About Us
Online learning environments are rapidly becoming part of the education landscape for K12. As such, educators are inundated with opportunities, decisions, suggestions, and requirements about technology use in their unique learning environments. How can we navigate this complex situation in a way that supports educators to be at the helm?
This site translates findings from our NSF-sponsored research project (2013-2017, #1325004), Developing frameworks, tools and social practices to support effective instructor use of online social learning networks in blended learning models.
This project was conducted within the Digital Youth Network (now at Northwestern University) and was a collaboration with faculty and students at DePaul University.
Here we provide resources for teachers, informal educators, and administrators to promote conversation and empower informed decision-making about both technical tools and practices of use.
People
We are an interdisciplinary group of learning scientists, educational researchers, designers, mentors, teachers, software developers, UX specialists, and data scientists based in DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. We use the robust ecology of the Digital Youth Network to conduct design research in learning environments that are making use of networked technologies and online spaces.
Denise C. Nacu
dnacu@depaul.edu
Co-Principal Investigator
Assistant Professor,
DePaul University
Technology for Social Good Research and Design Lab
Nicole Pinkard
Co-Principal Investigator
Digital Youth Network Founder
Associate Professor, Northwestern University
Caitlin K. Martin
Lead Researcher
Digital Youth Network
Research and Design
Jim Sandherr
Elaina Boytor
Asia Roberson
Katie Pingery
Development
Akili Lee
Tre Everette
Mighel Jackson
Mark Ellul
Matthieu DeMercurio
Affiliated Faculty
Jonathan Gemmell
Daniela Raicu
Graduate Students
Taha Hamid
Taihua Li
Jennifer Baltes
Michael Schutzenhofer
Rachel Samaniego
Undergraduate Students
Aneta Baran
Kyle Burger
Jenny Hanna
Emily Moser
Emmanuel Estipona
Ryan Schmitt
Administration
Natalie Ybarra
Jen Kelly
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the entire staff of the Digital Youth Network, especially the iRemix development team of Akili Lee, Tre Everette, and Mark Ellul, and research assistants Jim Sandherr and Elaina Boytor. We are especially grateful to the middle school teachers, students, and administrators who contributed their time and invaluable perspectives to this work.
This work is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1325004. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.