that help develop their connected learning programming and document critical outcomes for youth participants. We have developed and tested instruments that can be used for improving services and demonstrating their value.

In this session, we will share findings from two library evaluations, and discuss how “talk-back boards” have been embraced and adapted to assess connected learning principles and outcomes, and data collected vis-à-vis these tools. For example, preliminary data from one library indicates many of their patrons are brokered into the makerspace by others, and that they come to “hang out” and “mess around.” We will also discuss how this library developed staff capacity for supporting production-centered principles.

Speakers

Josephina Chang-Order

Bill Penuel

Professor, University of Colorado Boulder

Tim Podkul

Senior Research Scientist, SRI International

Thursday August 2, 2018 11:00am - 11:30am
Media Lab - E14-240, 2nd Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Spotlight

11:00am

Hearthstone: Managing Randomness and Collectible Card Game Playing as Collective Cognitive Achievement

This paper examines Hearthstone in depth, asking, “What is the nature of Hearthstone expertise, and if it is a game system recruiting expertise, what kind of an expertise is it?” Consistent with the Well Played series more generally it seeks to unpack and communicate the experience of playing and learning Hearthstone, with a particular emphasis on the interplay among mastery of the game as a system, understanding how expertise forms, and the dynamic interplay among strategies. In addition to suggesting how such cognitive activity operates in Hearthstone, it seeks to document the ever-evolving ecology of cognitive resources that support play.

Speakers

Nicholas Persa

PhD, University of California Ivine

Kurt Squire

University of California, Irvine

Mike Tissenbaum

Research Scientist, MIT

Thursday August 2, 2018 11:00am - 11:30am
Media Lab - Lecture Hall, 6th Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Well Played

11:00am

Research Paper Panel: Student Voice, Student Networks and Mentoring Diversity

Reviews Matter: How Distributed Mentoring Predicts Lexical Diversity on Fanfiction.net
John Frens, Ruby Davis, Cecilia Aragon

Online fanfiction repositories attract millions of writers and readers worldwide. The largest repository, Fanfiction.net, accumulated a rich corpus of about 61.5 billion words of fiction over sixteen years, rivaling the Google Books fiction corpus. An important informal learning environment for young writers, the site affords networked giving and receiving of feedback, termed distributed mentoring. To quantify the effect of distributed mentoring on writing, we longitudinally tracked lexical diversity among authors’ fanfiction texts. The Measure of Textual Lexical Diversity (MTLD) captures the author's range of vocabulary usage; previous research has shown MTLD correlates with language ability, writing ability, and human judgments of textual quality. We examined MTLD changes among texts by 1.5 million amateur writers, finding increased scores as they accumulated reviews, even when controlling for fandom and maturation. Our results support the theory of distributed mentoring and legit.

Writing Game Journalism in School: Student Voices on Games and Game Culture
Thorkild Hanghøj, Jonas Nørgaard

In this paper, we explore how students engage in journalistic writing activities relating to video games and game culture. The paper is based on a pilot study with student texts and interviews relating to the development of the online learning resource spiljournalist.dk, which allow Danish secondary students to publish journalistic articles through game reviews, columns and feature stories. The analytical findings indicate that students position themselves as writers through three different voices. The “gamer” students primarily based their articles on their own knowledge and experience as gamers. By contrast, the non-gamer students tended to write more critically about games and game culture from an outsider’s perspective. Finally, a third group of students primarily positioned themselves as journalists.

Networked Inquiry and Performative Knowledge
Magdalena Day

The purpose of this paper is to offer a framework for the analysis of knowledge production in networks of students. The theoretical approach includes sociological developments related to networks (Castells, 2005), combined with philosophy with children and youth's pedagogy (López, 2009); which we apply to educational research. To begin with, we consider inquiry as the starting point of the learning process. This process occurs in a context denominated the “community of inquiry” (Lipman, 2009), that implies technology-enabled relations through connectedness. Therefore, this community is viewed as a network. In this regard, the question is not how a certain device, platform, software or app could change the interaction between students and already defined educational materials, but rather, how students can find problems to be answered creating a different type of knowledge.

Speakers

Cecilia Aragon

University of Washington

University of Washington - Human Centered Design & Engineering

Ruby Davis

Magdalena Day

National University of Cuyo

John Frens

Teaching Assistant, University of Washington

Thorkild Hanghøj

Associate Professor, Aalborg University

Jonas Nørgaard

Thursday August 2, 2018 11:00am - 12:00pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-145 - Lecture Hall, Building E51 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Research Paper

11:00am

Being a Connected Parent: Learning and Living with Digital Media

In this symposium, we bring together researchers to share cutting edge research about parental practices, perceptions, and roles as they integrate technology and learning into their family practices. The three presentations in this symposium utilize nationally representative surveys of parents to explore issues of parental roles, perceptions, and obstacles as they work to support their children’s connected learning with technology. Two studies examine national surveys of US parents, and one study utilizes a national survey of UK parents. Taken together, these studies contribute substantially to the field by drawing more representative portraits of parents, digital media, and learning across two countries. The symposium format will be structured with three research presentations, representing research teams across seven institutions, and will be synthesized by our expert discussant, Dr. Brigid Barron. We will facilitate a panel and audience Q&A to conclude.

Speakers

June Ahn

Associate Professor, University of California, Irvine

Vikki Katz

Associate Professor, Rutgers School of Communication & Information

Sonia Livingstone

Professor, Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political

Lori Takeuchi

Acting Executive Director, Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop

Sarah Vaala

Thursday August 2, 2018 11:00am - 12:00pm
Media Lab - Multi-purpose Room, 6th Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Symposia

11:00am

Constructionism in Context: Connected Learning Across Technologies and Spaces

Constructionist designers has used new technologies to engage leaners in rich opportunities to build personally meaningful artifacts for decades. In this symposium we bring together expert designers and scholars that have successful developed constructionist innovations using emerging technologies in a range of domains including gaming, making, and coding and in a variety of contexts including schools, the home, and in virtual world. In a panel discussion format participant will identify key constructionist principles effective at enabling connected learning approaches.

Speakers

Matthew Berland

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Deborah Fields

Associate Research Professor, Utah State University

Nathan Holbert

Assistant Professor, Teachers College, Columbia University

yasmin kafai

Chair, Teaching Learning & Leadership Division, Universityt of Pennsylvania

Amon Millner

Assistant Professor of Computing and Innovation, Olin College of Engineering

Ricarose Roque

Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Boulder

Thursday August 2, 2018 11:00am - 12:00pm
MIT List Visual Arts Center, E15-070 Bartos Theater, Lower Level, Weisner Building E15 Wiesner Bldg, 20 Ames St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Symposia

11:00am

Embedded Assessment for Maker-Centered Classrooms

For maker education to take root in sustainable and meaningful ways within school classrooms, assessments of maker activities need to clarify what cognitive and non-cognitive skills are being learned and practiced, connect to existing competency frameworks, capitalize on current assessments, and be accessible for teachers to adopt and in particular, adapt. Clear evidence of learning and skill development strengthens the impact of maker education while also reinforcing and supporting open-ended, process-oriented, student-centered learning. MIT Teaching Systems Lab and Maker Ed have been collaborating on a NSF project to develop embedded assessment for maker-centered learning environments, while simultaneously providing support, training, and resources to teachers and instructional coaches. This workshop engages participants in hands-on experiences to play, test, and iterate on these assessment tools and adapt them for their own classrooms.

Speakers

Stephanie Chang

Director of Impact, Maker Ed

Yoon Jeon Kim

Research scienctist, MIT Teaching Systems Lab

Dr. YJ Kim is a research scientist at MIT Teaching Systems Lab. Her work has centered on the topic of innovative assessment and how technological advancement influences what we are measuring about student learning and how we are measuring it. Before joining MIT, she was involved in... Read More →

Peter Kirschmann

Learning Designer, MIT - Teaching Systems Lab

Yumiko Murai

Postdoctoral Associate, MIT

Thursday August 2, 2018 11:00am - 12:00pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-151 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Workshop

11:00am

Exploring Openness in Learning Environments with HIPC

The Hive Interoperability & Portability Coalition (HIPC) has established a Community of Practice (CoP) to advance Openness and related concepts (such as Transparency, Agency, and Portability) in the design of learning environments and technology solutions. This workshop will emulate the CoP with hands-on games, conversations, and collaborative discovery. We’ll explore Openness in the contexts of learning design, game play and the design of technology.

HIPC is a partnership between the Adler Planetarium, Forall Systems, and Ci3’s GameChanger Chicago together with Mumkin Studio and other members of the Hive Chicago Learning Network. Over the course of the past funding cycle, the HIPC partners organized six workshops for learning program providers in Chicago that explored openness as an approach to creating learning opportunities for teens. The workshops emphasized fun, game-based activities that straddle digital and analog frameworks for shared understanding and co-design.

Speakers

Karen Jeffrey

President, Forall Systems

Ashlyn Sparrow

Learning Technology, Game Changer Chicago Design Lab @ The University of Chicago

Eve Tulbert

CEO / Co-Founder, Mumkin Studio

Thursday August 2, 2018 11:00am - 12:00pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-372 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Workshop

11:00am

The Secret Process for Creating Games that Matter

Jesse Schell, author of The Art of Game Design, and Barbara Chamberlin, head of the Learning Games Lab at New Mexico State University, are collaborating on a project to find best practices for creating educational and transformational games. In this workshop they describe what they have discovered about translating how players need to change into games they love to play. They will lead an interactive workshop with developers on how to work through this design process.

Speakers

Barbara Chamberlin

Professor, New Mexico State University

Jesse Schell

CEO, Schell Games

Jesse is the CEO of Schell Games, the largest game design and development company in Pennsylvania. He also serves as Distinguished Professor of the Practice of Entertainment Technology at Carnegie Mellon University. Jesse has worked on a wide variety of innovative game and simulation... Read More →

Thursday August 2, 2018 11:00am - 12:00pm
Media Lab - Silverman Skyline, 6th Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Workshop

11:30am

Educative Maker Activity Materials for Small Town Librarians to Support Connected Learning

Education settings are increasingly aware of the importance of integrating "Making" and "Connected Learning" activities. Yet images of how these terms would translate for practice in small and rural library settings has been lacking. In response, we have been working for the past two years with public and school libraries to co-develop Maker-oriented programs for small town and rural youth. This spotlight shares findings obtained from observations and interviews across 4 middle school libraries and two public community libraries in a largely rural region and presents a set of educative program materials we have developed and iteratively refined in those library settings. This involves the creation of visual guide materials that could convey what kinds of creative Maker activities were possible, what were essential steps for getting started, and how such an activity could be organized and structured for different library settings.

Speakers

Abigail Phillips

Postdoctoral Fellow, Utah State University

Thursday August 2, 2018 11:30am - 12:00pm
Media Lab - E14-240, 2nd Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Spotlight

11:30am

Factitious: Iterative Design, Fake News and Games and Polling Systems

Factitious is game designed as both a polling system and playful education tool. Simply described as tinder for news, players must swipe a news article left or right if they think the article is real news or fake news. In the original 2016 version of the game, only 162 players engaged in the game. In it’s redesign for 2017, more than 1.6 millions players were recorded in the first 3 days it was released.

While most players simply engage in the front end play experience, this open source platform works to do basic A/B testing and polling. The back end of factitious records each session’s answers, time for engagement, and other attributes that prove useful for assessing how people understood the content (time to answer, demographics, etc).

