We research, design, & mobilize learning technologies in equitable, innovative, and learner-centered ways.

What is Connected Learning?

Connected learning combines personal interests, supportive relationships, and opportunities. It is learning in an age of abundant access to information and social connection that embraces the diverse backgrounds and interests of all young people.

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Youth Connections for Wellbeing Project

New report examining the relationship between teens' technology use and mental health released.

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Featured Work

Faculty

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Vera Michalchik

Vera Michalchik

Associate Director and Sr. Researcher
Vera Michalchik

Vera Michalchik

Associate Director and Sr. Researcher

Vera Michalchik studies learning in its many forms and settings—including community, home, online, and workplace environments. She previously led projects in research, evaluation, and design at SRI Int’l, Stanford, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

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Shayan Doroudi

Assistant Professor

Shayan Doroudi

Assistant Professor

Shayan Doroudi’s research is focused on the learning sciences, educational technology, and the educational data sciences. He is particularly interested in studying the prospects and limitations of data-driven algorithms in learning technologies, including equity considerations and lessons that can be drawn from the rich history of educational technology.

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Nia Dowell

Assistant Professor

Nia Dowell

Assistant Professor

Nia Dowell is cognitive scientist by background. Her primary interests are in cognitive psychology, discourse processing, group interaction, and learning analytics. In general, Dowell’s research focuses on using language and discourse to uncover the dynamics of socially significant, cognitive, and affective processes. She is currently applying computational techniques to model discourse and social dynamics in a variety of digital environments including collaborative learning environments, design networks, and MOOCs.

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Kylie Peppler

Associate Professor, Department of Informatics & School of Education

Kylie Peppler

Associate Professor, Department of Informatics & School of Education

Kylie Peppler engages in research that focuses on the intersection of arts, making, and interest-driven learning. She was an advisor to the Connected Learning Research Network and a member of the 2016 and 2017 National Educational Technology Plan Committee. Kylie specializes in the design of new technologies to support learning and participation within traditionally minoritized populations.

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Richard Arum

Dean, School of Education

Richard Arum

Dean, School of Education

Richard Arum is an expert on the legal and institutional environments of schools, social stratification and digital education. His work focuses on student work habits, teaching and curriculum, and the development of critical thinking skills.

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Constance Steinkuehler

Professor, Department of Informatics & School of Education

Constance Steinkuehler

Professor, Department of Informatics & School of Education

Constance researches the cognitive and social aspects of multiplayer online videogames and esports. Current projects include studies of teenage boys and gameplay, parenting and videogames, and impacts of the NASEF high school esports league. She formerly served as Senior Policy Analyst under the Obama administration in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, advising on games and digital media, and founded the Higher Education Video Games Alliance (HEVGA), a national network of game-related programs.

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June Ahn

Associate Professor, School of Education

June Ahn

Associate Professor, School of Education

June Ahn co-designs technology with community partners for diverse learning contexts. He has engaged in research-practice partnerships around emerging technologies including social media, alternate reality games, and data visualization platforms.

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Kurt Squire

Kurt Squire

Professor, Department of Informatics
Kurt Squire

Kurt Squire

Professor, Department of Informatics

Kurt Squire is an expert on learning with technology. He has directed several game-based learning projects, ranging from ARIS, a tool for place-based mobile app development, to ProgenitorX, a game about saving the world from zombies through stem cell technology.

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Katie Salen headshot

Katie Salen

Professor, Department of Informatics
Katie Salen headshot

Katie Salen

Professor, Department of Informatics

Katie Salen is a designer working at the intersections of youth, online play, and learning. Her research focuses on various aspects of social-emotional learning in online game communities, including conflict resolution, peer mediation, collaboration, and problem-solving.

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Mimi Ito headshot

Mimi Ito

Director, Connected Learning Lab
Mimi Ito headshot

Mimi Ito

Director, Connected Learning Lab

Mizuko (Mimi) Ito is a cultural anthropologist, studying youth new media practices in the U.S. and Japan. She led the MacArthur Foundation Connected Learning Research Network and Digital Media and Learning Hub, and is co-founder of the nonprofit, Connected Camps.

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Candice Odgers

Professor, Psychological Science

Candice Odgers

Professor, Psychological Science

Candice Odgers is a developmental psychologist who studies adolescents’ mental health and development. Her research team tracks adolescents’ daily mental health and device use via smartphones and has built new virtual tools for capturing the neighborhoods where children live and attend school.

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Rebecca Black

Associate Professor, Department of Informatics

Rebecca Black

Associate Professor, Department of Informatics

Rebecca Black is an associate professor in the department of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine. She received her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 2006 and her M.A. in Applied Linguistics from the University of Massachusetts, Boston in 2002. Her research interests center on how young people, particularly those who feel marginalized in traditional academic settings, are using new technologies to learn, create, and communicate.

