May 9th, 2008
Connie Yowell: Logging into the Playground: New research on parental views of the role of digital media in kids’ lives will be presented today at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center’s First Annual Symposium

May 7th, 2008
Jim Bower: Building a Virtual Community of Learners: The creator of Whyville concludes our series on the affordances of virtual worlds with discussion of why he believes users come back to the community and stay. 

May 5th, 2008
Yasmin Kafai: The Learning Affordances of Pimples in Virtual Worlds: An associate professor of education from UCLA shares learnings from her study of the annual virtual public health epidemic in Whyville.net, “Whypox.” This continues our series on the

May 1st, 2008
Constance Steinkuehler: Digital Montessori for Big Kids: An assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin responds to Connie’s post on the “affordances” of virtual worlds. She describes her work studying adolescent boys in an after school online gaming club.…

April 29th, 2008
The Affordances of Virtual Worlds and 21st Century Learning Environments: Connie Yowell asks: What can we learn from young people about why they find virtual worlds so appealing?
Comments: Idit Harel Caperton, PhD, alex,

April 24th, 2008
Barry Joseph: Comparing Apples and Oranges in Virtual Worlds: Global Kids reflects on lessons learned from a massively multiworld simulcast of Kofi Annan’s receipt of the MacArthur Award for International Justice.

April 23rd, 2008
Dilan Mahendran: Expression, Music & Meaning in the Digital Age: In conjunction with our upcoming forum on New Media in the Lives of Everyday Youth at Stanford this evening, a researcher from the University of California…

April 17th, 2008
Sam Gilbert: Digital Youth and Online Privacy: How do we help young people think through the promises and perils of disclosure online? A Harvard researcher concludes our series on teaching media ethics and literacy in the digital age.

April 17th, 2008
Andrea Flores: Mad Men, Teaching Authorial Responsibility: A Harvard researcher outlines a curricular activity designed to teach authorial responsibility and copyright. This continues our conversation about teaching media literacy and ethics in the digital age. 

April 15th, 2008
Stephen Schultze: The Inspired Highlighter: We continue our conversation about teaching media literacy and ethics. Stephen Schultze describes a specific learning activity designed to help students explore norms of ownership, authorship, and copyright in the digital age.

April 15th, 2008
John Francis: Let’s Collaborate: John Francis describes the development of learning modules that introduce young people to ethical issues, media literacy skills, and ownership/authorship themes. This is the second of a five-part series about the collaboration between Harvard’s
Comments: Tom Hoffman,

April 14th, 2008
Two Projects, One Mission: Harvard and MIT join forces to prepare youth for the digital age: Harvard researcher John Francis describes a unique collaboration between Project New Media Literacies, lead by Henry Jenkins, and the GoodPlay Project led by Howard Gardner. This begins…

April 11th, 2008
Padraig Nash: Navigating Digital Society: Reflecting on a recent visit classroom visit in the Bronx, a researcher worries that schools are not preparing students to understand the complicated issues and values that will shape their decision-making in virtual space. This…

April 10th, 2008
Elizabeth Bagley: Consequential Digital Identities: How can digital media help provide pro-social roles for young people?  A researcher at the University of Wisconsin reflects on the recent AERA conference and explores how digital media is giving youth the chance to…

April 10th, 2008
Aran Nulty: New Media Technologies and Student Learning: New media technologies need to be a central part of how all students learn. Aran Nulty from the epistemic games research team at the University of Wisconsin shares her observations from two panels she attended…

April 9th, 2008
David Hatfield: Games, Diversity, and Democracy: Can games play a role in preparing young people to participate in our democracy? A researcher from the University of Wisconsin continues our series of reflections from the AERA conference held in New York last…

April 8th, 2008
David Williamson Shaffer: Celebrating Seymour: Seymour Papert was honored in a special session at the American Education Research Association, and his work provides a powerful example for the digital future--and the Macarthur Digital Media and Learning initiative.

April 8th, 2008
Reflections on AERA:  Observations on learning, games, democracy, identity and education: Continuing our observations from the recent AERA conference, over the next week Spotlight will feature a series of posts from members of the Epistemic Games Group at the University of Wisconsin…
Comments: S. Jackson,

April 3rd, 2008
Connected Reflections: Learning, Meaning, and Civic Engagement in the Digital Age: Four provocative ideas from a recent AERA panel are highlighted by MacArthur Program Officer Benjamin Stokes, who connects each idea to the profile of a leading thinker on this website.

March 31st, 2008
Joseph Kahne: Democracy for Some: Today’s schools give white, higher achieving, and higher income youth far more civic learning opportunities.  Will digital media be any different?  In exploring this topic, MacArthur grantee Joe Kahne has received significant media attention.  Professor…