This spotlight illuminates the design process, design goals, and heuristics for launching the relatively successful, low budget project as part of the Knight funded Jolt initiative.

Speakers

Lindsay Grace

Professor, American University Game Lab

Robert Hone

Thursday August 2, 2018 11:30am - 12:00pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-149 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA 02142

Spotlight

11:30am

When Inquiry Meets Making: Demystifying Inquiry-Based Making using Guided Inquiry Design

Inquiry and maker learning are two powerful approaches to connected learning. The goal of this Spotlight is to discuss how inquiry and making can reinforce each other in K-12 standards-based curriculum. We will introduce our 3-year design-based research, Learning in Libraries: Guided Inquiry Making and Learning in School Libraries, funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. This project is a collaborative effort between K-12 school administrators, school librarians, classroom teachers, and university researchers from library and information science and learning sciences in Norman Public Schools and the University of Oklahoma. The project aims to develop a replicable model of inquiry-based making in K-12 standard-based curriculums and assess the learning outcomes. Our hypothesis is guided inquiry instructions coupled with maker learning may have the capacity to dramatically increase student interest, learning, self-regulation, and engagement.

Speakers

Xun Ge

University of Oklahoma, USA

Kyungwon Koh

Assistant Professor, The University of Oklahoma

Thursday August 2, 2018 11:30am - 12:00pm
Sloan/Morris and Sophie Chang Building, E52-164 Classroom, Building E52 50 Memorial Dr, Cambridge, MA 02142

Spotlight

11:30am

Players as Transitional Characters: How Youth Can “Breakaway” From Gender-Based Violence

BREAKAWAY is a soccer-themed digital game that uses the mechanics of interactive storytelling from a first person perspective to help youth worldwide learn about gender-based violence. We highlight narrative elements built into the game design to facilitate social learning and behavior change, enabling players to become “transitional characters” and break away from negative gender norms. We also feature the user experience captured through various methods and summarize how young players in different parts of the world have responded to the BREAKAWAY initiative.

Speakers

Ann DeMarle

Associate Dean, Champlain College

Ann DeMarle is the founding director of Champlain College’s Emergent Media Center (EMC), MakerLab, nationally ranked undergraduate game degrees, and MFA/MS in Emergent Media. She launched the EMC with a mission to bring Champlain students’ media and technology expertise to businesses... Read More →

Yishin Wu

University at Buffalo

Thursday August 2, 2018 11:30am - 12:00pm
Media Lab - Lecture Hall, 6th Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Well Played

12:00pm

Lunch

We will provide a boxed lunch. Vegan and vegetarian options available.

Thursday August 2, 2018 12:00pm - 2:00pm
Media Lab - 6th Floor Foyer

Break

12:30pm

Q&A with Remi Kalir, CLS2018 Proceedings Editor

CLS proceedings will be edited by Remi Kalir and published by ETC Press. Presenters will be invited to submit updated information following the summit. We aim to publish the proceedings online in November. To learn more about the CLS proceedings, please join Remi for an informal Q&A.

Speakers

Remi Kalir

Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Denver

Thursday August 2, 2018 12:30pm - 1:00pm
Media Lab - Lecture Hall, 6th Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Networking

2:00pm

Ball State Achievements App

Ball State Achievements is a mobile app for iOS and Android devices that uses gamification to increase engagement and retention of low-income, freshmen students at Ball State University. In the app, students are given hundreds of tasks and goals called achievements. Completing achievements awards students an in-app currency called Bennies-named after Ball State's beloved institutional icon, Beneficence. Students can then use their Bennies to purchase real items from the Ball State Bookstore, Tech Store, and Rec Center from a curated in-app store.

Speakers

Scott Reinke

Thursday August 2, 2018 2:00pm - 2:30pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-149 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA 02142

Spotlight

2:00pm

Educator Connected Learning via Collaborative Web Annotation

This spotlight describes a multi-stakeholder partnership that supports educator connected learning via open and collaborative web annotation. The Marginal Syllabus convenes and sustains conversations with K-12 classroom teachers, higher education faculty, and other educators about equity in education using the web annotation platform Hypothes.is. The spotlight will feature stakeholders discussing the project's development, design principles, and the 2018-19 syllabus.

Speakers

Christina Cantrill

National Programs, National Writing Project

Jeremy Dean

Director of Education, Hypothesis

Joe Dillon

Admin TOSA, Rangeview High School

Remi Kalir

Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Denver

francisco perez

PhD student, University of Colorado Denver

Thursday August 2, 2018 2:00pm - 2:30pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-145 - Lecture Hall, Building E51 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Spotlight

2:00pm

Why Do Educational Games Matter? Lessons Learned at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Starting in 2014 the Cornell Lab of Ornithology started developing educational games and digital interactives with the goal of engaging public audiences in new ways. Three games and five interactives on, we have are now in a position to evaluate the impact of these digital experiences collectively and share our findings the digital learning community. This spotlight presentation will briefly introduce the games, describe the communities in which they are used and shared, and explore the ways in which these free digital experiences have changed how we, as a non-profit educational institution, think about public engagement and strategically reach new audiences.

Speakers

Jeff Szuc

Web Designer/Developer, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Mya Thompson

eLearning Specialist, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Educational games, online learning, instructional design, inquiry-based learning, environmental education, birds, elephants, the deep future...

Noah Warnke

Connected Learning Cornell Lab games pdf

Thursday August 2, 2018 2:00pm - 2:30pm
Media Lab - E14-240, 2nd Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Spotlight

2:00pm

Research Paper Panel: Coding for Humanistic Studies and Causes

Connected Learning: Exploratory Programming in the Classroom
Angela Chang

Exploratory programming is an open-ended approach to learning how to program. The goal of this approach is to use coding as a tool for humanistic studies. Sixty-six students at a liberal arts college used this approach in a class titled Code, Culture, and Practice, to learn creative coding within a cultural context. In one semester, students learned enough basic programming skills to allow them to independently extend their knowledge. They took advantage of freely available, open-source code and online learning resources to quickly create, modify, and refine surprisingly complex experiences.

Innovations that Help People: A Secondary School Computer Science Curriculum
Florence Sullivan, Ricardo Poza, Carol Cohen, Ali Soken

In this paper, we report preliminary results of our case study analysis of a new computer science (CS) curriculum we have developed. Our curriculum seeks to foster girl’s interest in computer science by appealing to what Diekman et al., (2010) describe as communal goals. In our “Innovations that Help People” curriculum we present real-life problems that require CS (and STEM) skills in order to be solved. Using a problem based learning (PBL) framework, students are presented with practical problems and situations and then are guided through a process of discovery and identification of possible solutions, until a workable solution is achieved. Our curriculum features an ethical component (consequences and benefits of innovation) for students to consider and discuss as part of the “helping” focus. Our research is currently taking place at a small high school in New England, during a science class with 7 student participants. Preliminary results are reported.

Speakers

Angela Chang

Independent researcher, Affiliated with Emerson College, MIT

computational creativity, digital poetry, electronic textiles, rapid prototyping, teachable moments, small group communication

Carol Cohen

Assistant Principal, Walker Beacon School

I'm interested in project based learning in high schools. My research is about making CS accessible for all students, especially girls.

Ricardo Poza

PhD Student, UMass - Amherst

Ali Soken

UMass Amherst

Florence Sullivan

Associate Professor, UMass, Amherst

Dr. Florence Sullivan is an Associate Professor in the UMass School of Education and her research interests include: cognition and learning with technology and media; design literacy; online communication; and development of digital learning environments.

Thursday August 2, 2018 2:00pm - 3:00pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-372 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Research Paper

2:00pm

Research Paper Panel: Math and Climate Games and Game Intervention

Game-Based Learning with Direct Representation of Mathematics
Sara Atienza, Bryan Matlen, Keith Devlin, Randy Weiner

Symbolic representations in mathematics (e.g., equations) are powerful and essential for more advanced mathematical thinking, but cause major problems for K-8 learners. To engage mathematical reasoning without symbolic representations, BrainQuake has created diagrammatic mathematics puzzle games that provide an alternative, more learner-friendly interface to mathematical thinking and multi-step problem solving. In this working paper, we first outline the design underlying BrainQuake’s puzzle games, and provide preliminary evidence that they can be used effectively in classroom settings. The latter portion of this paper outlines a randomized control study – currently in progress -- examining how BrainQuake’s suite of puzzle games impact students’ mathematics achievement and attitudes. The results of the randomized trial will be presented at the conference.

Exploring how student designers model climate system complexity in computer games
Gillian Puttick, Giovanni Troiano, Eli Tucker-Raymond

We present results from a design-based research project in which 8th grade teachers and students explored climate change by designing computer games using Scratch. We analyzed 174 games based on 1) Systems Complexity and 2) Triadic Game Design (TGD). The analysis of system complexity shows that two-thirds of the students designed systems using one-directional linear connections, while one-third designed complex systems based on multiple connections, feedbacks, or loops. TGD analysis shows that the most frequent topics were CO2 emissions and global warming, with most games being based on quiz, shooter, pong or action gameplay. Furthermore, designers tried to drive meaning to the player either by raising awareness of climate change directly or indirectly, or by having players make responsible choices in-game (e.g., walking not driving). Meaning and Play were important design considerations for students; this result has implications for how a game design task might be framed in future.

Same game, different impact: Comparing the success of a game-based learning intervention across four schools
Thorkild Hanghøj, Andreas Lieberoth

A game based learning approach may work wonderfully in one school, and then very differently in another, shortly after. This paper reports how one intervention lead to different outcomes depending on school setting. We combine statistical and qualitative lenses to analyze differential impact based on the social and cultural characteristics of four schools.

The intervention for 3-5th graders included a mix of commercial-off-the-shelf gameplay, classroom exercises based on the game, and gamification aimed at classroom conduct. General effects were observed for intrinsic and external motivation using the Children’s Locus of Causality scales (c-PLOC), plus teacher-assessed learning and wellbeing. Yet very different practical outcomes were observed in the four different schools taking part in the project.

We use an explanatory mixed methods analysis to move beyond average effects, and identify the qualitative characteristics of one classroom where the intervention took a definite hold.

Speakers

Sara Atienza

Research Associate, WestEd

Keith Devlin

Thorkild Hanghøj

Associate Professor, Aalborg University

Andreas Lieberoth

Bryan Matlen

Gillian Puttick

Senior Scientist, TERC

Research on youth-created games to learn science, curriculum design about climate change for middle and/or high school; high school students using Smart Cities data to learn about their communities

Giovanni Troiano

Eli Tucker-Raymond

Educationist, TERC

Randy Weiner

Thursday August 2, 2018 2:00pm - 3:00pm
Media Lab - Lecture Hall, 6th Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Research Paper

2:00pm

Research Paper Panel: Star Wars, New Media Ecology and Peer Culture

The Force Will Be With You…Always: Studying the Star Wars Transmedia Storyworld
Trent Hergenrader

Since Disney’s 2012 purchase of Lucasfilm, connected stories set in the Star Wars galaxy have exploded across media including feature films, fiction, comic books, television, and games. This paper discusses the development of a college course taught in 2017 that leveraged existing student interest in the Star Wars franchise to teach a broad range of media literacies including the critical analysis of films, TV, comics, print fiction, and games. The course focused on analyzing different aspects of “transmedia storyworlds,” or narratives that span multiple media and target different generations of audiences. The paper also discusses a second course to be taught in spring 2018 that uses the Star Wars galaxy as the setting for role-playing and fiction writing. Far from pandering to students with pop culture, these courses position them become critical consumers and active producers of media content in the 21st century.