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Stephanie Reich

Associate Professor, School of Education

Stephanie Reich

Associate Professor, School of Education

Stephanie Reich is a community psychologist studying contexts that support children’s development. Her research focuses on children's direct and technologically mediated interactions with family, peers, and educational settings.

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Amir Rahmani

Assistant Professor

Amir Rahmani

Assistant Professor

Amir Rahmani is an Assistant Professor of Nursing and CS at UCI and a life-time Decent (Adjunct Professor) at UTU, Finland. He leads the Health SciTech lab at UCI at is interested in the applications of sensing technologies (e.g., Internet of Things and Wearable Technology), mobile computing, and effective data management methodologies in the health and wellbeing area.

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Bill Maurer

Dean, School of Social Sciences

Bill Maurer

Dean, School of Social Sciences

Bill Maurer is a cultural anthropologist who conducts research on law, property, money and finance, focusing on the technological infrastructures and social relations of exchange and payment.

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David Theo Goldberg

Director, UC Humanities Research Institute

David Theo Goldberg

Director, UC Humanities Research Institute

David Theo Goldberg’s expertise includes political theory, race and racism, ethics, law and society, critical theory, cultural studies, and digital humanities. He is executive director of the Digital Media and Learning Hub.

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Carol Connor

Chancellor's Professor / Equity Advisor, School of Education

Carol Connor

Chancellor's Professor / Equity Advisor, School of Education

Carol McDonald Connor, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, is a Chancellor’s Professor in Education at University of California, Irvine. Her research investigates individual child differences and the links between children’s language and literacy development with the goal of illuminating reasons for the perplexing difficulties children who are atypical and diverse learners, including children with dyslexia, have developing basic and advanced literacy skills.  https://isilearn.net/

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Yuqing Guo

Assistant Professor, Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing

Yuqing Guo

Assistant Professor, Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing

Dr. Yuqing Guo is a nursing scientist, studying effect of WIoT-based coordinate nursing care on pregnancy and birth outcomes as well as infant and youth development in underserved communities.

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Stacy Branham

Assistant Professor, Department of Informatics

Stacy Branham

Assistant Professor, Department of Informatics

Stacy Branham is a computer scientist turned social scientist. Her work explores how technology can engender inclusivity and safety as people with disabilities get across town, as blind parents care for their children, and as transgender people navigate digital spaces. Her work has been recognized with Best Paper Awards at the CHI, DIS, and ASSETS conferences.

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Andres Bustamante

Assistant Professor, School of Education

Andres Bustamante

Assistant Professor, School of Education

Andres Bustamante is a developmental psychologist who designs and implements play-based early childhood science installations in places and spaces that families spend time (e.g., parks, bus-stops, grocery stores etc.). Andres also utilizes web-mediated platforms to provide on-going and embedded professional development to early childhood teachers to support them in engaging in hands-on science activities. He maintains an intentional focus on translating rigorous science from the lab, into meaningful research in the classroom, and the community.

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Nikil Dutt

Distinguished Professor, Department of Computer Science

Nikil Dutt

Distinguished Professor, Department of Computer Science

Nikil Dutt is a Distinguished Professor of CS, Cognitive Sciences, and EECS at the University of California, Irvine. His research interests cover embedded computing, healthcare IoT, and brain-inspired architectures and computing.

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Roderic Crooks

Assistant Professor, Department of Informatics

Roderic Crooks

Assistant Professor, Department of Informatics

Roderic Crooks is an assistant professor in the Department of Informatics at the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Science at UC Irvine and Director of the Evoke Lab and Studio. His research examines the use of digital technology in minoritized communities and the civic institutions that serve them. His current project explores the application of data analytics and associated computational techniques to the politically fraught realm of urban education.

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Stephen Schueller

Assistant Professor, Psychological Science

Stephen Schueller

Assistant Professor, Psychological Science

Stephen is a clinical psychologist who studies how technology can improve mental health services by expanding access and improving accessibility. His work includes the development, evaluation, and implementation of digital mental health products in diverse settings and populations.

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Elizabeth van Es

Associate Professor, School of Education

Elizabeth van Es

Associate Professor, School of Education

Elizabeth (Beth) van Es is a learning scientist who studies teacher learning and the design and improvement of teacher preparation and professional development. She currently leads two projects funded by NSF and the UC Office of the President to develop teachers' noticing practices to advance equity in mathematics education and to better prepare teacher candidates to support multilingual learners. She is the co-founder of the UCI Teacher Academy that provides high-quality professional development to the greater OC education community.

