This report is a synthesis of ongoing research, design, and implementation of an approach to education called “connected learning.” Connected learning advocates for broadened access to learning that is socially embedded, interest-driven, and oriented toward educational, economic, or political opportunity. Connected learning is realized when a young person is able to pursue a personal interest or passion with the support of friends and caring adults, and is in turn able to link this learning and interest to academic achievement, career success or civic engagement.
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Digital Media and Learning Research HubMizuko ItoKris GutierrezSonia LivingstoneBill PenuelJean RhodesKatie SalenJuliet SchorJulian Sefton-GreenS. Craig Watkins
Digital media and technology have become culturally and economically powerful parts of contemporary middle-class American childhoods. Immersed in various forms of digital media as well as mobile and Web-based technologies, young people today appear to develop knowledge and skills through participation in media. This MacArthur Report examines the ways in which afterschool programs, libraries, and museums use digital media to support extracurricular learning. It investigates how these three varieties of youth-serving organizations have incorporated technological infrastructure and digital
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Joan Ganz Cooney CenterBecky Herr-StephensonDiana RhotenDan PerkelChristo Sims
This report summarizes the results of a three-year ethnographic study, funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, into how young people are living and learning with new media in varied settings—at home, in after school programs, and in online spaces. The authors present empirical data on new media in the lives of American youth in order to reflect upon the relationship between new media and learning.
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University of California, IrvineMizuko ItoBecky Herr-Stephenson
Conventional wisdom about young people's use of digital technology often equates generational identity with technology identity: today's teens seem constantly plugged in to video games, social networks sites, and text messaging. Yet there is little actual research that investigates the intricate dynamics of youth's social and recreational use of digital media. This book fills that gap, reporting on an ambitious three-year ethnographic investigation into how young people are living and learning with new media in varied settings—at home, in after school programs, and in online spaces. By
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University of California, IrvineMizuko Ito
This report describes how the YOUmedia program at the Harold Washington Library Center in Chicago attempts to take advantage of networked and digital media to provide engaging learning opportunities for youth through the emerging Connected Learning Model. The report describes the design of the program, the youth audiences targeted, the benefits received by program participants, and the role of staff and adults in the program. It offers suggestions for other organizations who would like to start similar programs.
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University of ChicagoPenny Bender SebringEric BrownKate JulianStacey EhrlichSusan SporteErin BradleyLisa Meyer
This report was completed by the Program Evaluation Research Group at Endicott College in October 2013. It describes the outcomes and impacts of a four-year, NSF-funded project called Go Botany: Integrated Tools to Advance Botanical Learning (grant number 0840186). Go Botany focuses on fostering increased interest in and knowledge of botany among youth and adults in New England. This was being done through the creation of an online flora for the region, along with the development of related tools, including PlantShare, and a user-friendly interface for ‘smartphones’. In January 2012, the PI
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Judah LeblangNew England Wild Flower Society
This study of American adults’ attitudes towards children’s experiences in nature was based on survey data from 2,138 people who participated in an independently commissioned, online consumer survey in February 2010. The Encouraging Children’s Nature Experiences Scale (EC-NES) was created to assess adult attitudes and beliefs surrounding encouragement of children’s nature experiences. While a great deal of empirical research has already been undertaken to demonstrate the value and impact of these experiences, not all of the research has been adopted by the public. The EC-NES scale was designed
This research proposed a revised theory of how collective environmental identity is associated with engagement with the advancement of pro‐environmental behaviors. The research comprised three activities that examined the experiences of three groups of people who claim zoo visiting as an important part of their life‐story: conservation biologists who describe zoo experiences as having significant formative role in their childhood development of environmental values; parents who prioritize zoo visits as an important cultural experiences for their children; and active zoo volunteers. This
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Wildlife Conservation SocietyJohn Fraser
The Community STEM Outreach Project at the Saint Louis Science Center (SLSC) received funding from the United States Office of Naval Research (ONR) from October 2010 through September 2013. Klein Consulting, with support from Tisdal Consulting, conducted the evaluation of the three-year project. The original proposal from the SLSC to ONR laid the foundation for the Community STEM Outreach Project by describing the institution and its youth program, the Youth Exploring Science (YES) Program. Plans were underway to reach out to existing and new national partners to document and disseminate a
This article outlines an experiment in which sixty-four sixth-grade students were divided into two groups: a control group, which was given novelty-reducing treatment on a field trip, and a placebo group, which was not subject to novelty-reducing treatment. Results of the experiment showed that exploratory behavior was positively correlated with cognitive learning.
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University of Washington, SeattleCarole A. KubotaRoger G. Olstad
This article overviews a study in which 31 mother-child pairs were observed in two different museum settings--traditional exhibits and family-oriented exhibits--and the mothers' behavior was recorded. Experimenters reported that mothers used higher-level verbal teaching to children in the traditional setting than in the child- or family-oriented setting.
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California State University, Los AngelesLeah Melber
This paper examines hypothesized outcomes of informal science learning experiences and analyzes the methods used to assess those outcomes. The authors deconstruct several studies on informal science learning to identify strengths and weaknesses and examine the potential of new approaches to informal learning.