Transmedia Literacy in the New Media Ecology. An international map of teens’ transmedia skills
Carlos Scolari

The emergence of new media, devices, narratives and practices has compelled media literacy scholars and professionals to review their theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches. Based on a new conception – ‘transmedia literacy’ – that moves from traditional media literacy (teaching critical media skills at school) to informal learning and practices of participatory cultures, the research behind the present paper aims to understand how new generations are doing things with media outside schools and how they learn to do the things they do. After a short description of the objectives and the methodology, the paper focuses on one of the outputs of this international research (2015-18) that has involved eight countries: a map of teens’ transmedia skills developed in the context of informal learning environments collaborative cultures.

Learning Projects in Glocal Networks: The Emergence of a Formal and Informal Peer Culture
Saara Nissinen, Henriikka Vartiainen, Petteri Vanninen

The digital age has provided new possibilities for the creation of glocal peer cultures that stretch beyond the boundaries of the immediate community. To better understand these opportunities in the school context, we aim to examine the co-creation of an international learning ecosystem of two classes sharing an object of inquiry. The participants were a Finnish 6th-grade class (N=17) and a American 7–8th-grade class (N=16) who communicated through blogs and Skype. Using deductive content analysis on their transcribed Skype meetings, students’ digital artifacts, and a questionnaire, we aim to describe the learning ecosystem that emerged. The preliminary results of the study indicated that during the academic learning process, an informal peer culture started to emerge through students’ mobile devices and applications such as FaceTime, and Snapchat. Conclusions are drawn about the hybrid ecosystem that connected friendship-driven, interest-driven, and expertise-oriented participation.

Speakers

Trent Hergenrader

Assistant Professor, Rochester Institute of Technology

My primary area of research is using games and gaming in English courses, and more specifically using role-playing games to teach fiction writing. I am an Assistant Professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Saara Nissinen

Junior Researcher, University of Eastern Finland

Carlos A. Scolari

Petteri Vanninen

Henriikka Vartiainen

Senior lecturer, University of Eastern Finland

Thursday August 2, 2018 2:00pm - 3:00pm
Sloan/Morris and Sophie Chang Building, E52-164 Classroom, Building E52 50 Memorial Dr, Cambridge, MA 02142

Research Paper

2:00pm

Changing Who Is Making: Broadening Participation In Maker Activities

Recently, making has gained traction as a promising method of cultivating STEAM-relevant student interests, identities, and learning. Though presented as a way to develop skills and interests pertinent to STEAM, traditional makerspaces present barriers to entry and have failed to engage students from diverse backgrounds. In this symposium, we present three projects focusing on bringing making to students who have been left behind both by traditional schooling practices and by the maker movement. Symposium discussions will focus on examining how emerging technologies can be leveraged to facilitate STEAM interests, engagement, and learning in all students.

Speakers

Kinnari Atit

Assistant Professor, University of California, Riverside

David Bar-El

Grace Ann Flanagan-Hall

Kemi Jona

Associate Dean, Northeastern Uuniversity

Kay Ramey

Reed

Evanston, Illinois, United States, Northwestern University

Marcelo Worsley

Thursday August 2, 2018 2:00pm - 3:00pm
MIT List Visual Arts Center, E15-070 Bartos Theater, Lower Level, Weisner Building E15 Wiesner Bldg, 20 Ames St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Symposia

2:00pm

VoiceUp: Civic Media Connects Marginalized Youth to Their Communities through Development of Agency

For marginalized groups that traditionally have been silenced, the opportunity to connect their personal interests with their home, school, and community provides a path to voice their career aspirations and enhance civic engagement. In this symposium, we will share four examples of how youth media activists apply the Connected Learning framework to explore participatory, playful, and creative development of agency. Mindy Faber and Virginia Lund will introduce Spy Hop, a youth development program in Salt Lake City, UT and Free Spirit Media in Chicago, IL. Susan X Jane will describe her work with juveniles in Boston. Yonty Friesem will share a youth media initiative to connect students from Rhode Island School for the deaf with other youth. All four case studies will showcase videos produced by young people. This interactive session will include backchanneling using #VoiceUp as participants provide feedback and contribute their comments on VideoAnt.

Speakers

Mindy Faber

Director, Convergence Design Lab

Renee Hobbs

Director, Media Education Lab, University of Rhode Island

...loves all things media literacy

Susan Jane

Diversity Educator, SXJ/ Media Education Lab

Susan Jane is a diversity and media literacy educator interested in the intersection of race and media. Nonprofit program manager, professor, and blogger, her work has brought her to communities and classrooms looking for ways to empower youth and teachers to address race and cu... Read More →

Virginia Killian Lund

PhD Candidate, University of Illinois at Chicago

I'm interested in young people's composing processes with media, and with the communities and practices that support their work.

Thursday August 2, 2018 2:00pm - 3:00pm
Media Lab - Multi-purpose Room, 6th Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Symposia

2:00pm

Creating In, With, and For Community: Computational and Civic Participation in the Cambridge Creative Citizens Project

Developments in today’s technology-driven culture have transformed opportunities for cultural participation. While mainstream discourses generally frame the value of computational fluency in terms of workforce preparation, there is enormous untapped potential for engaging historically marginalized youth in computing education by reframing the goals of computing. In this workshop, we introduce the Cambridge Creative Citizens Project (C3P), a summer enrichment project that engaged historically marginalized youth in action civics projects using the Scratch programming language as a tool for exploration, expression, and connection-making. Adopting the lenses of civic education and social learning theories, we will engage participants in creating and critiquing artifacts in community with one another, exploring ways that communities can foster the conditions needed for optimal learning. This workshop will be co-facilitated by C3P youth participants.

Speakers

Paulina Haduong

Harvard Graduate School of Education

Raquel Jimenez

Ph.D. student, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Thursday August 2, 2018 2:00pm - 3:00pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-151 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Workshop

2:00pm

Playful Assessment Roundtable: Current Practices and Future Directions

We believe that assessments should be playful, engaging, and authentic. If learning is fun, as it can and should be, then there’s no reason the fun should stop for assessment. The high level goal of this session is to bring educators, researchers, and learning designers together to share their visions for playful assessment. We will start the session by sharing examples of playful assessment, both digital and non-digital, to frame what we mean by playful assessment. Then we will have participants share their current playful practices, tools, and designs that relate to assessment. Through a roundtable discussion format, we aim to garner interest in this emerging field and build the playful assessment community.

Speakers

Yoon Jeon Kim

Research scienctist, MIT Teaching Systems Lab

Louisa Rosenheck

Ed Tech Designer and Researcher, MIT Scheller Teacher Education Program

Thursday August 2, 2018 2:00pm - 3:00pm
Media Lab - Silverman Skyline, 6th Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Workshop

2:30pm

A Space To Grow in and a Space to Own: An Online Game-Based Resource For Teachers and By Teachers

In this spotlight, we describe an online resource developed for teachers and populated by teachers learning about game-based learning (GBL) from September 2010-current. We explain the impetus and describe the design of a collaborative space for teachers as they developed a foundation in GBL, explored the role of motivation in engaging learners, grappled with issues of play in the context of participatory cultures and affinity spaces, and became knowledgeable about integrating GBL through a variety of analytical and pedagogical approaches. We will showcase the kinds of games and game-related resources/information teachers posted about. We will also illustrate the discussions that ensued around the posts. In doing so, we will share our reflection on what we learnt about how teachers think about teaching with games and the significance for providing a resource that teachers could grow in, own, and come back to even after their graduated from their Master's program.

Shah, M. & Foster,. A space to grow in and a space to own: An online game-based resource for teachers and by teachers.

Speakers

Aroutis Foster

Mamta Shah

Postdoctoral Scholar, Drexel University

Thursday August 2, 2018 2:30pm - 3:00pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-145 - Lecture Hall, Building E51 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Spotlight

2:30pm

Mission Admission: The Evolution of a Digital College Access Initiative at the School Level

Over the past two decades, the Pullias Center for Higher Education at the University of Southern California has conducted research on college access and success. In response to a desire to scale up our outreach efforts and create a dynamic, interactive space for engaging in college preparation, in 2009, our team of researchers partnered with designers from USC’s Game Innovation Lab to create a series of games. For the past three years, we been engaged in research to bring one particular game, Mission: Admission, to scale in California. Following up on our 2016 and 2017 Digital Media and Learning Conference presentations, presenters will highlight the evolution of the Mission: Admission Challenge, illustrating the tension that exists between (1) standardization and customization, (2) scalability and sustainability, and (3) assumptions and the reality of implementing a school-wide digital intervention.

Speakers

Tattiya Maruco

Project Manager, University of Southern California

Thursday August 2, 2018 2:30pm - 3:00pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-149 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA 02142

Spotlight

2:30pm

Using NGSS to Design Educational Games for Multiple Grade Levels

In this presentation, we describe the development of a cooperative game that aligns with the second grade NGSS disciplinary core idea that "maps show where things are located" and "one can map the shapes and kinds of land and water in any area." Although the topic is considered a second grade NGSS disciplinary core idea, we also attempted to make the game accessible to Kindergartners and First graders, which presented unique design considerations. During this presentation we will share our approach to designing a game for multiple grade levels, and will also provide the results from our alpha test which suggests that the game is both engaging, and developmentally appropriate for multiple age ranges.

Speakers

Joan Freese

RTL Project Executive Producer, Twin Cities Public Television

Dr. Momoko Hayakawa

Ed Research & Analytic Specialist, Twin Cities PBS

Dennis Ramirez

Digital Program Manager, Twin Cities Public Television

Thursday August 2, 2018 2:30pm - 3:00pm
Media Lab - E14-240, 2nd Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Spotlight

3:00pm

PM Break

Thursday August 2, 2018 3:00pm - 3:15pm
Media Lab - 6th Floor Foyer

Break

3:15pm

DiscoverDesign: Digital Artifacts and The Nature of Learning

Design process allows for transparency in assessing student work and understanding. Chicago Architecture Foundation's (CAF) DiscoverDesign.org is a connected learning tool for structuring design process and supporting connected learning. At CAF, design process is used as a means of moving youth from consumers to producers of digital media learning with the help of a structured design process. Real-world design challenges are framed through a web interface enabling students to engage in a design process that is production-centered and interest-driven. The platform is openly networked and academically oriented by enabling teachers to remix existing content for their own classrooms. This has enabled a new wave of community-driven design challenges with an array of digital artifacts that represent student process and 21st century skills development. This spotlight explores the production of digital artifacts and implications for the nature of student work in connected learning contexts.

Speakers

Gabrielle Lyon

Vice President of Education and Experience, Chicago Architecture Foundation

Edgar "Edge" Quintanilla

Digital Manager - DiscoverDesign.org, Chicago Architecture Foundation

Thursday August 2, 2018 3:15pm - 3:45pm
Sloan/Morris and Sophie Chang Building, E52-164 Classroom, Building E52 50 Memorial Dr, Cambridge, MA 02142

Spotlight

3:15pm

Stitching the Loop Curriculum: Making Electronic Textiles in Exploring Computer Science Classrooms

Coding, like the Maker Movement, has a longstanding history of inaccessibility to non-White, non-male students from working-class communities. In order to broaden access to both making and coding, deepen learning in those fields, and promote better diversity in what is being made, we created and implemented an eight-week long formal curricular unit, "Stitching the Loop," which facilitated students' interest-driven electronic textiles projects, supported peer collaboration, and provided equity-minded teaching. In this Spotlight we will share about the iterative development and testing of the curriculum over three years, leading up to its public release in August 2018. Our presentation will highlight key features in designing and implementing the curriculum, which was iteratively designed and tested with increasing numbers of teachers over three years.

