ABSTRACT
Ito et al. (2013) introduced connected learning as a “framework for understanding and supporting learning, as well as a theory of intervention that grows out of … analysis of today’s changing social, economic, technological, and cultural context” (p. 7). Connected learning is focused primarily on adolescents’ learning, and is particularly attentive to how the technological milieu at the beginning of the 21st century presents new possibilities and challenges for learning. It is an evolving framework co-designed and developed by practitioners and researchers. Connected learning has been taken up across a broad range of disciplines including community psychology and arts, educational technology, media studies, education, STE(A)M, literacy, and civics. It is being used by scholars and practitioners in both formal and informal learning environments, including k-12 and university classrooms, after- and out-of-school education, maker spaces, and online (e.g., gaming, digital badging, coding). However, there is some variation in the ways connected learning is positioned: as “an approach to education” (Ito et al., 2013), an “agenda for research,” a “learning theory,” or a “model for design” (Connected Learning Research Network, n.d.).
