Mizuko (Mimi) Ito is a cultural anthropologist, studying youth new media practices in the US and Japan. She oversees research activities of the Digital Media and Learning Hub and is developing a research area focused on interest-driven learning. She is a Professor in Residence at the UC Humanities Research Institute, and has appointments at the Department of Informatics and the Department of Anthropology, and is the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Chair in Digital Media and Learning at UC Irvine. http://www.itofisher.com/mito
Mimi Ito
Publications
Articles
Three Myths About Education Technology and the Points of Light Beyond
Three powerful myths persist in our narratives around education technology. The first is that technology has the capacity to disrupt systems. For all the hope and hype that technologies can enable major...
Categories: Edtech, Equity5 Secrets to Creating an Innovative After-school Program
A little over a year ago, Mahad Ibrahim reached out to me about Connected Camps, an organization I’m leading with Katie Salen that offers online learning programs and mentorship in Minecraft. Mahad...
Categories: Connected Learning, Educational PracticeIt’s the Relationships, Stupid: Connected Camps Mid-Summer Report
Two years ago, Connected Camps and Institute of Play launched Minecraft Summer of Learning, piloting a new model for in-game virtual summer camps. We’ve served over two thousand families since then, and...
Categories: Digital Learning, Educational PracticeIntroducing UCI’s Connected Learning Lab
Spring is a fitting season to announce the launch of our new Connected Learning Lab (CLL) at UC Irvine, an interdisciplinary research center dedicated to studying and mobilizing learning technologies in equitable,...
Categories: Connected Learning, EquitySummer of Minecraft and the Magic of Peer Mentorship
One summer day when he was 12 years old, my son declared with delight that his application to join a prominent Minecraft server had been accepted. He had discovered this server through...
Category: Connected LearningWhat does connected learning look like when it is centered on civic and political interests? A new paper that I co-authored with Lissa Soep, Neta Kliger-Vilenchik, Sangita Shresthova, Liana Gamber-Thompson, and Arely...
Categories: Civic Engagement, Connected LearningConnected Learning: Interdisciplinary Researchers Recommend Core Changes
It has been almost a year since the release of the connected learning principles in March 2012 on connectedlearning.tv. For the Connected Learning Research Network, this has been a year of digging...
Category: Connected LearningReflections on DML2012 and Visions of Educational Change
A few days back home after DML2012, I've been browsing through the blogosphere and tweet streams and reflecting on the various conversations I had at the event. One unfortunate side-effect of being...
Categories: Connected Learning, EquityWikimedia and the Future of Public Media
As of this week, I am officially part of Wikimedia's advisory board. I'm super excited to be part of the Wikimedia team and community, and am feeling rosy about the promise of...
Category: Digital LearningField Building and Scholarly Publication
As a new media researcher, I've struggled to find appropriate venues for publishing and disseminating my work. In the late nineties, when studies of online communities, cyberculture, and electronic gaming were still...
Category: Digital Learning