Speakers

Deborah Fields

Associate Research Professor, Utah State University

Joanna Goode

Associate Professor; Senior Research Scientist, University of Oregon, Education Studies, College of Education

yasmin kafai

Chair, Teaching Learning & Leadership Division, Universityt of Pennsylvania

Tomoko M. Nakajima

Thursday August 2, 2018 3:15pm - 3:45pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-145 - Lecture Hall, Building E51 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Spotlight

3:15pm

Unhangout for Educators: Best Practices for Participant-Driven Online Workshops

Unhangout for Educators (U4E) is an online professional development program for K-12 educators who are interested in maker education practices. Hosted on an online videoconference platform called Unhangout, U4E has been iteratively designed and conducted as online unconference sessions, where participants actively propose and organize small-group discussions based on their own interests in the topic. Through feedback and observations from a playtest and three workshop iterations conducted so far, we have found that successful participant-driven workshops finely balance intervention and guidance for participants, but also grant them enough autonomy to freely explore their own interests. We will continue iterating the workshop design as well as support strategies to eventually assemble a set of support materials to help teachers and teacher educators create similar types of learning opportunities, particularly focusing on successful facilitation strategies of participant-driven learning as well as respective uses of different breakout styles.

Speakers

Elizabeth Choe

Katherine McConachie

Manager, ML Learning Initiative, MIT Media Lab

Hey there, I'm Katherine! Talk to me about: creative learning; participatory workshop design; online learning communities; university-public library partnerships; design for human values; sewing; crossword puzzles.

Yumiko Murai

Postdoctoral Associate, MIT

Neil Patch

Thursday August 2, 2018 3:15pm - 3:45pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-149 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA 02142

Spotlight

3:15pm

Research Paper Panel: Social Network Analysis and Solutions

Using Social Network Analysis to Examine Player Interactions in EvE Online
Stefan Slater, Manuel González Canché

Network analysis is an increasingly popular tool for the analysis of rich telemetry data from digital game environments. In this paper we apply social network analysis techniques to the massively multiplayer online game EvE Online in order to examine patterns of player interactions in the game. Data were collected from a one-month period of player versus player interactions in a specific region of the game. In our analyses we conduct analyses of key actors relying on different centrality measures to identify patterns of play in the region. We examine the features and implications of being a ‘key actor’ across these centrality measures in this context, as well as explore applications of this methodology towards game design and research.

Social Talk and Constructing Solutions: Comparing a Teen and Proxy Player in an Educational Alternate Reality Game
Anthony Pellicone

An affordance of Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) is that players play as-if they were in the game-world themselves. Human game-runners (proxy players) interact with participants as characters within the game’s fiction, guiding and modeling game-play. In this paper we employ a method of analyzing gameplay called Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA), which creates relational network graphs between actions within a game-space. We found that key players exhibited behavior like proxy players, but also diverged from them in meaningful ways. We present case studies of one active player and one proxy player that demonstrate the power of ENA to model ARG play. We describe ways in which ENA reinforced the design insights that guided our original creation of proxy players while also allowing us to analyze the implications of those design choices in practice. We conclude by enumerating some research and design benefits of employing ENA in other learning contexts.

Speakers

Manuel S. González Canché

Associate Professor, University of Pennsylvania

Anthony Pellicone

New York University

Stefan Slater

PhD Candidate, University of Pennsylvania

Stefan Slater is an associate research specialist and outreach coordinator at the Games and Learning Society. He graduated with a B.S. in Psychology in 2012 and now studies how students learn from games and how games are used for education.

Thursday August 2, 2018 3:15pm - 4:15pm
Media Lab - Lecture Hall, 6th Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Research Paper

3:15pm

The Connected Learning Research Network: Reflections on a Decade of Engaged Scholarship

From 2011 through 2017, the MacArthur Connected Learning Research Network (CLRN) investigated the changing landscape of digital media and learning, and helped develop the connected learning model. This symposium commemorates this decade of interdisciplinary scholarship and the release of a revised framework that updates the one presented in the 2013 report, Connected Learning: An Agenda for Research and Design. The symposium will feature researchers representing a mix of perspectives and disciplines. It will recap the major research findings, and how the connected learning model has evolved. Then participants will then reflect on the biggest challenges and successes they encountered, and encouraged to share personal stories and reflections about what it has meant for them to participate in this extended and ambitious collaborative effort. Participants include: Mimi Ito, Sonia Livingstone, Josephina Chang-Order, Vera Michalchik, and Craig Watkins.

Speakers

Josephina Chang-Order

Mizuko Ito

Director, Connected Learning Lab

Sonia Livingstone

Professor, Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political

Vera Michalchik

Gordon and Betty Moore Foundationion

S. Craig Watkins

Professor, University of Texas, Austin

S. Craig Watkins studies young people’s social and digital media behaviors. He is a Professor at the University of Texas, Austin, in the department of Radio-Television-Film. Craig is also a Faculty Fellow for the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement at the University of... Read More →

Thursday August 2, 2018 3:15pm - 4:15pm
Media Lab - Multi-purpose Room, 6th Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Symposia

3:15pm

Designing Creative Learning Workshops that Put the Learner in Charge

Well-designed workshops can provide inviting entry points for people who might otherwise not become engaged in creative learning experiences with technology. Informal learning spaces such as libraries, afterschool programs, or makerspaces often use workshops as a common form of engagement to introduce newcomers or dive deeper into an interest area. In this workshop, we will explore how we can design equitable, inclusive, and creative learning experiences. Participants will engage in the purpose and practice of workshops, examine workshop design principles, and spend time brainstorming ideas for workshops in their settings. We will share our experiences designing workshops for youth and families across many settings, backgrounds, and cultures. Participants will engage in small-group work to develop their own workshop design for their settings. We will conclude reflecting on how workshop facilitation can help to develop interests, build relationships, and connect to new opportunities.

Speakers

Saskia Leggett

Learning Experience Designer

Saskia's work focuses on empowering people by designing experiences, curating resources, engaging communities, telling stories, and building relationships. She is based in the Bay Area and consults on creative learning and creative computing resources, experiences, and projects. Previously... Read More →

Ricarose Roque

Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Boulder

Thursday August 2, 2018 3:15pm - 4:15pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-372 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Workshop

3:15pm

Pedagogy & Practical Tools for Computational Poetry

During this one hour workshop, participants will learn about tools and pedagogical techniques to help them successfully bring computational poetry into their classrooms. By the end of the session, participants will have customized at least three computational poems and, optionally, shared them on the Web. The pedagogical strategies and tools we’ll use will model how participants can adapt the workshop’s content to their own teaching needs. The workshop instructors will touch on pedagogical issues and approaches throughout, and participants will likewise be encouraged to contribute their own experiences and observations.

Participants should leave the workshop with new ideas about how to approach teaching computational poetry in addition to seeing their own personalized programs up on the Web.

Speakers

Angela Chang

Independent researcher, Affiliated with Emerson College, MIT

computational creativity, digital poetry, electronic textiles, rapid prototyping, teachable moments, small group communication

Elliott Hauser

Thursday August 2, 2018 3:15pm - 4:15pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-151 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Workshop

3:15pm

Playful STEM Teacher Preparation: Designing the Woodrow Wilson Academy of Teaching and Learning

One core element of the Woodrow Wilson Academy’s curriculum is the playful practice space. A practice space refers to learning experiences that target specific skills and dispositions of teaching. In the design of practice spaces, the curriculum team often borrow mechanics of well-designed games to make them playful. The design team embodies playfulness because playfulness combined with seriousness represents the ideal mental attitude of teachers, and playfulness is closely associated with creativity and innovation. If teachers can learn new pedagogies and techniques in a playful manner, they are more likely to continue to practice and hone these skills.

We will first invite the community to experience our playful practice spaces in order to understand how game design and playfulness can be applied in the context of teacher education. Second, participants will design their own modifications or remixes of a playful practice space for their own context.

Speakers

Yoon Jeon Kim

Research scienctist, MIT Teaching Systems Lab

Peter Kirschmann

Learning Designer, MIT - Teaching Systems Lab

Raha Moussavi

Learning Designer, MIT Teaching Systems Lab

Thursday August 2, 2018 3:15pm - 4:15pm
Media Lab - E14-240, 2nd Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Workshop

3:15pm

Read the Comments! Fostering Constructive Dialogues in Online Spaces

Everyone knows you shouldn’t read the comments. Or should you? This session explores how we can create constructive and caring online spaces. Drawing from our experience with Scratch, the largest online creative community for youth, we’ll discuss how design and moderation can nurture dialogue across experience and identity. We’ll start with an analysis of dialogues around the 2016 U.S. presidential election on Scratch, then encourage participants to share strategies for supporting the exchange of ideas across difference.

Speakers

Christan Balch

Community Engagement Manager, Scratch Team, MIT Media Lab

Sarah Otts

MIT Media Lab

Sarah works with the Scratch online community, an environment where young people can create projects and discuss topics meaningful to their lives. She plays in an activist brass band and has a background in computer science and gender studies.

Thursday August 2, 2018 3:15pm - 4:15pm
MIT List Visual Arts Center, E15-070 Bartos Theater, Lower Level, Weisner Building E15 Wiesner Bldg, 20 Ames St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Workshop

3:45pm

A New Approach to Family Engagement

Research shows that students with engaged families are more likely to do better in school, especially when families are engaging in learning activities at home. A variety of approaches seek to improve learning interactions at home, yet many are based on teacher reminders to families or giving families access to grade books, putting parents in the role of a “compliance officer” with their children. National nonprofit PowerMyLearning recently piloted a new approach called Family Playlists™ that involves families in what their children are learning in school (not as “naggers” but as partners). Family Playlists are interactive homework assignments built on the evidence-base from the Johns Hopkins Teachers Involving Parents in Schoolwork program. They are designed to break down technology and language barriers. The pilot transformed family engagement at a high-poverty school in New York. Given these promising results, PowerMyLearning has begun to make Family Playlists more widely available.

Speakers

Adrienne Kraushaar

Thursday August 2, 2018 3:45pm - 4:15pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-149 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA 02142

Spotlight

3:45pm

Look Up at the Stars: integrating a user-centered design process into a natural history museum

To be better prepared for the key challenges presented by our new century, the American Museum of Natural History developed an internal skunk works. It focused on tackling how to design interactives to engage visitors with the digital specimens produced and studied by our more than 200 scientists. Using VR, AR and other forms of emerging media, we developed prototypes and tested them with over 1,000 visitors to identify challenges and opportunities for the Museum visit of the future; virtual weevils and sharks cavorted with augmented constellations and moon-scapes. Come learn how we developed the process and what we learned along the way.