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Gillian Hayes

Kleist Professor, Department Informatics, School or Education, School of Medicine

Gillian Hayes

Kleist Professor, Department Informatics, School or Education, School of Medicine

Gillian Hayes is the Robert A. and Barbara L. Kleist Professor of Informatics in the School of Information and Computer Sciences and in the School of Education and School of Medicine at UC Irvine. Her research interests are in human-computer interaction, ubiquitous computing, assistive and educational technologies, and health informatics. She designs, develops, deploys, and evaluates technologies to empower people to use collected data to address real human needs in sensitive and ethically responsible ways.

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Jonathan Alexander

Associate Dean in the Division of Undergraduate Education and Chancellor's Professor of English and Informatics

Jonathan Alexander

Associate Dean in the Division of Undergraduate Education and Chancellor's Professor of English and Informatics

Committed to interdisciplinary troublemaking, Jonathan Alexander works generally under the rubric of "writing studies" to explore the creation and uptake of "texts" as they perform different kinds of ideological work in specific contexts. His work has primarily focused on written and digital production in the extra-curriculum, such as self- and collectively-sponsored multimodal forms of composition, including "fan texts."

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Rachel Goldberg

Assistant Professor, Sociology

Rachel Goldberg

Assistant Professor, Sociology

Rachel Goldberg is a sociologist and social demographer whose research focuses on youth and families, health, and emerging methods in survey research. She has several projects that examine adolescents’ experiences of family and peer relationships in the digital age.

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Daniel Epstein

Daniel Epstein

Assistant Professor, School of Education
Daniel Epstein

Daniel Epstein

Assistant Professor, School of Education

Daniel Epstein draws on Human-Computer Interaction methods to examine how personal tracking technology can better acknowledge and account for the realities of everyday life. In doing so, his work contributes recommendations on how to design tracking tools which are more inclusive to people's identities, environment, and abilities.

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Andrew Penner

Professor, Sociology

Andrew Penner

Professor, Sociology

Andrew Penner is a sociologist who studies inequality in education and the labor market. His work focuses on understanding the intended and unintended consequences of social policy.

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Debra Richardson

Professor Emerita, Department of Informatics

Debra Richardson

Professor Emerita, Department of Informatics

Debra Richardson is a Professor Emerita of Informatics and Founding Dean of the Bren School of ICS. Her research over most of her career has been in software engineering. In "retirement", however, she is working on broadening participation in computing, largely through expansion of quality, relevant K-16 computer science education, with the explicit purpose of reaching students of underserved groups.

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Yao Du

PhD Student, Department of Informatics

Yao Du

PhD Student, Department of Informatics

Yao Du is a doctoral student in Informatics and the focus of her research lies at the intersections of interaction design for children with communication impairments, service design for speech language pathologists, and game design for therapy activities through touch-based and voice-based interfaces.

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Mark Warschauer

Professor, School of Education

Mark Warschauer

Professor, School of Education

Mark Warschauer is a Professor of Education and Informatics at the University of California, Irvine and a member of the National Academy of Education.

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Gloria Mark

Professor, Department of Informatics

Gloria Mark

Professor, Department of Informatics

Gloria Mark is Professor of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine. She received her PhD from Columbia University in psychology. Her primary research interest is in understanding the impact of digital media on people's lives and she is best known for her work in studying people's multitasking, mood and behavior while using digital media in real world environments.

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Sandra Simpkins

Professor, School of Education

Sandra Simpkins

Professor, School of Education

Sandra (Sandi) Simpkins is a developmental psychologist, studying child and adolescent development. Generally, her work has focused on how families, friendships, and social position factors (such as, ethnicity and culture) shape adolescents' organized after-school activities and motivation.

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Di Xu

Assistant Professor, Education

Di Xu

Assistant Professor, Education

Di Xu is an associate professor at the University of California, Irvine. She researches the labor market returns to different degree programs and major areas in higher education.

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Hosun Kang

Assistant Professor, School of Education

Hosun Kang

Assistant Professor, School of Education

Hosun Kang is a science education researcher, studying how to reduce opportunity gap of science learning for students from historically marginalized community. She is the PI of NSF CAREER project, "Expanding Latinx Opportunities to Develop Complex Thinking in Secondary Science Classrooms through a Research-Practice Partnership.

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Sarah Pressman

Associate Professor, Psychological Science

Sarah Pressman

Associate Professor, Psychological Science

Sarah Pressman is a health psychologist, studying how social and emotional factors can improve physical health and physiological function, and buffer against the harmful effects of stress.

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Jessica Borelli

Associate Professor, Psychological Science

Jessica Borelli

Associate Professor, Psychological Science

Jessie Borelli is an Associate Professor of Psychological Science at University of California, Irvine. She is a clinical psychologist specializing the field of developmental psychopathology; her research focuses on the links between close relationships, emotions, health, and development...

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