I've enjoyed bringing co-design and partnership methods to the Playful Learning Landscapes project. Here's a new article, on how it's inspiring the field of developmental psychology: bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
HT to Annelise Pesch for lead authoring this piece!
Really proud of how the undergrads in my research lab get deeply involved in UX, software development and research in ed-tech. Check out a profile of their involvement here: urop.uci.edu/project/june...
So proud of my daplab team. Looking forward to seeing folks at AERA 2026.
www.linkedin.com/posts/daplab...
Trump wants UCLA to pay $1.2 billion to settle allegations it violated civil rights law. I took a look at the more than 7,300-word proposed UCLA settlement. Here's the detailed breakdown of Trump's plan to remake one of the nation's top public campuses: www.latimes.com/california/s...
The federal government’s $1B demand is designed for one purpose and one purpose only: to devastate @UCLA and its critical mission. Join me and #StandUpForUC to defend @uofcalifornia and support its life-saving work. www.universityofcalifornia.edu/get-involved...
Group of people posing for picture
Big congrats to Dr. John Lopez on a successful dissertation defense; a great exploration of students’ epistemological beliefs in data science. He’ll be moving to a postdoc position at UC Berkeley in data science education! The best part of my job is seeing student growth and success ❤️
... intellectual guidance to the team.
-- I love it when funders, community, practice, mentorship and scholarship all come together. It takes a while to get to the published paper, but the journey reaps so many benefits.
7/7
-- Huge shout out to our lead author Rachael Zehrung for bringing this manuscript together, our larger grad student team for their work in the RPP and data analysis, and my fellow colleagues Yunan Chen and Richard Arum who provided invaluable expertise, collaboration and...
6/7
... social, technical, and institutional constraints. Based on our findings, we shed light on stigma management at an organizational level and the role of human infrastructure in responding to time-sensitive needs in highly institutionalized contexts."
5/7
-- Then I had the pleasure of mentoring some great PhD students at UCI, to analyze our data and frame the issue of coordination to: "identify the key activities and infrastructural work performed by practitioners to support housing insecure and foster youth in light of...
4/7
This slow, collaborative practice work was made possible by funding from the Spencer Foundation.
-- While we were doing the practice work, we were able to also structure studies to understand the issues at play for our partners.
3/7
-- This is an example of a research-practice partnership with a whole network of support providers in a county, where we worked collectively for multiple years, to understand how to coordinate better services for housing insecure & foster youth.
2/7
Excited to share our new paper that will come out in CSCW 2025. "How did We Miss It?" Examining the Infrastructural Work of Practitioners Supporting Housing Insecure and Foster Youth Students. (ahnjune.com/.../upl.../2...)
Some highlights that I'm particularly proud of:
1/7
Here's an annual celebration of the graduating students and alumni from my research lab. I'm always amazed at their growth and endeavors. One of the best parts of my job.
www.daplab.education.uci.edu/post/celebra...
Excited to share this writeup of my work with the Anaheim where we've been designing AI systems to accelerate their systems change efforts to prioritize and value students' holistic array of skills. TY to Carnegie Corporation for awarding our partnership.
www.carnegie.org/our-work/art...
“It would be a symbolic surrender of the university’s autonomy and commitment to free inquiry that... would send a chilling message: that public universities in Virginia serve political agendas, not the commonwealth.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/27/u...
Everyone should really take an hour and watch Ocean with David Attenborough. Heartbreaking and vital. The pace at which we are killing the ocean is mind boggling. www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ocean_with...
So cool to see this. I also “made my own major” as an Independent Concentration, while an undergrad at Brown. Seeing new students develop their passions and agency warms my heart. www.brown.edu/news/2025-05...
"For me, the answer now lies in refusal, the withdrawal of participation from systems that require dishonesty as the price of belonging."
Today I am resigning from the National Science Board and the Library of Congress Scholars Council.
I wrote about my decision in TIME.
time.com/7285045/resi...
Group of students
Group of students
Graduation stoles
So proud of this year’s cohort of students in my research lab (the Design and Partnership Lab). We have nearly 15 undergrads, masters and PhD students graduating this year. We gave out daplab stoles early, so they can take their graduation pictures and wear them for commencement.
Really honored to have been invited to this New America convening. A great group of minds: www.newamerica.org/education-po...
If you need help explaining to people what the Department of Education does and why it matters, this, from Ben Miller (hosted by @mattyglesias.bsky.social) is as good as it gets open.substack.com/pub/matthewy...
Update to @fordschool.bsky.social tool that lets you figure out how much federal funding public schools in your congressional district may lose
Now includes that info by state legislative district as well.
poverty.umich.edu/federal-educ...
America’s great research universities were not invented in Silicon Valley garages or cooked up by venture capitalists. For centuries, they’ve been built by scholars, bolstered by benefactors, and scaled up by the state.
The government is now trying to destroy them. The damage will be profound.
Really proud of my lab and students and our partnership with Anaheim Union High School District.
youtu.be/tdT8hHDl9BQ?...