Speakers

Barry Joseph

VP of Digital Experience, Girl Scouts

For 18 years, I have been a driving force in both youth development and digital learning. First at Global Kids, a NYC-based after school organization, then at the American Museum of Natural History, I oversaw the design, supervision, and creative visioning for a slate of over 100... Read More →

Thursday August 2, 2018 3:45pm - 4:15pm
Sloan/Morris and Sophie Chang Building, E52-164 Classroom, Building E52 50 Memorial Dr, Cambridge, MA 02142

Spotlight

3:45pm

Music "Making" to Advance STEAM Learning

The Expressive & Creative Interactive Technologies Center (ExCITe) at Drexel University has developed a series of STEAM (STEM + Arts & Design) research and education projects involving novel actuated and robotic instruments. Our Magnetic Resonator Piano has been featured in performances world-wide, and another project, DrumHenge was recently showcased in an installation at the Sundance Film Festival. These projects have informed and been influenced by our STEAM education outreach programs, a integral part of the ExCITe Center’s mission. As we expand the ExCITe Center’s STEAM education programs, we have adapted these music “making” concepts into a curriculum for middle school students. This new curriculum was developed as a 9-week short course for students of the Science Leadership Academy Middle School (SLA-MS), an inquiry-driven learning school. Students use littleBits, a system of electronic building blocks, and K’nex pieces to build their own actuated instruments.

Speakers

Youngmoo Kim

Professor and Director, ExCITe Center, Drexel University

Youngmoo Kim is Director of the Expressive & Creative Interaction Technologies (ExCITe) Center and Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Drexel University and Resident Technologist at Opera Philadelphia. He received his Ph.D. from the MIT Media Lab and also... Read More →

Joshua Kirschner

Brandon Morton

Project Director of Civic Technology, Drexel ExCITe Center

Thursday August 2, 2018 3:45pm - 4:15pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-145 - Lecture Hall, Building E51 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Spotlight

4:30pm

Working Papers + Reception

The working paper session presenters will engage in informal, face-to-face discussions about their research. Working papers will be featured as posters during a light reception sponsored by TERC, Fablevision, and Zoombinis.

Zoombinis: Bridging Implicit to Explicit Computational Thinking
Jodi Asbell-Clarke, Elizabeth Rowe, Santiago Gasca

EcoMOD: Integrating Computational Thinking into Ecosystems Science Education via Modeling in Immersive Virtual Worlds
Amanda Dickes, Shari Metcalf, Amy Kamarainen, Joseph Reilly, Karen Brennan, Chris Dede

Playing with Words: Supporting Early Vocabulary Learning Using a Digital Game
Tamara Toub

Connected Learning from Assessment to Treatment: How Clinical Decision-Making and Practices in Speech Therapy Can Inform Game Design
Yao Du

Hip Hop Music as Collaborative Media Making in the Formal Classroom: The Case Study of Foundations of Music
Jabari Evans

Symbiotic Learning Partnerships: Toward Action-sports Inspired Learning Environment Design
Ty Hollett

Creating Digital, Interactive Professional Learning Experience for Educators
Leigh Hall

Participatory Place-Based Augmented Realty Co-Design for Scientists and Girls
Amy Kamarainen, Cathlyn Stylinski, David Gagnon

Self-directed student learning pathways before and after games
Kevin Miklasz

Where the Wired Things Are: A Study of Current Technology Use in Public Library Programming for Young Children
J Elizabeth Mills, Kathleen Campana

Augmented Reality in Informal Learning Environments: Research trends from 2010-2017
Mark Petrovich, Mamta Shah, Aroutis Foster

Gameful Mindset and Play
A Nicole Pfannenstiel

Designing for Multiple Pathways in Online Learning Experiences
Lily Gabaree, Carmelo Presicce, Yumiko Murai, Moran Tsur

The Evolving Design of a Blended Course for In-service Teachers: The Communicative English Language Teaching Course Story
Surbhi Nagpal

Learning English Through a Transmedia Storyworld
Patrícia Rodrigues

“You Know That Feeling When the Light Bulb Goes Off In Your Head?” Connected Learning with SciGirls CODE Programs
cassie scharber, Sarah Barksdale, YU-HUI CHANG, Angelina Constantine, Ramya Sivaraj, Jennifer Englund, Joan Freese

Developing Virtual Equipment to Enhance Learning of Structures and Material Science in an Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering Program
Genisson Silva Coutinho, Alberto Da Silva Mello, Alejandra Magana, Vinicius do Rego Dias, Vinicius Côrtes

Challenges in Adopting ICT-Enabled Interventions: The Mizoram Teachers’ Perspectives
Sahana VP, Anusha Ramanathan

Improving Peer to Peer Interactions and User Experiences within a CSCL Environment through Gamification
Ethan Danahy

Define Privacy: Teaching Kids about Privacy and Social Media Using an Educational Game and Interactive Documentary
Giuliana Cucinelli

Building on the Strengths of Technology Timid Teachers and Diverse Digital Writers
Christina Cantrill

My Learning, My Story: Supporting Youth Agency with Digital Learning Portfolios
Kate Rosenbloom, Rudy Blanco, Hillary Kolos

Toward a participatory education: design thinking for teachers
Gabriella Taddeo

Exploring Learning and Community Engagement using Virtual Reality in Washington State Libraries
Negin Dahya, Jin Ha Lee, Kung Jin Lee, We King

Make it Playful: Review and Next Steps
Laure Dousset

JOURNEY OF THE ESPORTS DIGITAL WARRIORS
Jason Engerman, Richard Otto

Make, Share, Keep: Cultivating, Promoting, and Documenting a Making Community at the Library
Jason Evans Groth, David Woodbury

The Exam Is A Lie: Using Her Story To Teach Close Reading
John Fallon

Youth Organization for Lights Out: Engaging Chicago Youth in Light Pollution Research and Activism
Rosalia Lugo

Global Workshop: When Global Education Meets 21st Century Learning In The Internet-based Society
Marcos Sadao Maekawa, Keiko Okawa

The Family That Codes Together: Creative Engagement with English Language Learner Families and Public Media
Daniel Noyes, Mollie Levin, Steven Devon, Mary Haggerty

Designing for Learning In Virtual Reality - Moving Beyond the Novelty Effect
Meredith Thompson, Annie Wang, Dan Roy, Philip Tan, Eric Klopfer

360 Walkthroughs: Documentation and Collaboration of Teaching and Learning Practices
Jeffrey Evancho, Aparna Wilder

Availability of AP Computer Science Among Magnet High School Students: A Question of Accessibility
Fay Cobb Payton, Jenna McChesney, Alexa Busch

Speakers

Jodi Asbell-Clarke

Director, EdGE at TERC

I direct a team of game designers, researchers, and learning scientists who live and work on the edge of science and play.

Sarah Barksdale

University of Minnesota

Rudy Blanco

Director of Digital Literacy, The DreamYard Project

I am here to present some work on Digital Portfolios. But please ask me about our new e-sports/gaming initiative out of the Bronx and about our push to develop and grow in and out of school youth entrepreneurship experiences.

Karen Brennan

Harvard University

Alexa Busch

Kathleen Campana

Christina Cantrill

National Programs, National Writing Project

Yu-Hui Chang

Ph.D. Candidate, University of Minnesota

Molly Collins

Vanderbilt University

Angelina Constantine

Genisson Silva Coutinho

PhD Candidate, Purdue University

I am a researcher, educator, and entrepreneur in the field of Engineering Education. As a researcher, I have a particular interest in quantitative and qualitative approaches aiming to investigate the efficiency of educational methodologies in engineering education. As an educator... Read More →

Giuliana Cucinelli

Assistant Professor, Concordia University

Vinicius Côrtes

Negin Dahya

Assistant Professor, University of Washington Information School

Ethan Danahy

Research Assistant Professor, Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach

Vinicius Do Rego Dias

CEO, Algetec Corporation

Amanda Dickes

Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University

David Dickinson

Vanderbilt University

Yao Du

PhD student, University of California, Irvine

I am doctoral student in Informatics (Fall 2016-Present) at the University of California, Irvine. My advisor is Katie Salen Tekinbas. The focus of my Ph.D. research lies at the intersections of interaction design for children with communication impairments, service design for clinical... Read More →

Jason Engerman

Assistant Professor, EAST STROUDSBURG UNIVERSITY

Jennifer Englund

Academic Technologist, University of Minnesota

Jeff Evancho

Project Zero Programming Specialist, Quaker Valley School District

I am the Pittsburgh Agency by Design liaison and the founder/designer of the Pittsburgh maker educator learning community. I am also the Project Zero Programming Specialist at Quaker Valley School District connecting HGSE research and idea to our teaching and learning practice. Please... Read More →

Jabari Evans

PhD Candidate, Northwestern University

John Fallon

English teacher, Fairfield Country Day School

John Fallon is a 7th & 9th grade English teacher at Fairfield Country Day School, a Prek-9 all boys school in Connecticut. His first game based learning project was a pervasive Alternate Reality Game to support the teaching of Homer's Odyssey in his 7th grade class. John also co-designed... Read More →

Aroutis Foster

Joan Freese

RTL Project Executive Producer, Twin Cities Public Television

Lily Gabaree

Learning Experience Designer, MIT Media Lab

David Gagnon

Field Day Lab Director, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Santiago Gasca

Roberta Golinkoff

Professor, University of Delaware

Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Ph.D., is the Unidel H. Rodney Sharp Professor of Education, Psychology, and Linguistics and Cognitive Science at the University of Delaware and director of the Child's Play, Learning, and Development laboratory. She has held numerous awards including a... Read More →

Jason Evans Groth

Digital Media Librarian, North Carolina State University Libraries

Jason Evans Groth is a Digital Media Librarian at NCSU Libraries. As part of the Learning Spaces and Services department he helps to support the eleven audio and video production suites and several other high-tech creative multimedia spaces. He earned his MIS/MLS from the School of... Read More →

Mary Haggerty

Leigh Hall

Univ of wyoming

Ty Hollett

Emily Hopkins

Amy Kamarainen

Senior Research Manager, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Mx WE King

Research Assistant, University of Washington Information School

Eric Klopfer

Professor, MIT STEP/TEA

Jessica Lawson

Kung Jin Lee

Jin Ha Lee

Associate Professor, University of Washington Information School

Mollie Levin

Digital Production Coordinator, WGBH

Rosalia Lugo

Teen Programs Manager, Adler Planetarium

Marcos Sadao Maekawa

Alejandra Magana

Jenna McChesney

North Carolina State University

Alberto Da Silva Mello

Shari Metcalf

Senior Researcher and Project Director, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Kevin Miklasz

J. Elizabeth Mills

PhD Candidate, Information School, University of Washington

I have most recently been a research assistant on Project VIEWS2, a study of early literacy in public library storytimes using measurement tools based on early learning benchmarks. My own research explores the role of culture in public library storytimes as a way to include and welcome... Read More →

Yumiko Murai

Postdoctoral Associate, MIT

Surbhi Nagpal

Tata Institute of Social Sciences

Daniel Noyes

Keiko Okawa

Richard Otto

Chair, East Stroudsburg University DMET

Fay Cobb Payton

Professor and University Scholar, North Carolina State University

Mark Petrovich

PhD Student, Drexel University

A Nicole Pfannenstiel

Assistant Professor of Digital Media, Millersville University

Carmelo Presicce

MIT Media Lab

Joseph Reilly

Patrícia Rodrigues

Ph.D. Student, PhD student Universidade Aberta

#digital media arts #transmedia learning #ESL

Kate Rosenbloom

Director, Content Development, Mouse

Kate joined Mouse’s team in 2012. As the Director of Content Development, she oversees all curriculum, produces educational media content, and helps test new programs in schools across Mouse's network. Before Mouse, she co-founded a consulting practice designing curriculum for digital... Read More →

Dan Roy

Research Scientist, MIT Teaching Systems Lab

Cassie Scharber

Associate Professor of Learning Technologies, University of MN

Jacob Schatz

Molly Scott

Mamta Shah

Postdoctoral Scholar, Drexel University

Ramya Sivaraj

Graduate Research Assistant, University of Minnesota

Devon Steven

Cathlyn Stylinski

Tenured research faculty, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science

Gabriella Taddeo

Philip Tan

Meredith Thompson

Tamara Spiewak Toub

Researcher, Developmental Psychology, Temple University

Moran Tsur

Learning Developer, BrainPOP

SAHANA V.P

TATA INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE

Annie Wang

Aparna Wilder

Co-founder, IRL Labs

David Woodbury

Head, Learning Spaces & Services, North Carolina State University

David Woodbury is the Department Head, Learning Spaces & Services at the North Carolina State University Libraries. He manages technology-rich learning spaces at the libraries including makerspaces, digital media labs, virtual reality exploration spaces, and collaborative computing... Read More →

Thursday August 2, 2018 4:30pm - 5:30pm
Media Lab - 6th Floor Foyer

Feature

8:30am

AM Coffee + Pastries

Come enjoy some coffee/tea and pastries before the featured event!

