This report is a synthesis of ongoing research, design, and implementation of an approach to education called “connected learning.” It 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 t...

In today’s digital and networked media ecology, young people have a wealth of new learning opportunities that span home, school, community, and peer culture. In addition to being able to access well-established learning resources in the form of school-based classes, museums, and libraries, young people can turn to online resources and communities to pursue self-directed learning tailored to their own unique interests and at their own pace. They can also use accessible digital media authori...

In recent years, otaku culture has emerged as one of Japan's major cultural exports and as a genuinely transnational phenomenon. This timely volume investigates how this once marginalized popular culture has come to play a major role in Japan's identity at home and abroad. In the American context, the word otaku is best translated as "geek"—an ardent fan with highly specialized knowledge and interests. But it is associated especially with fans of specific Japan-based cultural genres, inclu...

In the last two decades, both the conception and the practice of participatory culture have been transformed by the new affordances enabled by digital, networked, and mobile technologies. This exciting new book explores that transformation by bringing together three leading figures in conversation. Jenkins, Ito and boyd examine the ways in which our personal and professional lives are shaped by experiences interacting with and around emerging media.Stressing the social and cultural...

An edited collection with fresh approaches to tech and youth well-being that go beyond blame and simplistic solutions.The relationship between technology use and youth well-being has been a topic of concern—and contention—for some time. The adolescent mental health crisis has amplified the debate to a fever pitch. But the relationship between technology use and well-being can’t be reduced to the question of whether social media and other technologies are good or ba...

Essays on the challenges and risks of designing algorithms and platforms for children, with an emphasis on algorithmic justice, learning, and equity.One in three Internet users worldwide is a child, and what children see and experience online is increasingly shaped by algorithms. Though children’s rights and protections are at the center of debates on digital privacy, safety, and Internet governance, the dominant online platforms have not been constructed with the ...

An examination of young people's everyday new media practices—including video-game playing, text-messaging, digital media production, and social media use.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 networking sites, and text messaging. Yet there is little actual research that investigates the intricate dynamics of you...

How kids play in virtual worlds, how it matters for their offline lives, and what this means for designing educational opportunities.Millions of children visit virtual worlds every day. In such virtual play spaces as Habbo Hotel, Toontown, and Whyville, kids chat with friends from school, meet new people, construct avatars, and earn and spend virtual currency. In Connected Play, Yasmin Kafai and Deborah Fields investigate what happens when kids play in vir...

How the influential industry that produced such popular games as Oregon Trail and KidPix emerged from experimental efforts to use computers as tools in child-centered learning.Today, computers are part of kids' everyday lives, used both for play and for learning. We envy children's natural affinity for computers, the ease with which they click in and out of digital worlds. Thirty years ago, however, the computer belonged almost exclusively to busi...

How online affinity networks expand learning and opportunity for young peopleBoyband One Direction fanfiction writers, gamers who solve math problems together, Harry Potter fans who knit for a cause. Across subcultures and geographies, young fans have found each other and formed community online, learning from one another along the way. From these and other in-depth case studies of online affinity networks, Affinity Online considers how young people have found new ...

Based upon classical and contemporary theory and empirical research, this text forms a sociological analysis of organizations, focusing on the impacts that organizations have upon individuals and society.

**A groundbreaking inquiry into the philosophy of work, and a blueprint for attracting the most spectacular talent to your business and ensuring that they succeed, from the visionary head of Google's innovative People Operations."A true masterpiece." —Forbes.com**"We spend more time working than doing anything else in life. It's not right that the experience of work should be so demotivating and dehumanizing." So says Laszlo Bock, former head of People Operations a...