Connected Learning Summit

MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA
August 1-3, 2018
Conference Website

This summit represents a gathering of innovators harnessing emerging technology to expand access to participatory, playful, and creative learning.

Wednesday, August 1

Tangible and Playful Connected Learning

Colin Dixon, Lila Finch, Sherry Hsi, Annie Kelly, Hyunjoo Oh, Jessica Parker, Mike Petrich, R. Benjamin Shapiro, Karen Wilkinson

2:00 – 3:00 PM, MIT Tang Center, E51-085 – Classroom, Building E51

Learn how making and computationally enabled design can support connected learning experiences. When design tools are computationally enabled, interactions can be more participatory, accessible, and engaging of learners’ creativity and agency.

This workshop brings together three perspectives on making, tinkering, and computationally enabled design to show novel ways in which youth and educators are engaging in meaningful production-centered activities. Participants will create dynamic sculptural artworks that visualize sensor data from scientific phenomena, interact with sensing and responding paper machines, and/or make cardboard pets. After playful interaction and “messing around,” participants join a reflective discussion of key design features that support tangible, interactive and playful connected learning. The session ends with time for participants to continue messing around with the interactive materials.

To learn more, please visit:

Data Science Education: A Gateway to Connected Learning (Ignite Talk)

Chad Dorsey

4:30 – 5:30 PM, Media Lab – Multi-purpose Room, 6th Floor, Building E14

Data is everywhere today, and will define our future. Simply comprehending the details of important societal challenges in the future will demand a level of data understanding and fluency beyond what most citizens possess today. However, tomorrow’s data scientist is today’s fourth-grader. What are we doing to prepare the data scientists of the future? Today’s educators and youth should be well prepared to understand where data comes from and how to work with data across domains. With more and more people joining the movement every day, we are fostering a unified community of researchers, practitioners, and developers interested in data science education so today’s youth become tomorrow’s data-savvy citizens.

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