Team

Dixie Ching

Dr. Dixie Ching is a senior user experience researcher at Google, Inc., where she supports educational products and services through strategic research and partnerships. Trained as a cell biologist, and holding a master’s degree in Science Journalism, Dixie has dedicated her career to helping people see the relevance of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) in their lives and in developing a better informed public through STEM literacy. As a doctoral student in the educational communication and technology program at NYU, she co-led the Hive Research Lab, a research-practice-partnership with the Mozilla Hive NYC Learning Network, a community of youth-serving institutions offering innovative out-of-school digital making programs. Previously, Dixie has also worked on the research, design and implementation of educational media at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, Center for Children & Technology/Education Development Center, New York Hall of Science, Discovery Communications, WGBH/NOVA, and Beijing Television. Her work has been supported by the Spencer Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation and the Mozilla Foundation.

Rafi Santo

Dr. Rafi Santo is a learning scientist focused on the intersection of digital culture, education and institutional change. Centering his work within research-practice partnerships, he has studied, collaborated with and facilitated a range of organizational networks related to digital learning, computing and technology in education. Within informal education, he has focused on organizational learning and the design of innovation networks as co-founder of Hive Research Lab, a research-practice partnership with Mozilla Hive NYC Learning Network, a collective of 70 informal education organizations. In work centering on formal K-12 schooling, he’s partnered with the CSforAll Consortium to support school districts to develop computing education initiatives rooted in student and community needs. His work on Hacker Literacies has appeared in journals including International Journal of Learning and Media and Digital Culture & Education, and he is co-author of a four volume collection on digital making from MIT Press called Interconnections: Understanding Systems through Digital Design. His work has been supported by the Spencer Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Mozilla Foundation and the Susan Crown Exchange.

Kylie Peppler

Dr. Kylie Peppler is an Associate Professor of Informatics and Education and serves as the Director of the Creativity Labs at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Peppler is an advisor to the Connected Learning Research Network and a member of the 2016 and 2017 National Educational Technology Plan Committee, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. She is also the recipient of several recent awards, including the Mira Tech Educator of the Year and an NSF Early CAREER recipient, as well as grants from the Spencer Foundation, Moore Foundation, National Science Foundation and MacArthur Foundation, among others.

Christopher Hoadley

Dr. Christopher Hoadley is an associate professor at New York University. Hoadley designs and studies technologies for learning and empowerment. He previously served as a Fulbright Scholar in India and Nepal, as an affiliated scholar to the National Academy of Engineering’s Center for the Advancement of Scholarship in Engineering Education, and as the program director of the National Science Foundation’s Cyberlearning program. He chaired the American Educational Research Association’s Special Interest Group in Education, Science and Technology (now SIG:Learning Sciences), and was the first president and co-founder of the International Society for the Learning Sciences.