Friday August 3, 2018 8:30am - 9:30am
Media Lab - 6th Floor Foyer

Break

8:30am

Connected Learning in Teacher Education (CLinTE) Network Meeting & Mixer

At the CLinTE network meeting and gathering, attendees will learn of collaborative research, teaching, and leadership work done by members of the group, and hear opportunities to take part in for the coming year. Also, the group will begin work on designing the "Pedagogies of Connected Learning" Marginal Syllabus project, curating a series of texts that teacher educators can use in coursework related to connected learning principles, and which classes can join in on collective text annotation activities.

Speakers

Kira Baker-Doyle

Associate Professor, Arcadia University School of Education

Justin Reich

Asst. Professor, MIT Teaching Systems Lab

CLinTE at CLS 2018 (1) pptx

Friday August 3, 2018 8:30am - 9:30am
Media Lab - E14-240, 2nd Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Networking

8:30am

Quiet Work Room + Charging Station

Friday August 3, 2018 8:30am - 5:00pm
Media Lab - E14-359, 3rd Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Working Space

9:30am

Plenary: Connecting Communities, Building Coalitions- Constance Steinkuehler, Kurt Squire Scot Osterweil, Mizuko Ito

Join instigators of Games + Learning + Society, Sandbox Summit, and the Digital Media and Learning Conference in an open conversation reflecting on shared histories and forecasting fabulous futures. Why did we join forces? What impacts should we work towards? What challenges do we face? What are our rallying points? How do we expand our movement?

Speakers

Mizuko Ito

Director, Connected Learning Lab

Scot Osterweil

Creative Director, MIT Education Arcade

Kurt Squire

University of California, Irvine

Constance Steinkuehler

Speaker, University of California-Irvine & HEVGA

Friday August 3, 2018 9:30am - 10:30am
Media Lab - Multi-purpose Room, 6th Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Feature

9:30am

Quiet Work Room + Charging Station

Friday August 3, 2018 9:30am - 2:30pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-061 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA

10:30am

AM Coffee/Tea

Friday August 3, 2018 10:30am - 11:00am
Media Lab - 6th Floor Foyer

Break

11:00am

GeoConvos: Exploring Embodiment in Connected Learning

In this workshop session, we propose to engage session participants in exploring the interrelationships between connected learning and embodied learning through interactive engagements in GeoConvos-- place-based activities we have developed over the last four years. During and after engaging in these activities, session attendees will critically reflect on their own participation and on ways they can implement these activities in teaching and learning in their own connected learning contexts. End-of-session reflection will focus on better understanding embodied learning in the design, implementation, and assessment of connected learning environments.

Speakers

David Bild

Coordinator, Teen and Young Adult Programs, Chicago Academy of Sciences / Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum

Ilana Bruton

Public Programs Manager, Chicago History Museum

Jaclyn Carmichael

Program Director, Project Exploration

Virginia Killian Lund

PhD Candidate, University of Illinois at Chicago

I'm interested in young people's composing processes with media, and with the communities and practices that support their work.

Emma Martell

Nathan Phillips

Assistant Professor, UIC College of Education

Ani Schmidt

Public Programs Coordinator, Chicago History Museum

Friday August 3, 2018 11:00am - 11:30am
Sloan/Morris and Sophie Chang Building, E52-164 Classroom, Building E52 50 Memorial Dr, Cambridge, MA 02142

Spotlight

11:00am

Research Paper Panel: Online, Video and Mobile Learning Challenges

Upload in Your Own words: Using Smartphones to Realize a Critical Approach to EFL Pedagogy
J.D. Swerzenski

Currently, 1 in 2 people around the world has internet access, most of them via smartphone. 1 in 3 are learning English, with over 80% of these students coming from Asia and the global south. Despite the incredible growth in these two trends, few steps have been taken to adapt EFL education methods around access to these devices. This article tests the efficacy of one such approach, working with university students in Bogotá, Colombia to create videos aimed at developing language proficiency and challenging cultural representations. Via a critical discourse analysis of their responses, the study hopes to highlight potential benefits and downsides offered by smartphones and other devices in developing language and critical expression skills.

A Video is Worth a Gagillion Words: Enhancing Student Skills and Self-Efficacy through a Video-Based Peer Review Assignment
Rabindra Ratan, Taj Makki, Stuart Braiman

In order to elucidate how to improve active learning and collaborative engagement in large and online course contexts, the present exploratory research employed a mixed-method study examining a video-based peer review assignment designed to help students advance their own video-creation skills and self-efficacy. Student participants (N = 255) responded positively to the platform and feedback process, but were critical of classmates’ engagement and own video skills. Video production competence beliefs increased from pre- to post-survey, especially for individuals with less previous video production experience. Further, students’ intent to use video persuasively increased from pre- to post-survey for those with less previous video-sharing experience. Overall, results suggest that education technology developers and practitioners could utilize similar approaches to facilitate active learning, but researchers should continue exploring the implications of such video-based assignments.

Identifying Shifting Roles, Expectations, and Practices in the Early Adoption of Challenge-Based Learning for Online Courses
Catherine Dornfeld Tissenbaum, Kemi Jona

Challenge-based learning situates learning in authentic contexts, with opportunities to meaningfully apply new knowledge and skills. However, the shift from traditional modes of instruction to challenge-based learning (CBL) introduces new roles, expectations, and practices for both instructors and students. In this design-based research study, we used an ethnographic lens to investigate feedback from instructors and students about their first semester with CBL. We identified common difficulties, strategies, and suggestions to incorporate into future design iterations of CBL courses, along with opportunities for deeper investigation into students' learning processes and development of agency within CBL courses.

Speakers

Stuart Braiman

Innovation Strategist, TechSmith

Kemi Jona

Associate Dean, Northeastern Uuniversity

Taj Makki

Rabindra Ratan

Assistant Professor, Michigan State University

J.D. Swerzenski

Catherine Dornfeld Tissenbaum

Northeastern University

Friday August 3, 2018 11:00am - 12:00pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-145 - Lecture Hall, Building E51 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Research Paper

11:00am

Research Paper Panel: Play and Connected Learning for Teachers and Kindergartners

Exploring Authenticity and Playfulness in Teacher Practice Spaces
Justin Reich, YJ Kim, Dan Roy, Meredith Thompson

Teacher practice spaces are learning experiences, inspired by games and simulations, that allow novice teachers to rehearse for and reflect on important decisions in teaching. Practice-based teacher educators use various approaches to simulation in methods courses, and these simulations often attempt to holistically replicate the complexity of teaching conditions. In this research, we present a range of practice spaces that don’t attempt to replicate teaching, but explore design spaces with varying levels of authenticity. We define four dimensions of authenticity in teaching simulations:authenticity of complexity, of situation, of role, and of task. We discuss how these different dimensions of authenticity intersect with playfulness in the examination of five case studies of teacher practice spaces. We hypothesize that authenticity of task is essential to most teacher practice spaces, but interesting new design spaces can be found by moving away from other dimensions of authenticity.

Connected Learning in Kindergarten
Saara Nissinen, Henriikka Vartiainen, Petteri Vanninen

The aim of this socioculturally informed study is to explore teachers’ insights into connected learning projects in kindergarten. The focus was on the ways in which early childhood teachers and educators (N = 27) supported children in connecting their interest-driven and inquiry-oriented learning to their local surroundings, family, and community. The data consisted of teachers’, educators’, and researchers’ collaborative conversations, supplemented by project portfolios. The preliminary content analysis of the two representative projects shows how the children's own discoveries of nature were connected to an extended network of peers, family, and external experts though the use of a trail camera. Conclusions are drawn about activities that afforded the co-creation of a participatory network of people, tools, and resources organized around a shared object of inquiry.

Speakers

Yoon Jeon Kim

Research scienctist, MIT Teaching Systems Lab

Saara Nissinen

Junior Researcher, University of Eastern Finland

Justin Reich

Asst. Professor, MIT Teaching Systems Lab

Dan Roy

Research Scientist, MIT Teaching Systems Lab

Meredith Thompson

Petteri Vanninen

Henriikka Vartiainen

Senior lecturer, University of Eastern Finland

Friday August 3, 2018 11:00am - 12:00pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-149 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA 02142

Research Paper

11:00am

Large Scale EdTech Interventions in Resource Constrained Contexts

The Connected Learning Initiative in India
Kirky DeLong, Eric Klopfer, Vijay Kumar, Judy Perry

The Connected Learning Initiative (CLIx) is an innovative collaboration led by the Tata Trusts, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that is built upon the theme of connection—connecting students and teachers to authentic learning experiences and contemporary teaching and learning practices, connecting teachers with teachers in learning communities, and connecting technology enabled curriculum with the infrastructure in schools and states. CLIx addresses three intersecting lenses simultaneously across four independent states within India in grades 8 and 9: the design, development and delivery of connected OER learning experiences (along with open source tools and platforms); a systematic process of implementing a large-scale educational innovation across states and schools; and professional development to transform teacher practice.

Speakers

Kirky DeLong

Assistant Director, Special Projects, MIT Open Learning, J-WEL Research & Projects

Eric Klopfer

Professor, MIT STEP/TEA

Vijay Kumar

Judy Perry

Cambridge, MA, United States, Scheller Teacher Ed Program

Judy currently oversees design, development and research for several projects involving games and simulations for mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets. Her research interests include location-based games and ubiquitous “casual” games. When she is not making or playing... Read More →

Friday August 3, 2018 11:00am - 12:00pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-372 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Spotlight

11:00am

Maker-Centered Approach to Educator Professional Development

This symposium examines professional development (PD) in maker education, bringing together scholars at the forefront of the maker movement in education. We will share a selection of four separate studies. To explore the notion of scale in maker-based PD, these studies range from single sites to city-wide systems. Beyond individual programs, these multiyear, multisite studies represent successful partnerships across educational settings. As making proliferates, successful makerspaces are increasingly being asked to provide PD to classroom teachers. This raises questions about learning through making and teaching through making. This symposium aims to incite dialogue about how, why, and what it means to learn to teach through making.

Speakers

Tom Akiva

Associate Professor, University of Pittsburgh

Sharon Colvin

Graduate Student, University of Pittsburgh School of Education

Jeff Evancho

Project Zero Programming Specialist, Quaker Valley School District

Annie McNamara

Graduate Student, University of Pittsburgh School of Education

Emily Schindler

Doctoral Candidate, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Peter Wardrip

Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin

Peter Wardrip is an Assistant Professor of STEAM Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Formally, he was a Learning Scientist at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh. He currently co-leads Agency by Design Pittsburgh with Dr. Jeff Evancho. His research focuses on informal/formal... Read More →

Friday August 3, 2018 11:00am - 12:00pm
Media Lab - Multi-purpose Room, 6th Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Symposia

11:00am

Partnerships for Digital Futures: Community-based Collaborations to Support Youth Pathways with Technology

How can partnerships support youth pathways into digital futures? Informal learning organizations often use partnerships to ‘punch above their weight’ in various ways - to design and spread new learning innovations, to bring pedagogical practices into formal settings, and to coordinate learning across settings. Within the Connected Learning community, a persistent question has been how to support “youth pathways” - how youth can “geek out” and pursue interest-driven learning with digital media in ways that span longer timescales and multiple settings. In this session, we look at three models of informal learning organizations implementing “pathway partnerships” that support learning spanning multiple institutions. We highlight examples from informal digital learning organizations that are part of a larger research-practice partnership focused on youth pathways - Free Spirit Media, The Knowledge House and YOUmedia - and share emerging research from New York University on this theme.

Speakers

June Ahn

Associate Professor, University of California, Irvine

Jeremy Dunn

Director, Teen Services, Chicago Public Library

Jeff McCarter

Founder & Executive Director, Free Spirit Media

Jerelyn Rodriguez

Co-Founder and CEO, The Knowledge House

Rafi Santo

Research Scientist, New York University

Friday August 3, 2018 11:00am - 12:00pm
Media Lab - Silverman Skyline, 6th Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Symposia

11:00am

The Design-ification of Learning

This symposium explores the design-ification of learning to generate discussion on digital learning, curriculum, design. Three empirical reports offer depth and scope on what it means to designify learning:1) 25 eighth graders designing affinity spaces to understand cyberbullying; 2) 9 high school students designifiying the self through a variety of social networking platforms; 3) 250 teachers in 14 secondary schools design-ifying ICT practices in their classrooms.

Speakers

Lesley Liu

PhD Student, University of British Columbia

Friday August 3, 2018 11:00am - 12:00pm
Media Lab - Lecture Hall, 6th Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Symposia

11:00am

A Proof of Concept: Engaging Informal Learning Practitioners & Researchers Through a Connected Learning & Computational Thinking Framework

Research conducted in 2016 as a part of the American Library Association/Google Libraries Ready to Code (RtC) initiative identified exemplar computational thinking experiences underway in U.S. libraries. The research also surfaced barriers that prevent library staff from facilitating learning opportunities that foster computational thinking skills among youth. These barriers are two-fold: 1) organizational challenges including funding and time and 2) staff dispositions including a focus on professional expertise over youth engagement and learning. (e.g., Staff build programs based on personal expertise rather than programs based on youth interest/need.) An emerging model through which these and other barriers can be mitigated is grounded in a Connected Learning-based Computational Thinking framework. This workshop gives researchers and practitioners the opportunity to engage in discussions about this work and develop strategies for moving forward.

Speakers

Linda Braun

Learning Consultant, LEO

Linda W. Braun is a Learning Consultant with LEO: Librarians & Educators Online. She works with educational institutions across the United States to design and deliver quality learning experiences for youth, families and professional staff. She manages large-scale projects and co-authored... Read More →

Marijke Visser

Associate Director, Public Policy, American Library Association

Marijke Visser is the Associate Director for the Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) at the American Library Association. She knows every kid has a spark and is most excited when the spark starts to take shape. She thinks libraries are the place to help kids make their... Read More →

Friday August 3, 2018 11:00am - 12:00pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-151 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Workshop

11:30am

Coding for All: Connecting with Diverse Youth Interests

This Spotlight session will focus on Coding for All, an initiative to develop interest-based entry points into coding, particularly for girls and youth of color. The collaboration was initiated by the MIT Media Lab, the Digital Media and Learning Hub at University of California Irvine, and Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. The project builds on the Scratch coding language and online community, where young people create interactive stories, games, and animations based on their interests. Coding for All offers new tools and activities designed to connect with the diverse interests of youth who otherwise may not become engaged in coding. Workshops engage librarians and community center staff in learning to offer these experiences for youth in their communities. Researchers have examined youth participation in Scratch and other youth-driven learning communities. The presenters will discuss what they have learned from the perspective of designing for equity.

Speakers

Mizuko Ito

Director, Connected Learning Lab

Andres Lombana-Bermudez

Natalie Rusk

Research Scientist, MIT Media Lab

Moran Tsur

Learning Developer, BrainPOP

Friday August 3, 2018 11:30am - 12:00pm
Sloan/Morris and Sophie Chang Building, E52-164 Classroom, Building E52 50 Memorial Dr, Cambridge, MA 02142

Spotlight

11:30am

Tools for Computational Action: New Features in MIT App Inventor

MIT App Inventor has begun to frame its work in a theory of computational action: the idea that youth should learn about, and create with, computing in ways that provide them the opportunity to have direct impact in their lives and their communities. The App Inventor team is developing new features that allow students to more easily engage with authentic problems in their own lives with computational solutions. These features- maps, real-time collaboration, and support for Internet of Things applications, are powerful tools that students can bring to bear with minimal computing background in order to solve specific, local problems.

Speakers

Hal Abelson

Josh Sheldon

Associate Director, MIT App Inventor

Mark Sherman

Postdoctoral Research Associate, MIT

Mike Tissenbaum

Research Scientist, MIT

MarkSherman Tools For Computational Action CLS 2018 pdf

Friday August 3, 2018 11:30am - 12:00pm
Media Lab - E14-240, 2nd Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Spotlight

12:00pm

Lunch

We will provide a boxed lunch. Vegan and vegetarian options available.

Friday August 3, 2018 12:00pm - 1:30pm
Media Lab - 6th Floor Foyer

Break

1:30pm

Designing Biomimetic Robots in Middle School

The goal of Designing Biomimetic Robots is to develop and study an education program that integrates science, engineering, and computing by engaging students in biomimicry design challenges. Middle school students will study how animals and plants accomplish different tasks, and engineer a robot inspired by what they learned. Our design goal is to create an interdisciplinary learning environment for students. This submission describes the project's design conjectures (Sandoval, 2014), including the embodiments and mediating processes that guide our design work. We also describe some persistent design challenges we are confronting, including: (i) How can we maximize possibilities for student agency and creativity while providing sufficient constraints and support materials? (ii) How can we maximize biomimetic elements in the engineering solution? (iii) How can student documentation support engineering practice and interdisciplinary thinking?

Speakers

Debra Bernstein

Senior Research Associate, TERC

Debra Bernstein is a Senior Researcher at TERC. In her research and evaluation work shestudies STEM learning in K-12 and informal environments, with an emphasis on approaches thatincrease CS engagement and learning to broaden participation of diverse and underservedaudiences. Debra... Read More →

Gillian Puttick

Senior Scientist, TERC

Research on youth-created games to learn science, curriculum design about climate change for middle and/or high school; high school students using Smart Cities data to learn about their communities

Friday August 3, 2018 1:30pm - 2:00pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-372 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Spotlight

1:30pm

FemTechSonic: Playlists of Global Collaboration + Connected Learning

FemTechSonic is an online multimodal plug-n-play pedagogical platform with iterative playlists for collaborative critical making and mapping of media; our vision is for this work to represent our own system of global collaboration and connected learning that serves lineages of intersectional feminists and technologists, teachers and learners in a variety of learning environments, including universities, community organizations, youth centers, adult education, and others. The first set of playlist themes are: Games, Sound, and Location. Each playlist contains a media piece (podcast, digital game, or other media), links to readings, discussion questions, and an activity, such as cooking recipes and dance videos. These playlists act as invitations for learners to create and share their own critical making responses to curated materials on our platform.

Speakers

Alexandrina Agloro

Futurist for the Latinx Pacific Archive/ Ford Postdoctoral Fellow in Media Studies/ doula & curandera

George Hoagland

Visiting Faculty, Minneapolis College of Art & Design

[pronouns: he/she/they] I do QTIPOCI studies, new media studies, and old-fashioned humanities. I love goal-oriented meetings and task-based deadlines. Huge fan of safety, civics, and growing things. Not into snakes, spiders, and single-use packaging. Ask me to do your colors (I'm... Read More →

Kristy H.A. Kang

Assistant Professor, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Veronica Paredes

Assistant Professor, FemTechNet / UCLA

Hong-An Wu

Friday August 3, 2018 1:30pm - 2:00pm
Sloan/Morris and Sophie Chang Building, E52-164 Classroom, Building E52 50 Memorial Dr, Cambridge, MA 02142

Spotlight

1:30pm

Making and Using Games for Teen Thriving: A Multidisciplinary, Participatory Approach

This Spotlight will feature iThrive Games’ unique multidisciplinary approach to designing and using games in the best interest of teens. Games are an engaging and safe space in which teens can explore and experiment, practice skills, and make the most of their innate curiosity and drive to understand themselves and the world they will one day run. Too few games currently exist specifically to: support teens’ unique social and emotional needs; reflect their varied experiences and interests; and empower them to build the strengths they need to thrive. Our nonprofit organization addresses that gap by collaborating across disciplines to intentionally design and use games to support teens’ healthy development. Our approach involves designing directly with teens and collaborating with scientists in learning and teen development and game developers across several key initiatives. This method has resulted in a growing portfolio of games, products, and programs to support teen thriving.

Speakers

Susan Rivers

Friday August 3, 2018 1:30pm - 2:00pm
Media Lab - E14-240, 2nd Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Spotlight

1:30pm

Research Paper Panel: Creative Technology Applications for Neurodiverse Learners

A Participatory Evaluation of an Innovative Technology-Based Program for Adolescents with Autism
Ariana Riccio, Maruf Hossain, Beth Rosenberg, Kristen Gillespie-Lynch

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is defined by socio-communicative difficulties and restricted, repetitive behaviors and/or focused interests. Focused interests can motivate people with autism to obtain expertise in their interest areas which are often expressed through a systematic approach to learning and an affinity for computers, mathematics and science. Created with the goal of bolstering STEM skills among teens with ASD, this informal education program provides previously unavailable opportunities for youth with ASD to develop authorial computing skills. The current study presents an evaluation of TKU’s summer curriculum for adolescents with autism and discusses current program design, students’ own goals for the future, and successful instructional techniques to facilitate learning. A participatory curriculum adaptation is presented based on evaluation results.

Learning Despite Resistance: Engaging Resistant Learners through Creative Learning
Ulf Berthelsen

Through a comparative analysis of two Scratch projects made by two different groups of 6th grade students, this study shows how working with the visual programming language Scratch (www.scratch.mit-edu) provides resistant students with unexpected learning opportunities. The study compares the student projects with respect to level of code complexity and level of subject matter integration, and it is argued that the creative learning opportunities provided by the Scratch programming language encourage the resistant students to engage in meaningful learning activities despite their resistance.

Speakers

Ulf Berthelsen

Assistant Professor, Aarhus University

My main research interests are digital literacy and integration of digital technologies in K-12 learning environments. I'm is currently conducting a study on integration computer programming across subjects.

Kristen Gillespie-Lynch

CUNY

Maruf Hossain

Ariana Riccio

Doctoral Student, The Graduate Center, City University of NY

Friday August 3, 2018 1:30pm - 2:30pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-149 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA 02142

Research Paper

1:30pm

Research Paper Panel: Reading in the Digital Age

From Connected Learning to Connected Reading: Understanding What, Where, and How Teens Read
Kristen Turner

In a digital age texts are available in multiple formats and across various technologies. Readers must make choices about what, where, and how to read. Teens, in particular, have embraced digital tools, yet we do not know much about their reading practices. This study explored the reading lives of adolescents through a survey of 804 students and 23 in-depth interviews. Results indicated that teens are Connected Readers - using the practices of encountering, engaging, and evaluating the texts they read - yet they varied in their application of critical reading strategies. This study presents a theory of Connected Reading that draws upon Connected Learning principles to understand the practices of adolescent readers.

Digital Tools for Peer-Based Reading Recommendations: A Case Study of Bookopolis
Cindy Lam, Brigid Barron

Learning to read is a fundamental academic skill that begins developing in early childhood. While there is extensive research on reading development as an individual skill, there is less research on how to nurture motivation and engagement to sustain reading development. In this mixed methods study, I address this gap in the research by investigating two cases studies of classrooms that use an online literacy tool, Bookopolis, to foster enthusiasm for reading in third graders. I investigate questions of 1) what pedagogical choices teachers make to support the uptake of Bookopolis in their classrooms, 2) what Bookopolis features teachers found most useful, 3) how Bookopolis impacted students’ early literacy engagement from the perspective of the teacher, and 4) what are the patterns of peer-to-peer engagement in the classroom. The findings suggest that teacher pedagogy and peer support are central to how Bookopolis is used in the classroom to foster engagement in reading.

Speakers

Brigid Barron

Professor of Education, Stanford

Cindy Lam

PhD Candidate, Stanford University

Kristen Turner

Director of Teacher Education, Drew University

Connected Reading Connected Learning Summit August 2018 pdf

Friday August 3, 2018 1:30pm - 2:30pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-145 - Lecture Hall, Building E51 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Research Paper

1:30pm

Chocolate Covered Broccoli Or Superfood Smoothie? How to Make Learning with Minecraft Both Nutritious and Delicious

James Paul Gee has quipped that we shouldn't approach games and learning as covering broccoli with chocolate - using games to engage kids in unappetizing topics and activities. At its best, Minecraft creates more superfood smoothies than chocolate covered broccoli, a blender of entertainment and education into a tasty experience both nutritious and delicious. This symposium features snappy dialog and debate between leading Minecraft and learning educators, technologists and researchers. The focus is on tough problems in practice in using Minecraft to connect in and out of school learning, and stories from the trenches in the classroom and at the front lines of innovation in technology and program development.

Moderated by Mizuko Ito, director of the Connected Learning Lab, the symposium features Deirdre Quarnstrom and Meenoo Rami from the Minecraft Education team and researchers and Minecraft educators Michael Dezuanni, Paul Davarsi, Seann Dikkers, and Katie Salen.

Speakers

Paul Darvasi

Teacher, Royal St. George's College

Michael Dezuanni

Associate Director, Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

I research the everyday uses of digital media in home, school and community contexts. I am interested in equity in digital contexts, particularly questions of digital inclusion; and how children and young people learn on digital platforms like Minecraft and YouTube.

Seann Dikkers

Associate Professor, Bethel University

Mizuko Ito

Director, Connected Learning Lab

Deirdre Quarnstrom

Meenoo Rami

Manager, Microsoft

Friday August 3, 2018 1:30pm - 2:30pm
Media Lab - Multi-purpose Room, 6th Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Symposia

1:30pm

Integrating Computational Modeling into K-12 Science Classrooms

We propose a structured poster session with brief opening remarks highlighting the role computational modeling plays in four research projects in science education, emphasizing the use of StarLogo Nova as an agent-based modeling tool, and describing the specific contexts of each project. Attendees then circulate for about 30 minutes to learn about the various projects at each poster station, which will include a demonstration showcasing how computational modeling in StarLogo Nova has been utilized, and a chance to explore and play with the models. To close, we will hold a 15-minute Q&A discussion noting the similarities and differences across posters and attempting to answer our research questions:
• How is StarLogo Nova used in the various programs to develop computational modeling skills for the project's target learners?
• How have the curricula evolved to address the challenges inherent to their specific contexts?
• What are the remaining challenges that need to be addressed?

Speakers

Emma Anderson

Scheller Teacher Ed Program

Corey Brady

Stacey Carman

Model-BEST Project Coordinator, Missouri Botanical Garden

Doug Clark

Bob Coulter

Director, Litzsinger Road Ecology Center, Missouri Botanical Garden

I spend most of my time thinking about ways to get kids excited about learning and taking action in the community. A good part of this involves games they design with MIT's Taleblazer and StarLogo Nova tools, or in playing Equations, a really cool math game.

Ling Hsiao

Research Scientist, Scheller Teacher Ed Program

Ling enjoys tinkering and playing with research design, methods, and data that highlights how students and their teachers learn when they use technology-enhanced tools in the classroom. Prior to MIT, she was a graduate researcher in the Strategic Education Research Partnership (SERP... Read More →

Hyeonsu Kang

Eric Klopfer

Professor, MIT STEP/TEA

Okhee Lee

Professor, Professor of Childhood Education, NYU

Okhee Lee’s research areas include science education, language and culture, and teacher education. Her current research involves the scale-up of a model of a curricular and teacher professional development intervention to promote science learning and language development of English... Read More →

Irene Lee

Scheller Teacher Ed Program

Lorena Llosa

Ashlyn Pierson

Jooeun Shim

Meredith Thompson

Daniel Wendel

Scheller Teacher Ed Program

Daniel Wendel is a Research Engineer and the Lead Designer and Developer of StarLogo Nova at the MIT Scheller Teacher Education Program. His research interests include computational thinking, computational modeling, and science education.

Susan Yoon

Friday August 3, 2018 1:30pm - 2:30pm
Media Lab - Lecture Hall, 6th Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Symposia

1:30pm

A Framework for Maker Education: Framing, Doing, and Reflecting on the Maker Experiences

Providing a framework for maker education activities helps ensure that their use is intentional; that meaningful learning is extracted from these experiences. The educator, using such a framework, becomes proactive in framing or frontloading maker experiences and in debriefing or processing them to increase the chances that learning occurs. Framing or frontloading is making clear the purpose of an activity prior to actually doing it; it helps to set purpose and intention for the activity. Reflecting on the maker activities after their completion can done through a variety of methods: talking, writing, sketchnoting, and using technology such as Web 2.0 tools and social media.

Speakers

Jackie Gerstein

Gifted Teacher and EdTech Adjunct Faculty, SFPS and Boise State University

My byline is, “I don’t do teaching for a living. I live teaching as my doing . . . and technology has amplified my passion for doing so.” I teach elementary gifted students. I teach graduate courses in Educational Technology for Boise State, Walden, and Western’s Governors... Read More →

Friday August 3, 2018 1:30pm - 2:30pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-151 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Workshop

1:30pm

Designing Mobile Stories: An Introduction to the Augmented Reality and Interactive Storytelling Development Platform

In this workshop, we will investigate how we can leverage mobile technologies to connect learning across space, time, and context. Specifically, we will explore how storytelling, as a cultural, historical, and social practice, intersects with the affordances of mobile technologies. We will focus our design efforts in on how Augmented Reality (AR) technologies can generate connections across personal interest, peer relationships, and academic achievement to engage key civic issues. To complete this work, we will use the Augmented Reality and Interactive Storytelling (ARIS) platform as a design case for how to design digital media experiences at the intersection of AR and storytelling practices. ARIS offers non-programmers a sandbox-like platform on which to build these connected experiences, which makes it accessible across audiences and disciplines. Participants will gain the necessary experience in this development platform to implement it into their fields of interest.

Speakers

David Gagnon

Field Day Lab Director, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Breanne Litts

Assistant Professor, Utah State University

Chase Mortensen

Research Assistant, Utah State University

Friday August 3, 2018 1:30pm - 2:30pm
Media Lab - Silverman Skyline, 6th Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Workshop

2:00pm

Let Me Help You Learn from My Meal: User-Generated Meal Photos as a Benchmark for Nutritional Estimation

Healthy eating often depends on individuals’ nutritional knowledge and their ability to quickly gauge nutritional composition of meals. However, both of these tasks present considerable challenge, and computing tools meant to assist in these tasks continue to be cumbersome and labor-intensive. In a pilot study, we investigated the potential of promoting nutritional literacy with social computing platforms by helping individuals compare their own meals with meals captured by others. We compared this holistic comparison approach with a more traditional method that requires mental decomposition of a meal into ingredients and estimating their portion sizes in a controlled experiment with crowd workers on Amazon Mechanical Turk. Based on the results of this study, we have identified new approaches for incorporating socially generated data, crowdsourced evaluations, and gameful components into smartphone apps to increase engagement and fun.

Speakers

Maria Hwang

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Columbia University Medical Center

Lena Mamykina

Friday August 3, 2018 2:00pm - 2:30pm
Media Lab - E14-240, 2nd Floor, Building E14 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Spotlight

2:00pm

Participating in Literacies and Computer Science (PiLaCS): An Approach to Computing Ed with Emergent Bilinguals

Just as learning to use a new language is more than memorizing verb conjugations and vocabulary, being computationally literate is more than ordering the keywords of a programming language with the correct syntax. It is about participating in communities that create, read, modify, and use code and computing for particular purposes and contexts (Kafai & Burke, 2014). In this spotlight, practitioners and researchers who are integrating computer science into K-12 bilingual classrooms will describe an approach to teaching and learning computational literacies that considers how language-learning and in particular, learning literacies with and through language, may provide clues for supporting K-12 students’ participation in computing education. We will also describe some examples from classroom practice that demonstrate this philosophy in action.

Speakers

Ana Castillo

Christoper Hoadley

Sara Vogel

CUNY-Graduate Center

Friday August 3, 2018 2:00pm - 2:30pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-372 - Classroom, Building E51 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Spotlight

2:30pm

Ignite Talks + Closing Remarks

Ignite talks are radically different from traditional conference talks. You will be dazzled by humor, wit, energy and inspiration packed into one powerful five-minute talk.

Ignite Talks will be hosted by Sam Dyson.

Kaanbal Foundation: Enablement Of Community WiFi Hotspots for Digital Education And Connectivity In Rural Areas Without Internet Access In The Mayan Region Of Quintana Roo
Pedro Antonio González Martínez, Camilo Olea Garcia

42 Flavors is the Answer
Danielle Martin

Learning Record Store on Blockchain – a glimpse into the future
Alexander Pfeiffer, Lior Yaffe, Nikolaus Koenig, Thomas Wernbacher

Teach Like a Game Master, Design like a Teacher
Scott Price

The Books We Need: The Learning in Large-Scale Environments Series from MIT Press
Justin Reich, Nichole Pinkard, Susan Buckley

Where's the After-School Club for Teachers?
Maggie Ricci

Don't Change the Player. Change the Game!
Doris Rusch

Using Citizen Science To Connect Learners Across The Globe
Leonora Shell

Wrestling with Manga as Literacy: Youth Conversations on Fighting Games and Reading
M. Kristana Textor, Lynn Gatto

I'm A Recycled Teenager. Challenging Assumptions About Who Lives In Virtual Worlds And What They Do
Yen Verhoeven

Can We DISGUISE Learning to Create a SPECIAL FX for Our Students?
Rich Thompson

City As Platform: Connecting Culture, Creativity, and Computing
Elizabeth Lawley

Speakers